溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Vanity of Vanities, Says the Preacher
When a person who worked faithfully all their life and retired asks the meaning of it, what can they find in the question?
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
The Preacher concludes that all is vanity, yet I see that the awareness of that vanity is precisely the start of a new question.
📝The Classic Answers
The Preacher concludes that all is vanity, yet I see that the awareness of that vanity is precisely the start of a new question. When a person who worked faithfully at one job all their life and retired suddenly asks, 'what did my life mean?', that question can be not the end of despair but the beginning of a real life. When the standing and achievement one stacked up look emptily vain upon retirement, only then does a person begin to seek the meaning of their being outside achievement. One small fact — that I was a little help to a person far away — becomes a quiet answer to the empty question. Rather than making the awareness of vanity only despair, I choose to make it a door to ask real meaning again.
🌱Apply It Today
If your achievements suddenly feel empty, recall one thing in which you were a quiet help to someone. There lies a meaning beyond achievement.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
