Whatever Displeases You or Is Hard to Decide, Let It Rest for Three Years

There is an old Chinese saying: let anything rest for three years, and it will no longer be an issue. In a lifetime we encounter many unpleasant things; after letting them rest for three years, we will feel that the pain and clinging of the time were quite unnecessary.

When my mother died, I was deeply grieved; three years later, the grief in my heart had faded considerably. Several people I once hated—I thought I would never share the sky with them in this lifetime, and that one day I would surely avenge myself—three years later, on seeing them again, I had completely put down the hatred. Two people who loved each other to death, when they parted, both felt as though the sky had fallen, as though the whole world were empty; three years later, looking back, they would also feel that the pain of the time was no more than that.

Therefore, whatever is unpleasant, let it rest for three years. If, after three years, love and hatred and passion remain as intense as at first, then that is indeed very much worth taking seriously. Such emotion, which does not fade with the passage of time, must be of great value.

When blood is hot and rushing, one always feels that some matters can never be resolved in a lifetime. But a mature person gradually comes to understand that many problems cannot be solved by emotion; what can solve problems is time.

Time will help us forget; time will also let us grow. The illusory, under the sediment of time, will ultimately reveal its face of mirror-flowers and moon-in-water; the real, under the sediment of time, will also shine brightly.

Many matters, when the heat is not yet right, however one acts, are only like pulling up seedlings to help them grow, and one instead suffers harm. At such times one can only rely on spending time, effort, and sweat, accumulating thickly before issuing forth. For example, in studying and practicing medicine, one cannot expect great achievement in a year or two; one must look to twenty years or more before comparatively great accomplishment comes.

If a person is good at relying on time to solve problems that cannot now be solved, he will have far less pain, anxiety, and sorrow. Likewise, if a person knows how to spend time striving for his ideal, regardless of whether the final reward is much or little, there will certainly be a reward. If one can be more earnest, more persevering, and invest more time, the reward will naturally be greater; conversely, it will be less. A plowing, a harvest—this simple truth cannot be wrong.