As a child, I watched the wildflowers and grasses around me sprout and grow in the spring, wither and turn yellow in the autumn, and after enduring the cold winter, sprout again the following spring. I often wondered: as long as their roots remained, could they always be revived the next spring? If so, would these wildflowers and grasses never truly die but instead live forever?
Yet, why is it that among all the people who pass away and are buried, not a single one returns to life like those wildflowers and grasses? This was my childhood confusion about the world.
More than two thousand years ago, the great poet Qu Yuan asked in Heavenly Questions: “At the beginning of ancient times, who passed down the way? When heaven and earth were yet unshaped, how could they be examined?” In ancient Greece, people asked similar questions: “Who are you? Where do you come from? Where are you going?” Throughout history, countless people have pondered these questions. Even today, they remain fascinating.
Despite living in this world, do we truly understand it? Do our existing perceptions align with reality? Where did the world originate? Why is it the way it is? Where is it ultimately headed?