Two months ago, I had a strange dream that I’m still processing and trying to fully comprehend.
At that time, I had just launched a product called Wishpool, but people didn’t understand it. So I wrote an article explaining its principles, but still, no one could grasp it. Just as I was feeling frustrated, I had this dream.
In the dream, I met Buddha, and he resolved my troubles with just a few words:
“In my time, not many people understood what I was saying. Even after 2500 years, there are still very few who truly understand.”
“If I needed everyone to understand me to be happy, I would never be happy.”
He also explained from a new perspective why people didn’t understand me.
Even more astonishing were his next words, which completely exceeded my realm of understanding:
“The first wave was religion and imperial power. Emperors wanted to be religious leaders but couldn’t, so they needed religion; religion also needed power. They are a pair.”
“The second wave was science and capitalism.”
“Science is not something outside of religion, but a new type of religion. This is a startup story: what replaced traditional religion wasn’t another religion, but something that appears completely different. Its brilliance lies in making people ‘see’, while traditional religion is about the ‘unseen’.”
“Capitalism defined new values, also about ‘seeing’, and it is a twin to science.”
He continued:
“Actually, there is a third wave.”
“Your work is bringing you closer and closer to that third wave. Your duty is to find it and bring it to people.”
“This will be your lifelong destiny.”
Regarding my current troubles, he told me:
“Your job is to bring it back, and as for how it will be accepted, others will take care of that.”
About “finding it”, he offered an odd method:
“Kill yourself.”
My understanding is: “You must be completely open. This is not something you can add; rather, you need to remove everything to stay in this moment. Only by staying in this moment can you see it.”
He even answered my confusion about Wishpool. I had been troubled by: when a wish is fulfilled, its asset value might drop to zero, causing losses for investors. But Buddha told me:
“Any organization or concept in history, once its mission is completed, will perish. It will be seen as outdated, even despised and destroyed.”
“This is its fate, this is nature.”
“Buddhism exists precisely because its mission is not yet complete. If one day everyone understands it, it will also be destroyed.”
In the dream, I saw the long river of time, everything was clear, yet I didn’t feel excited:
“Prophecy is meaningless. What’s the point of predicting what is inevitably going to happen?”
“It’s like knowing you’ll reach the mountaintop, but boasting ‘I know we’ll get there’ - it’s meaningless.”
After waking up, I realized this is like saying at the start of a movie “I know the ending, A is the murderer”. The prophecy isn’t spoken not because it can’t be done, but because at the moment you could do it, you instantly realize it’s meaningless.
Afterthoughts:
When I discussed this dream with GPT, it said something that deeply moved me:
What Buddha might have meant is: “You are not its owner, you are merely its channel.”
You must completely let go of your control over it to truly understand its value.