This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
Laozi said: The Way of Heaven has no favourites; it always favours the good.
Most people find this saying hard to understand, so let us use raising children as a metaphor.
Many people have abortions, and one reason is that they fear they cannot afford to raise a child. Raising one child is exhausting enough, let alone another. Subconsciously we all think: I am the one who raises this person, I am the one who supports the family. In fact it is not so. First we must have this concept: everyone has his own fortune earned through merit (fubao). When a child is born into a family, he comes with his own fortune; it looks as if the parents are raising him, but in fact it is still the child’s own fortune that raises him.
When something finally succeeds, it is everyone’s fortune that supports it, the accumulation of shared fortune. The same goes for bad karma. Now the environment is so badly damaged, and we all condemn others, but in the end we find that everyone is a destroyer. Using plastic bags, throwing clothes away when they tear, washing cars, decorating, cleaning toilets: these all involve chemical products. We use them every day, and every day we cause damage.
The Way of Heaven has no favourites; even for your own child, you cannot leave him your fortune. Everyone has his own destiny! Many people do not understand this. Wanting their child to do well at school, they pay for the child to attend a famous school, thinking this will produce talent, but first he must have that destiny. Just as in raising a child, it is the parents’ money that is spent, but it is the child’s fortune that is depleted.
What the parents can afford to give, the child may not be able to afford to spend. It depends on his destiny; this is what “the Way of Heaven has no favourites” means. Many people spoil their children, thinking that spending a lot of money on raising them is good, not knowing that spending too much money needlessly actually depletes their fortune. Once their fortune is reduced, they will amount to nothing later. So I often advise people: if the child is to study, let him study normally; if he is destined to study, he will, otherwise even if you hire the best teachers for him it will be of no use.
The emperors of old also hired teachers to educate their sons and grandsons, but it was very different from today. In the past, when people hired a teacher, the teacher first taught the pupil moral character and personality; only second did he teach skills, how to write essays and compose poems. Now it is different: no one teaches moral character and personality any more, it is all skills, so there is not much point.
The ancients said: leave wealth to your descendants and they cannot keep it; leave books to your descendants and they will not read them; so the only thing is to leave hidden virtue to your descendants. This is the right path.
You must first sow fields of blessings and do good deeds, and later your descendants will naturally make money. Do not earn money you are not entitled to now; if you earn up all your descendants’ money and spend it all, your descendants will be poor later.
The ancients said: one generation as an official, nine generations wronged. If one serves well as an official, one accumulates fortune for one’s descendants; if one serves badly and takes the people’s things for oneself, wanting to leave them to one’s descendants, these ill-gotten things are all sins, and if the descendants use them, it actually depletes their fortune. Hence “one generation as an official, nine generations wronged.” It is also said that if you scheme only for your own family, do not become an official; being an official means working for the people. This too is “the Way of Heaven has no favourites.”
Although the Way of Heaven has no favourites, it always favours the good.
As long as you accumulate hidden virtue widely, it is still of use. If you want your children to do well at school, do more charity and found schools; if you want your children to become rich, give more relief to the poor; if you want your children and grandchildren to be healthy, give out more medicine. This is “it always favours the good.”
The same applies to filial piety.
Many people are very filial: they buy their parents lots of tonics and unnecessary things, even holding banquets to celebrate their birthdays. To the world it looks festive, but in fact it is unfilial, because it depletes the parents’ fortune. When someone celebrates a birthday, so many living creatures are killed. In the Republican era, an old man died and his son held a funeral banquet of three hundred tables. A few days later the old man appeared to him in a dream and said: “I could have gone to heaven to enjoy blessings, but because of your heavy sin of killing, I am being judged in the underworld and still cannot get out.”
Clearly, although it is the children’s money that is spent, it depletes the old person’s fortune.
Parents spending a lot of money needlessly also depletes the child’s fortune; this too is “the Way of Heaven has no favourites.” So do not celebrate children’s birthdays; if a child does well at school, the parents should not be proud too early and boast about it everywhere. Be stricter with your child; it is of great benefit to his growth.
Wasting too much money on children depletes their fortune, not to mention that many people waste in their companies, or even in state institutions; all of this depletes fortune. Many people think of making money easily, not knowing that this too overdraws their fortune and will not last.
We should have the awareness that our fortune and virtue are shallow and that we lack the merit to enjoy things.
Many things others can afford to give, but our fortune may not be able to afford to use. Once you understand this principle, life will have much less suffering and vexation!
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