Davidzhu

We often hear sayings like 'good people live in peace' and 'heaven rewards hard work,' but in reality, we also often see 'good people getting no good rewards.' Why is that? Is it because we have a misunderstanding of what it means to be 'good' and what 'heaven's way' is? The Tao Te Ching says, 'Heaven and earth are not benevolent, they treat all things as straw dogs.' This tells us that heaven and earth don't care about your morality; they just follow their own rules. If you do good, they won't give you extra points, and if you do bad, they won't punish you on purpose. Ultimately, morality is just a tool used by society to constrain people, a soft rule outside of the law, and it's essentially a product of maintaining social stability. Just like marriage, moral standards vary across different eras, regions, and rulers. It's floating and changing. When you're young, being obedient and well-behaved gets you candy and praise. But when you grow up and enter society, continuing to be obedient and a 'good person' can lead to being taken advantage of, marginalized, and losing out in secret. Morality is not a universal passport; it's just a human game rule. The universe only looks at results, not whether you're kind or hardworking. Capable people understand both human rules and the ruthlessness of heaven's way. They know how to play to their advantages within the framework of human rules without being consumed by the ruthlessness of heaven's way. So, we shouldn't take morality as an absolute standard; instead, we should see it as a relative constraint. We should understand the ruthlessness of heaven's way and the rules of the universe to navigate life with ease.