Never paint your life too rosy. Because if you want to reach true awakening, you are destined to pass through an extraordinarily brutal low point.
But only by going through that low point — and surviving it — will your life pattern (格局), your vision, and your mindset undergo a genuine leap forward. A life of unbroken smooth sailing produces no real growth at all.
So what does a low point actually look like?
You will feel the unmistakable weight of everything going wrong — no matter how hard you work, money won’t come; no matter how hard you fight, nothing takes shape. Look up, and you see only the cold faces of enemies. Look down, and you see only the scheming faces of petty people.
The things you carefully prepared are inexplicably crushed. The effort you gave everything to is mysteriously dismissed wholesale.
Your dignity is belittled. Your achievements are mocked. You look around and there is not a single good thing in sight — only endless suffering, exhaustion, frustration, and agitation.
And yet, I don’t think this needs to terrify you.
Let me give you three things to hold onto:
One: Every beginning has an end. The low point is not here to make you suffer for nothing — it is paving the road for the next phase of your major life cycle (大运).
Two: Don’t suffer in vain. Don’t drift through this time in a fog. Remember — truly remember — every grievance you endured, every lesson you absorbed during this period.
Three: Before a person dies, there is a final flare of radiant light. Before fortune rises, the darkest night gives way to dawn.
Read those three lines quietly, a few times over.
Now — have you ever stopped to ask yourself: you are a decent, upright, hardworking person. So why does this valley have to fall to you?
Is it pure bad luck? Are you simply destined to suffer this?
I, Master Chi, absolutely do not believe that. On the contrary — I see this as precisely the period of tempering and testing that heaven has assigned to you.
Heaven uses this stretch of time to put you through a complete and thorough forging.
That is why you are made to fail again and again — because only then will you force yourself to learn new ways of navigating the world, to rack your brain, to build real strength from every angle, inside and out.
That is why you are made to endure contempt and cold shoulders — because only then will you come to fully understand just how ruthless human nature can be, gaining the ability to read people in an instant: to spot traitors, petty schemers, noble benefactors (贵人, Gui Ren), and genuine allies at a glance.
Heaven has never been gentle. When it moves against you, it is fierce. But it will never drive you to a dead end with no way out.
Don’t be afraid. Master Chi can tell you this plainly: you will absolutely get through this.
Be patient. Don’t be afraid. Learn to treat every trial heaven sends your way as an opportunity to build your inner foundation.
Every great tribulation, every petty adversary — these are your lessons, one by one.
There is a saying that sounds almost clichéd, but it deserves to be turned over slowly in your mind:
In this world, all things — good and bad alike — are the experiences written into my destiny. Every last one of them can be made mine to use.