Tonight, let me speak with you plainly, heart to heart.
You see, I’ve always believed that the greatest wealth in my life was never the assets and money I accumulated through years of hard-fought effort.
On the contrary — my greatest wealth has always been the suffering and failures I once endured.
Those experiences were the raw materials that truly forged who I am at my core.
I still vaguely remember the lowest years of my youth.
I had absolutely nothing to my name except a body weighed down by debt and trouble.
Back then, even looking up at a clear sky, all I could see was a murky, grey expanse.
I never reached the point of ending it all, but my younger self genuinely believed — this lifetime was destined to be crushed completely by all of this trouble.
No hope of turning it around.
But gradually, after truly immersing myself in classical Chinese studies and Chinese metaphysics (xuánxué), I came to understand: Heaven never truly gives you a dead end.
Any path that seems to lead nowhere will ultimately have a turn where the willows part and the flowers bloom — provided you’re willing to put in the effort to search and reflect.
And what happened after?
Those of you who’ve followed me for a while already know — my younger self stopped fighting passively and shifted into an active stance, with a calmer and gentler mindset, slowly melting away all those iceberg-sized problems one by one.
And look — I made it through, didn’t I?
I’m not sharing this to boast. I want you to understand: if I can gradually dissolve a problem the size of an iceberg, then you have no reason to be unable to handle the common problems in your own life. Don’t you agree?
And honestly, speaking from the heart —
I even hope you experience more adversity in your life.
You see, humans are a rather peculiar species.
When everything is going your way, you’re unlikely to notice your own weaknesses. In fact, after a string of wins on life’s road, it’s easy to fall into a state of smug self-satisfaction.
The smoother things go, the easier it is to make mistakes.
Across the board — in every area of life.
This is exactly why, when I’m working on destiny chart (mìngpán) planning, I’m especially careful when discussing so-called “smooth and favorable years.” Even when things look particularly rosy, I’ll deliberately emphasize the potential rough patches that could arise.
If I don’t, readers can easily drop their guard entirely during that period because of my words — and then a sudden, overwhelming blow can knock them completely flat.
Life is like a highway: if you only pursue smooth, straight stretches, you endlessly increase the likelihood of an accident. That’s precisely why highway engineers deliberately build in curves and bends.
Moreover, I’ve had deep contact with quite a few truly powerful people over the years — many of them names you’d recognize from the media from time to time. But sit down for tea and casual conversation with them, and you’ll find that every single one of their biggest falls came during the very moments when they were riding highest, brimming with confidence.
If that’s true for people like them, how much more does it apply to you and me?
So — enduring some hardship, taking some losses, and occasionally playing against the wind is truly not a bad thing. Or, to put it in a more Zen-like way: the ability to endure hardship isn’t necessarily real suffering.
Because it’s only when we encounter problems that we suddenly realize: Oh — I’m actually still this weak. I have this many hidden issues, this many areas where I can grow.
And then you throw yourself into that period of tempering with total, almost obsessive dedication.
So, do you think that kind of pain lasts very long?
This calls for another insight that bridges classical Chinese wisdom and rational thinking: behind every period of hardship in life, there is an invisible counter ticking away.
Some people want that counter to run out quickly, so they can coast through and survive the stretch by just lying flat.
Others actually want the counter to slow down — to savor the tempering process more fully.
Because wise people — those with genuine discernment — all understand one truth.
Just like Nezha and the Monkey King (Sun Wukong, two figures from Chinese mythology renowned for enduring extreme trials to achieve transcendence), only by enduring the agony of burning incense ash and suffering the pain of the furnace’s flames can one possibly reach the realm of true mastery.
Now, I want to be upfront: I’m not expecting every reader to understand or accept what I’ve written today.
Because when faced with adversity, people’s instinctive responses essentially fall into two kinds: avoidance and lying flat on one side — confrontation on the other.
The avoiders make up about 95%. They’ll do anything to escape the hardship — playing dumb, going limp — and pray for those days to hurry past.
But they never stop to think: the reason adversity showed up in the first place is that their capabilities weren’t sufficient to resolve it. So they dodge it this time, only to keep running into it again and again. Round and round it goes.
The confronters make up the remaining 5%. When these people encounter hardship, they quickly regulate their emotions and start working out — where are the openings in this situation? How do I crack it? And just like that, hardship transforms into a game.
The result? Little by little, the hardship naturally dissolves. And in return, you gain a wealth of experience and real growth in your capabilities — becoming stronger and stronger with each round.
I remember once, a reader who came to me for a destiny chart analysis and life planning session opened up with a flood of grievances: “Master, I’ve had it really tough. I grew up in a poor family, and from a young age I suffered the constant pain of never having enough money. My parents weren’t motivated either — they depended on me heavily. So all these years, I’ve been entirely on my own — falling down, feeling my way forward, getting back up again. Though I’ve achieved a modest degree of financial freedom now, I’m just… exhausted. Is there any way you can help me ease my mind?”
I answered him with a smile — a genuinely heartfelt one:
“You may not have realized this, but your parents left you an asset — one that contains responsibility, accountability, pressure, and the will to fight. I know that sounds like hollow inspiration. But without that background, you very likely would have grown up as a pampered only child and ultimately faded into obscurity like everyone else.
Instead, you’ve worked that asset brilliantly — and turned it into an inner strength that can never be taken from you.
So the best way to ease your mind is to quietly repeat these words to yourself: ‘I have not let my own efforts down. I’ve truly done well. I’ve given it everything I had.’”
When I finished speaking, this man in his forties slowly felt his eyes grow moist. He looked up at the space above him and stayed there, silent, for a long, long time.
So why did I write these words tonight?
Simply because — in the foreseeable years ahead, I believe each of us will go through our own unique form of hardship. The problems each person faces will be different.
But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you remember this:
Even if your way of confronting hardship is imperfect, I’m still giving you a thumbs-up.
After all, facing adversity without fear and meeting it with composure — that alone is already a remarkable quality. And if you can add persistence on top of that, that’s something truly extraordinary.
So even if no family or friends are there to encourage you —
Remember: you always have a close friend named Master Chi, quietly admiring every effort you make in the face of adversity.
Every pass seems impossible — and yet, every pass gets crossed. Even the greatest of hardships can ultimately be outlasted.
That, I promise you.