Heaven Always Favors Certain People
People often try to understand themselves by making comparisons—especially those who believe they’ve achieved success. They study how they differ from other successful people and compile lists of conditions and circumstances. This reflects a Western analytical mindset that excels at breaking things down into parts and organizing them to get results, yet it can miss some fundamental elements.
Heaven and earth are impartial; the divine treats everyone equally. The roots of success or failure are not found solely in surface attributes—ability, knowledge, looks, eloquence, or managerial skill. In traditional Chinese thought, they lie more in the state of one’s heart and mind, which includes many overlooked factors, chief among them adaptability.
How does one adapt and connect? It takes an open heart and wisdom. While conventional advice often emphasizes doing good and accumulating positive energy, without these two qualities the effect can be weak and slow. In fact, many foolish people believe they are doing good when they are actually causing harm. Adaptability also appears in physiognomy: a central axis drawn from the forehead downward symbolizes a person’s heart and mind, mirroring their mental state. Thus, those with a troubled inner life often show it in facial asymmetry; the greater the imbalance, the greater the setbacks they face.
Adaptability also shows in a person’s openness. People with broad minds continually deepen their understanding and refresh their beliefs. A successful person’s ideas stay aligned with the times and seize opportunities, while a truly accomplished person’s ideas often transcend the era and create opportunities. Such people are often called great or enlightened, because their creativity shapes entire periods of history; they are favored by heaven and blessed in life.
Conversely, many people are not favored by the divine. Beyond struggles in their careers, even family matters and the prospects of future generations grow harder to manage. This is often due to a narrow mindset that continually reinforces its own worldview, blocking wisdom and halting the renewal of understanding, which breeds stubbornness. As a result, their lives lack adaptability. In physiognomy, such people show many lines or markings along the central axis—from forehead to chin—corresponding to how this lack of adaptability affects different stages and aspects of life.
This lack of adaptability blocks personal growth. Hence, the signs along this central axis can point to one’s fortune—that is the logic behind it. Here, “adaptability” does not mean change for its own sake, but the continual elevation of thought throughout one’s development. If one remains trapped in a rigid mindset, the outside world will increasingly push back, leading to isolation. In that state, one cannot connect, let alone achieve.
In reality, many people take their ingrained beliefs as unquestionable truths. This often stems from overreliance on the detailed methods of Western academic disciplines, reinforced from childhood through formal schooling. Excessive faith in these methods can block the pathways to wisdom, which is why some who never finished grade school achieve great success, while many with high levels of education lead unremarkable lives.