Mutual Generation and Restraint Maintain Balance

Xuefeng

Balance brings blessings; excess brings misfortune. The coexistence of mutual generation and restraint is the essence of peace. This is true for the universe, and it should also be true for human life. I have studied the “Five Elements Theory” and was once fascinated by fortune-telling for others. I discovered that the ancient Chinese wisdom is profound and mysterious. What is often dismissed as nonsense and superstition by the secular world actually contains the crystallized wisdom of our ancestors, who deeply studied the laws of the universe and the trajectory of life’s blessings and misfortunes. Due to our ignorance, we have foolishly thrown away these gems of wisdom into the trash, while modern people are intoxicated by the dazzling surface phenomena of a commercial society or merely use the wisdom of the ancients as a means to make money through fortune-telling, completely ignoring the vast and profound knowledge about the universe and life left by our predecessors.

The Five Elements—Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth—mutually generate and restrain each other: Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, Earth generates Metal, Metal generates Water, and Water generates Wood. The Five Elements also restrain each other: Metal restrains Wood, Wood restrains Earth, Earth restrains Water, Water restrains Fire, and Fire restrains Metal.

Only through mutual generation and restraint can all things develop harmoniously and be peaceful forever. Any extreme development not only harms the rest but inevitably leads to its own demise.

This principle applies to nature, and human society should be the same. The reason why the United States, a country with only a few hundred years of history and a mixture of races and cultures, can become a world superpower is mainly because it conforms to the principle of mutual generation and restraint. Their administration, legislation, judiciary, religion, and civil organizations are like Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, mutually generating and restraining each other, enabling harmonious and vigorous development and making them invincible. On the other hand, China, with its 5,000-year cultural history, has experienced continuous wars, movements, and widespread discontent and anxiety throughout its history. The root cause lies in the violation of the principle of mutual generation and restraint.

National affairs are not the concern of us Lifechanyuan; what we care about is how each individual can live a happy and fulfilling life. From the "Eight Characters Fortune-Telling," I have glimpsed some mysteries. The so-called "Eight Characters Fortune-Telling" involves converting a person's birth year, month, day, and hour into the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, then converting these into the Five Elements, and finally using the principles of mutual generation and restraint of the Five Elements to calculate a person's future lifespan, fortunes, merits and demerits, success and failures. This method of fortune-telling is highly scientific and reasonable and is a profound subject. I studied it for two years and found that its mysteries are beyond the understanding of anyone who is not highly learned and wise.

Mechanically fortune-telling is undesirable, but what is desirable is to provide timely guidance based on each person's Five Elements. This guidance is essentially about changing a person's life trajectory, but changing a person's life trajectory is no easy task. It involves a series of personal factors. Not only must one consider the person's Five Elements attributes and the positions of the Eight Trigrams, but also the changes in the times, the changes of the moment, and the Five Elements attributes of others connected to the person. One must also consider the person's beliefs and psychological activities. If any of these factors are ignored, fortune-telling guidance may have negative consequences, or even disastrous results. Therefore, I no longer dare to tell fortunes.

One universal insight I’ve gained is worth sharing: Fate lies in balance, and a life that has lost its balance will inevitably lead to sorrow and disaster. In "Revelation Chapter”, article 29: The Priorities and Urgency of Life," I gave a brief explanation of what are the priorities and urgency of life from a macro perspective of life as a whole. From a micro perspective, each stage of life has its priorities and urgencies, and even each day has its priorities and urgencies. Ignoring priorities and urgencies and spending much time on what is secondary and trivial can lead to distress at any time, so maintaining balance is crucial.

The reason why the Five Elements of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth can exist forever is mainly that they can mutually generate and restrain each other, maintaining balance. Balance is perfection, smoothness, harmony, and the law for the permanence of life. If a person’s Five Elements attribute is Mountain Fire, and if their relatives have a predominantly fire attribute, and they live in the southern part of the country, this indicates that the fire element is too strong. If they encounter a fire year, fire month, fire day, or fire hour, the fire will inevitably burn fiercely. The external manifestation could be illness, disaster, or even sudden death—unexpected misfortunes such as illness or car accidents. At this time, traveling to the north to visit relatives, or being with a few people whose Five Elements attribute is Water, especially those whose attribute is Heavenly Water, can alleviate the severity of the situation.

Giving flowers, crops, and trees the right amount of water will make them grow well, but soaking them in water will inevitably drown them. Therefore, more is not necessarily better; moderation is best.

People generally resent those who restrain them, wishing to destroy them. A powerful and corrupt person hates party discipline, hates media interviews, and hates the freedom of speech of the common people. They see the factors that restrain them as enemies, and the inevitable result is that they will fall when they are at their peak.

Aside from emotional factors, parents, spouses, children, etc., are the restraining factors on a person’s path of cultivation. But it is precisely these restraining factors that prevent a person from going to extremes and from going mad. Attending school, working, and participating in social activities are also restraining factors on the path of cultivation. These restraining factors provide us with opportunities for cultivation and excellent opportunities for insight.

"Good fortune hides within bad, and bad fortune lurks within good." Appropriate help or harm to others is beneficial, while excessive help or harm will lead to disaster. Conclusion: When the direction is right, every step is an elevation; Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, mutually generate and restrain each other; As for the myriad affairs of life, one should go with the flow but never go to extremes. Do not seek possession, but seek balance; do not seek fame, but seek inner peace; do not seek intensity, but seek emptiness and elegance.