Educating for Universal Love: Using Abundance to Support the Lacking

"Is not the way of Heaven like the stretching of a bow?
The high is brought low, the low is lifted up;
The surplus is diminished, the lacking is replenished.
Such is the way of Heaven: reducing the excess to nourish the deficient.
The way of man, however, is different:
It takes from the lacking to serve the excessive.
Who can offer their surplus to serve the world?
Only one who follows the Way.
Thus, the Sage acts without self-importance, accomplishes without claiming credit.
Since they do not display superiority, they remain truly noble.
The more they give to others, the more they themselves possess.
The way of Heaven benefits all without harming.
The way of the Sage acts without contention.
Thus, those who value themselves as guardians of the world,
And love themselves as caretakers of the world,
Can be entrusted with its care."
— Dao De Jing (Selected passages)

Throughout our lives, we are inseparable from education and learning.
But essential questions arise:

• Who do we learn from?

• What do we study?

• Why do we seek knowledge?
  These are the fundamental reflections at the heart of education.

In the Dao De Jing, Laozi reminds us repeatedly:
We should learn from the Dao, from the way of nature itself.

"Man follows the Earth, Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows the Dao, the Dao follows what is natural."

Education and the Problem of Inequality

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu explored the function of education in society in his seminal work Reproduction.
Through extensive research, Bourdieu concluded that the French educational system tended to reinforce social class reproduction, rather than disrupt it.

This finding stirred global concern, highlighting a crucial question:

• Does education truly serve as a ladder for all, or merely as a tool to preserve existing inequalities?

Today, the accumulation of resources among the few is a clear global trend.
The 2011 Global Wealth Data Handbook reported:

• The wealthiest 0.5% of the world’s population owned 38.5% of the world's assets.

In education, a similar pattern emerges:

• Children's academic trajectories often seem predetermined by family background.

• "Starting lines" are drawn even before birth.

While online education and free university courses have begun to bridge some of these gaps, these are temporary, physical solutions.
The real solution lies in the heart of education itself — its content and values.

Cultivating the Spirit of Universal Love

Cai Yuanpei, the renowned former president of Peking University, envisioned education centered on a worldview of universal love.
He believed that students must be imbued with the spirit of compassion and service during their learning years, so that when they achieve higher degrees and social advantages, they naturally channel their abilities back into society.

As one scholar pointed out:

"Today, receiving an education often means gaining an advantage.
But the critical question is: how will one use that advantage?"

Competition for personal gain can easily lead to the "accumulation effect" —
where resources concentrate ever more in the hands of the few.
If students are immersed solely in a culture of competition,
they are unlikely to develop a genuine sense of duty to society,
the spirit of "studying for the rise of the nation" or "taking the world’s troubles as their own."

Education, therefore, must follow the way of Heaven: "Reducing the surplus to replenish the lacking."

Students must be guided to use their abundance — their talents, knowledge, and resources —
to uplift those who are underprivileged. This is how education can fully embody the spirit of the Dao.

When students align their words and actions with the principles of universal love and public service,
they become the true pillars of the nation.

"Those who cherish the world as they cherish themselves can be entrusted with the world."

This represents not only the success of moral education but also places education at the very center of societal transformation.
Only when education instills the right values can society move toward balance, harmony, and sustainable prosperity.