What is not-wrong to do is to grow our happiness. The politically-incorrect word is self-interest or selfishness. However, it is insane to promote selfishness directly because many people will start to focus on immediate gains that are limited in time and space. They may feel the thrill and fulfillment here and now without careful thinking of their future and the dangers they created elsewhere which may come back to haunt them in another form. It is called Karma in theology; in Science, it is called Newton’s third law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, and sometime the reaction come in a roundabout way; hence, the need for religious teachings. Atheists may be more dangerous than religious believers in doing harms to themselves and to others, especially those who don’t believe in humanity but crazy for absolute authority. They are “free thinkers” but they think of themselves first and foremost, and they want to be free to do anything they want. They don’t think there is any perspective or opinion that they can accept as the truth (空). Hitler and Stalin were Atheists, and they killed more people than anybody else in the world history.
Initiating or threatening the use of any and all forcible interference on an individual or individual’s property is not just a selfish act but also full of greed. If you steal or have no respect for private property (including the body of another person); you will naturally feel worry about being caught or becoming a victim at another point of time. Greed is incompatible with the goal of maximizing self-interest. Being selfish is not wrong, but being greedy which will erode your mental health, hence your holistic happiness, is wrong. Maximizing freedom without justice will lead to no freedom; maximizing justice without freedom will lead to no justice. But where there is a lot of justice (self-regulation), there can be a lot of freedom. Where there is a lot of proton, there can be equal amount of electron. Selfless (therefore no body and no desire) is the path to the greatest selfishness (大私无私). When you have no more self, you will have no more fear. (及吾无身，吾有何患﹖)
We are all virtually connected, although we are separated. Each and every one of us is like a hair on the same skin. Some people think it is OK to remove one hair to save the world/skin. If one hair is not enough, what about a hundred or a thousand since “we” have many more (as if “we” own the world/skin)? On the other hand, what every one of us does may affect the world/skin. If the effect of one person is insignificant, what about a hundred or a thousand? Each of us has a role to play, and that role is to live happily and try to make our neighbors happy (because we are all connected). Right is wrong if it causes the world to be in chaos, because everybody including ourselves will be negatively affected.
In the physical world, there is no upper limit of temperature; the sun does not have the highest temperature. (No religion has the absolute truth, but some may have higher truth relative to others.) But there is a lower limit of temperature; that limit is zero-degree Kelvin. In the nonphysical world, nothing is absolutely right. I wouldn’t say something is absolutely wrong, but harming yourself (including making yourself unhappy) would be wrong. Do everything and anything to make yourself happy; don’t let yourself be unhappy. Be selfish, but don’t let your selfish deeds come back to haunt you and make you unhappy. You will not be happy, not forever, if your neighbors are unhappy.
RESILIENT KID 