Can doing good deeds improve the Inner Life palace? In short, doing good can help the mind feel steadier and more inclined toward kindness, which supports the inner side that this palace stands for. But without your own action and change, good deeds alone will not bring the result you hope for.

Picture someone who often hears elders say "do more good, build more merit." They donate and volunteer plenty, yet they still stay up late, put things off and run from problems. The intention is good, but daily life has not really changed.

Is Building Merit Real?

There is no clear right or wrong here, and no one can say for certain whether building merit is real. It comes down to a difference in viewpoint: one is a view from belief, the other a view from everyday life and psychology.

Believing that "doing good builds merit" is a view from belief. It is so because the "merit" in question cannot be seen, heard, smelled or touched. We only "feel" it, and it is belief that ties our actions to the idea of building merit.

From an everyday and psychological angle, building merit may be a gradual change in a person's mindset and awareness. Phrases like "enough merit built up" or "a person with good fortune" point to people who are kind-hearted, sincere with others and positive in attitude.

What the Inner Life Palace Stands for on a Chart

On a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart, the Inner Life palace (Fu De) stands for the thoughts and ideas buried deep inside, and for how strong or weak each person's inner strength is. When inner strength is weaker, a person can slip into negative states more easily, be swayed by outside circumstances, feel fragile, lack perseverance, be led along by others, or simply find it easier to suffer. When the Inner Life palace is stronger, the opposite tends to hold: luck and opportunities often come more easily, or one simply feels happy.

So doing good may simply turn the mind toward kindness. Once the mind leans that way, a person may gradually grow calmer and quieter, and better able to withstand the noise from outside.

How the Inner Life Palace Connects to Other Palaces

On a chart, the Inner Life palace is closely tied to the Persona palace, the Love palace and the Wealth palace. The Persona palace and the Love palace are its trine palaces, and the Wealth palace is the palace across.

This shows that the thoughts the Inner Life palace stands for shape how we appear outwardly, which is our behavior (the Persona palace). Its thinking also affects the path of romance, in other words our feelings and emotional state, since our inner life needs a bond with the people we love (the Love palace). Finally, it affects money luck, because it shows whether a person has enough inner strength to compete for wealth in a harsh social environment (the Wealth palace). Through these three palaces, the Inner Life palace goes on to shape the personality, the chart pattern and the career seen in the Ego palace.

Wrapping Up

Seen this way, doing good can indeed improve the inner side that the Inner Life palace stands for. But remember: if you expect good deeds to bring good results while you stay lazy and keep the same old habits, then even a thousand good deeds will not bring the result you want.

So do good to yourself first, and then do good to others. In other words, put your own life, learning and habits in order first, then extend that care to other people. To see how the Inner Life palace looks on your own chart, you can take a look at HOROS.