Throughout history, countless people have proclaimed, “I will seize fate by the throat,” yet after much effort, many have eventually succumbed to fate and abandoned their struggle. A reader on the internet wrote to me, “I have become more pessimistic after reading Liao Fan’s Four Lessons. Since my fate is predetermined, what is the point of working hard? Things will happen if they are meant to be, and working hard is futile if they are not.” Many tragedies in this world have been attributed to the concept of destiny, which appears to be the root cause of all kinds of suffering.
We often blame our career setbacks, relationship failures, children’s illnesses, or family conflicts on destiny, as if we are the innocent victims of a cruel fate. But is it true that we bear no responsibility for what has happened, and that we lack the ability to change what is fated? In reality, we are the true architects of our own destiny, and only we possess the power to change it.
Destiny is merely a segment of our current life within the cycle of rebirth. Each time we enter a new cycle, it is as if we are starting a new stage play. We assume a new role in a different environment, following a script that we have written ourselves. However, we forget everything we have written and mechanically act according to the script’s demands.
The Basic Principle of Destiny
Destiny is a path formed by the intertwining of karmic rewards and retributions one receives in their lifetime. Whether it’s rebirth or destiny, it operates following two basic principles. It moves in cycles, involving everyone in its course. These two principles are the foundation of the cycle of rebirth, before which all beings are equal with no disparity.
The first principle is the universal law of cause and effect. This principle, commonly known as “you reap what you sow,” dictates that every cause produces a corresponding effect. The law of cause and effect is an ironclad rule that the cosmos must follow, with no power capable of interrupting its cycle. For example, if you plant an evil cause by treating your mother-in-law poorly today, you may face a troubled relationship with your spouse in the next life. If you committed numerous acts of violence or killing in your past life, you may suffer from lingering diseases and chronic pain in this life. Every cause has an effect, and no super forces can obliterate the karmic fruits before they ripen. For instance, if you did many bad deeds in previous lives and are destined to experience the consequence of suffering from a blood-related disease, then there will be no other force that can stop it from happening.
Even if some super force helped you avoid the negative karmic retribution in this life, you would still have to repay the karmic debt in your next life. Of course, if someone or another force is willing to bear the karmic consequences for you, then it will involve your blessings and the workings of another set of cause and effect. The calculation may seem complicated, but it still operates according to the law of cause and effect. In the end, you cannot escape bearing the consequences of your actions.
The second principle is the Heavenly Law of Causation. This law governs the cycles of karmic retribution, ensuring that individuals reap what they sow. The Heavenly Law of Causation is a system of governance that details the type and timing of karmic consequences for specific actions. It not only governs individual cause and effect but also regulates the karma of regions, dynasties, countries, and even the world. Natural and man-made disasters are the results of collective negative karma; the greenhouse effect serves as an example of such karma. Everything falls within the scope of the Heavenly Law of Causation.
When a person commits a bad deed or conceives an evil thought, the Heavenly Law of Causation automatically arranges the corresponding karmic consequences. These consequences will manifest as karmic obstacles in the next life, occurring at a specific time and place. Similarly, good deeds and merits will result in rewards at the appropriate time. Our every thought, intention, and action creates causes that, according to the Heavenly Law of Causation, are transformed into karmic effects that connect and form our “fate” in the next life. When we haven’t committed many good or bad deeds, our timeline may have many blank spaces. This is why we often feel that we spend much of our time waiting - for school, exams, graduation, the right person, career opportunities, or the birth of a child. This endless waiting wastes both time and life.
How Is Negative Karma from Past Lives Brought Forward to the Current Life?
We often hear, particularly in Western religious doctrines, that every person is born sinful. This statement is true. But why would a pure newborn baby be considered sinful? Where does this sin come from? In numerous examples shared by our radio show listeners, we’ve heard of young parents who haven’t had a full night’s sleep in the first three years after childbirth due to their children’s eczema and frequent nighttime awakenings. This phenomenon serves as a compelling explanation for the concept of “original sin.” In fact, every individual in the Human Realm has karmic obstacles, which are referred to as “sin.” Without these karmic obstacles, one would not exist in the human world. Therefore, the concept of original sin is indeed accurate.
Once karmic retributions are arranged and transformed into karmic obstacles by the Heavenly Law of Causation, they are like a computer program that stores all the information within a person’s soul. From Totem readings, dark patches of negative energy can be seen in specific parts of the body. The more bad deeds a person commits, the more dark patches of negative energy accumulate. At birth, this negative energy accompanies our soul, and karmic retribution takes effect at a specific time in this lifetime. This is how karma works, like a shadow that never leaves us. When people in a region or country commit only bad deeds, negative energy forms, thus affecting the climate and topography, triggering catastrophic retribution upon them.
Before karmic obstacles take effect, do they still affect us? Indeed, they do, and the impacts can be quite severe. The dark negative energy in our souls acts like a corrosive liquid, constantly eroding our bodies, obstructing the circulation of energy, constricting our nerves, and affecting our emotions and mental state. That’s why some people’s illnesses are caused by spirits, while others result from karmic obstacles. This is also the reason why I typically differentiate between spiritual illnesses and those caused by karmic obstacles.
Karmic obstacles can undergo two changes: they can either be eliminated or transformed into spirits. Spirits may evolve from karmic obstacles or come from external sources. Since karmic obstacles are the effect of certain causes, it seems impossible to eliminate. So, how can it be obliterated? What can be done to counteract it?
Why Can Practising Buddhism, Paying Respects to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and Reciting Buddhist Scriptures Eliminate Karmic Obstacles?
Karmic obstacles are the negative consequences of the karma one has created. No other power can remove them unless they are offset by a positive cause and effect. A positive cause and effect is equivalent to merit and virtue. Hence, merit and virtue can offset karmic obstacles (please refer to Chapter 7 of Buddhism in Plain Terms Volume 1 – The Difference between Good Deeds, Merit, and Virtue).
What is the purpose of practising Buddhism? Practising Buddhism is to cultivate the mind, to attain purity of mind, kindness, equanimity, and compassion while eliminating delusion, greed, anger, ignorance, and attachment. We all know that good and bad are just a thought away; only by cultivating a wholesome mind can we ensure that no evil cause is created, thereby avoiding bad karma. Hence, the primary goal in practising Buddhism is to cultivate the mind.
Reciting Buddhist scriptures and paying respects to Bodhisattvas is not about having the Bodhisattvas eliminate our karmic obstacles. Reciting scriptures and paying respect to Bodhisattvas are meritorious acts in themselves. Their “karmic reward is inconceivable,” and they can “accomplish inconceivable merit and virtue.” Merit and virtue will operate and arrange themselves according to the Heavenly Law of Causation, but they will not offset karmic obstacles automatically. When you pray to the Bodhisattva to have compassion on you and bless you with a smooth career or favourable love relationship, the Bodhisattva, through Her supernatural power, will use your merit and virtue to offset the karmic obstacles hindering your career or love relationship so that things will go your way. Both your merit and virtue and the Bodhisattva’s supernatural power are indispensable, but this can only be done on the foundation of your own merit and virtue. One wholesome karma offsets one karmic obstacle. As for those who pray to the Bodhisattva without doing meritorious deeds and reciting scriptures, there is no way the Bodhisattva can help them. Neither will people with hefty karmic obstacles but insufficient merit and virtue have their prayers answered.
How Can We Apply This in Our Daily Lives?
Having understood all these principles, we should recognise the need to make the best use of our time and devote every minute to cultivating the mind and accumulating merit and virtue. By understanding the relationship between merit and virtue and karmic obstacles, each of us can establish a short-term cultivation goal based on the extent of our karmic obstacles. Those with substantial karmic obstacles may find that things consistently go awry and don’t improve despite praying to the Bodhisattva and reciting scriptures. This is due to karmic hindrances resulting from their substantial negative karma. In this case, they should focus on eliminating karmic obstacles and reciting more Little Houses. For those with few karmic obstacles, they may find that their chanting and prayers are quickly answered. This means that they have cultivated well and accumulated significant merit and virtue. In this case, they must set higher goals for themselves, as cultivating the mind and accumulating merit and virtue are of utmost importance.
Upon understanding these principles, I hope all of you will gain a clearer picture of how your destiny is formed. Do not shirk responsibility and shift the blame to others. Instead, let go of your burdens, focus on cultivating the mind, and fill your time with reciting scriptures and accumulating merit and virtue instead of waiting in vain. Even if we are still in the Human Realm in our next lifetime, we shall live every day reaping the fruit of good karma, as if living in Heaven.
