WHO PRE-ARRANGED OUR FATES
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Divination has long appeared everywhere in the world, from East to West. Even a sage once prophesied that the Tat Dat Da prince would become enlightened when he was just 7 days old. In the naming ceremony, seven Brahmins also said the Prince with his 32 good ministers would become a king of all kings or a sublime enlightened person.
Muhammad, who was the leader of Islam, was also predicted to start a world wide religious domination.
Predicting fate has become an attribute of humanity. People often wonder about their life, so they go to a fortune teller. However, some people have too much free time and money and do not know what to do so they visit many fortune tellers and hear many different stories.
Besides, knowing about things in the future can also help us determine whether our own fate is arranged or not. Our lives must be pre-arranged in order for things in the future to be predicted. If they are not pre-arranged then the future can not be known. For example, after listening to Buddha’s teachings, we’ll have a meal before going home. Future things will happen, and we can predict them. But, if we don’t have a meal before going home, the things in the future will change. Or, if we go home 30 minutes early, we’ll meet a person who will show us the way to earn lots of money, but we won’t meet that person if we go home later. So will our future change depending on our decision in the present? Actually, our lives seem to have been pre-arranged and our fate regulates things in the future such as who we will meet, and whether we will be rich or poor. Our fate seems to have been pre-arranged and humans always want to know about their life. That ‘s the reason why many people look for fortune tellers.
There are many ways to predict the fate of a person such as palm reading or physiognomy. Maybe a person born with curly hair is a clever person. But if he changes his hairstyle, a fortuneteller may not be able to predict and will now pay attention to the face or voice. Besides, fortunetelling can be based on the time he was born or the cards which were selected to predict his future, etc…
However, some people have intuition or special abilities and can predict fate not based on palm reading, physiognomy, or cards. They just keep their mind quiet to predict things in the future. They have special abilities because they seriously practice Buddha’s teachings, or they have innate abilities as mascots such as dolphins or hyenas. The dolphin species have very strong intuition. When they are reincarnated as humans they can predict fate because of their strong intuition. Predicting fate helps reassure people about the future and gradually they believe that all things in life are arranged.
But, who pre-arranged the fate of humans? If we consider the physical aspect, our parents themselves created our lives. They gave birth to us, nurtured us, and taught us from childhood to adulthood. They sacrificed their life to create our life, so they created our fate. Therefore, all people must be bound to their parents.
Another factor that affects human fate is government. A good king will help people live prosperously and happily. A cruel king will make people suffer, become poor, and their fate will change for the worse.
Social environment affects fate too. Nowadays, the influence of the Internet is growing day by day. The proliferation of bad news and the violent online games have made students neglect studying. Online game addiction can compel people into criminal lifestyles to get money to play games. Though they may be young and still immature, they must all be arrested and pay their debts. Those who live in an good environment and have a good education will have a good life. So, their fate will develop in a good way.
Natural factors also affect the fate of man. If the weather is favorable, there are lush crops, and the house is full of food and drink, then life is prosperous. If weather is severe, crops fail, there is a shortage of food and drink, then life will be difficult.
Thus, the fate of humans is affected by numerous physical factors. However, if we consider basing it on beliefs, fate is dominated by mysterious factors and has been determined or pre- arranged. Therefore, our fate can be predicted.
There once was a civil servant who met an accident and died. A friend of his told that he seemed to know that his death was imminent. Before going to work, the civil servant gave his friend some papers and asked him keep them in case he died. On the way to work, his car crashed into a truck and he died. Thus, what in his mind made him think about his death? Considering the social factors, the truck driver that hit the civil servant was drunk. If another driver had driven that truck that day, the man would not have died and his fate would have been changed. But why did he predict his own death. This is really strange.
Lieu Nghiem was one of my disciples. Two weeks before she died in a car accident, her dreams contained a lot of tombs, and one of them was her own. If the driver had driven even 2 seconds slower, she would not have died. But he drove faster and the accident happened. We see that everything seems to have been arranged although there was an impact of many physical factors. There was a spiritual element that secretly arranged her fate. Today, we will talk about two topics: “Who pre-arranged our fate” and “How can we change our fate?”
There are two schools of religious beliefs. One believes that divine powers have pre-arranged our fate. The other believes that karma has pre-arraned our fate. We are Buddhists, so we believe that karma pre-arranged the fate of every person. However, in fact, both views are correct.
Let us consider an example. In a committee, the chairman wants to appoint a employee to be the head because he works hard and is responsible. And that employee is promoted. Thus, his fate has been arranged by the chairman. Is this right? It’s correct. But his fate is also affected by the law of karma. Why did the chairman choose him? Because he had done good work. Therefore, karma also arranged his fate. Because he had blessings, he was promoted. So, every time we get luck, we should do more blessings to thank heaven and earth, and the universe. That employee must also do a good job to thank the chairman. Thus, his fate was arranged by the chairman and the law of karma.
Now, we talk about the concept of divine, the one who we call God, who has arranged our fate. Since ancient times, mankind has believed that God arranges things in this world. However, the concept of God has many different trends. The first trend is the tendency of common folk. Then, Taoism used it to create new trends. When the ground was dry, farmers often prayed for rain. Suddenly, it rained and they believed that God had heard their prayers. However, God only gives us rain. We must still work. We see this in the conception of common folk. God impacts the destiny of man, but man must decide his life. If it rains and we thank God, but we do not work the farm and go right to bed, we will definitely be hungry. God just does things we can not do ourselves, we must still make every effort to work. If we don’t make every effort, God can’t help us.
In ancient times our ancestors lived together in harmony, with mutual love, and they worked hard with reverence for God. Because good humans treated each other well, God rewarded them and punished the evil men. God was also a judge. Likewise with karma, too. Because our ancestors did not know the law of karma, they believed everything had been pre-arranged by God. But things are started from humans. When humans were deadlocked, they prayed to God to help. They burned incense and offered sacrifices every day. Taoism later changed the concept of God and he became a God that can intervene deeply into people’s lives. If he wants someone to die, they have to die. If he wants someone to be poor, they have to be poor. All things are bestowed by him. The concept of God made man worried about his fate. However, all of this was communicated only through missionaries.
In one segment of a film it showed a race across the desert. A dying man told his friend that God wanted him to die. His friend replied, “It is God’s will. But do you really want to die? Do you think your wife and children are waiting for you at home?” He heard his friend and nodded quietly. He then stood up to go forward and finally he was alive.
What is the problem here? The man always believed his ideas were God’s will. But God never said a word.
As Lao Tzu once said, “Why do the seasons change? Land doesn’t say anything. But why does the river flow? ” He always thought about God calmly. But people always think God imposses on their thoughts. In fact, no one has heard God say anything. The man in the film believed that God wanted him to die, but that was only his thoughts.
We do not deny that there is a God arranging our fate. Because in Buddhism, the concept of “God ” is real. The Buddha taught us there are many heaven realms, each has a king to govern. But at the very high heavens such as Huu Danh, Sac Cuou Canh, no one is a king because all are sublime enlightened saints. So, they need no king to govern.
At the lower heavens as Pham Thien, Ba Muoi Ba, people are not entirely ethical, they can make mistakes. So, they still need a king to limit their mistakes.
In the human realm, the law, the police, and the army, are very necessary because there’re many cruel things which need a goverment to govern. People need a manager to preserve social order. If not, society would become chaos, and evil would harm good people.
In the old days, when people thought the strong would beat the weak, looting often happened. Everyone had to learn martial arts to protect themselves. Today, the State holds all the power and wields force to keep the stability of our social life and allow people to live together peacefully.
When people treat each other well, authority of the king will be reduced. So, in the heavens, people are purely good and they don’t need a king. The king in heaven is very busy, even things in the human realm are arranged by the king in heaven.
Remember, we only need to live well, we do not need to beg. God will arrange our things in a nice way and we will be supported. If people hate us, and we beg God, it means we are doing the opposite of God’s will. If we do not follow God’s will, consequences will be very bad because our fate is dependent on God.
In Buddhistism there is a story. Once, Buddha was meditating in a cave. Suddenly, a voice of a saint sang, Can That Ba. It’s a love song with a sentence: “I love you like an Arhat love Meditation.” Buddha smiled and he never smiled without good reason. Then, Buddha asked:
– Why do you have this song?
The saint bowed to Buddha 3 times and said:
– Buddha! This song was composed by me because I fell in love with a fairy in heaven, but she did not love me. I found out her hobbies and I know
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she loves glass Jewels, Buddha, and Arhat. I composed this song and married her. Then, the saint said:
– Buddha! My father-in-law is here, he wants to bow to you but he doesn’t dare disturb you. So, he asked me to help him. Please, allow him to visit you.
Buddha agreed. At that moment, King De Thich turned into a human body and bowed before Buddha. Kings in heaven are a hundred thousand times larger than humans. Buddha is in the form of human, so De Thich must turn to human body too. He said:
– Buddha. I’m very busy, so I rarely have a chance to homage you.
Today, I passed by here and I wanted to visit you…
In fact, heavenly kings are very busy arranging the fate of human beings, especially those who will be chosen as King, as president, or prime minister … They arrange everything by impacting people’s minds so that they unanimously support someone. It is God’s will.
But behind the will, the will of the people and the will of God, the law of karma has dominated all. It arranged what God wants to do. God also made statutory fair Causation so it can not do wrong.
When our country was colonized by the Minh army, in the first decade people were enslaved and many people opposed but failed. After Le Loi made the Lam Son insurrection in Thanh Hoa, Nguyen Trai and his friends went to find Le Loi. According to legend, one night at a temple, they heard the Gods of the Temple say:
– I have just returned from Heaven, I heard that the Jade Emperor will assign Le Loi and Le clan to rule Nam country. I was assigned to support this person.
We do not know if it is right or wrong. But during the ten years of resistance, Le Loi encountered numerous difficulties and hardships. One time, Le Loi was chased and he hid in a bush. The Minh army used a dog to find him. When they came to the bush where Le Loi was hiding, the dog barked. Suddenly, a rabbit jumped out the bush and the dog ran after it. The soldiers thought that maybe the dog just barked at rabbits, so they went away.
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Fortunately, Le Loi escaped many times, overcoming all dangers to lead the resistance and become the king, opening up a new dynasty for Nam country. The Gods of Temple said that the Jade Emperor wanted him to supported Le Loi. Nguyen Trai heard him say so, and he also wholeheartedly wanted Le Loi to succeed.
During the fight, we thought that only humans fought each other. Actually, God silently and secretly supported the resistance army. Though the military forces of Ming were strong, their fate was arranged so that they had to fail, and Le Loi’s army would win. It was God’s will, but behind it was the law of karma. Why did God choose Le Loi? Because Le Loi’s father was a wealthy Dives in Lam Son, Thanh Hoa. For many lives, Le Loi’s ancestors lived lives of virtue. Le Loi, as well, created great merit in many lives. So, he was born in the heavens, and he was chosen to be King in the human realm.
Therefore, although God arranged things, karma governed it all secretly. That is why Buddhist teachings often tell about the law of karma. Other religions think everything is God’s will. Both are correct, but the law of karma is the origin. We say that God arranges everything but it is an understatement. If we don’t talk about God and karma we think everything is human arranged. In fact, human fate is governed by the divine. But the divine is governed by the law of karma. The law of karma is a principle, a rule that governs all and dominates the human mind. Our fate is arranged so.
We often wonder why God choose this person, but not that person. Because this person is good, and that person is bad? Or as in Christianity, the priest who was chosen by God. Why did God choose this person, but did not choose others? Buddhism explains that it is because of karma. This person has good qualities, creating many merits, having many blessings. So, God chose him. The other one was not chosen because they did not qualify.
One day, some nuns came to the Phat Quang pagoda to chat with us. When talking about morality, we refer only to the teachings of Christianity, not the Buddhist doctrines. All their questions are answered by the teachings of God. They were surprised and asked, “You understand Christianity so well. Why don’t you become a priest?” We said, “It is the God’s will.”
Another time, we were invited to present their doctrines by a priest. That day, there were only a few people: a few priests, a few nuns, a few monks, some parishioners and the intellectuals. They asked some questions about Buddhism and were only talking about Buddhism.
Once more, a priest and some youth Christian students took a visit to the Dinh mountain and visited us. As a courtesy, they wanted to meet the Abbot. After some questions, we knew the reason for visiting the temple was because they wanted to ask about some Buddhist doctrines. But we told them about the teachings of Jesus. The priest liked it very much and invited us to teach laypeople.
We can see, in fact, the religions of the world have quite similar points. If we are generous of heart, we will see the good points of each other to love. We will have mutual respect, not derision, and we will not hate each other and we will not create religious conflict. Those who cause religious conflict are bad people who do wrong by their religion. In a true religion, it promotes the unity of mankind, where human beings transcend all boundaries to love one another.
We are correct when we say God or the law of karma arranges human destiny, but the most important thing is human. Someone who lives well, creating many blessings, will find that the law of karma will arrange their fate in the direction of good. God will support him. Therefore, each person decides how to live on their own and thus arranges their own fate. So, our fate was pre-arranged but it is not completely rigid and can be changed. Some fixed things can not be changed, but some can be changed.
Are the fate of monks fixed? In fact, those who are arranged to be a monk will surely become a monk. Except for false monks who are monks for only a few years or a few days. The sincere monks all have a fixed fate.
There are monks that before they were ordained, they wanted to become doctors or engineers, but they could not pass the examinations. The doors of worldly life were closed. They studied well for the test, but they did something wrong and their points were not enough to pass. That confusion is God’s will. If they love someone, the marriage will not be successful. All the doors of worldly life are closed and they can only become a monk.
That is the fixed karma of a monk. But becoming a good monk or a bad monk is up to them. It’s called personal willpower. The bad monk will make their fate change. Therefore, becoming a good monk or a bad monk is due to their own wills.
Likewise, whether we are born in a good or bad family has been pre-arranged. We can not choose who will be our parents. Indeed, we can only choose to be parents by living well in our past lives. That is fixed karma, but we will become good or bad depending on ourselves. Parents teach us many things, but if we want to get even better, we have to try to learn. Becoming a good or bad person depends on each individual person. There is fixed karma and un-fixed karma. Fixed karma can not be changed, but our willpower can still change our lives in the future.
For example, on the occasion of a death anniversary. Everyone comes to hear Buddha’s teachings and has a meal. It’s the same fixed karma. But then, some people apply Buddhist teachings to their life and became excellent Buddhists. Some people are still selfish and greedy. Although we all come here to hear Buddhist teachings, some change and some don’t. Thus, in fixed karma we always have un-fixed karma too because all living beings have different wills.
Therefore, the will is a very important factor, it can change a person ‘s life. But why do we make good decisions and have good ideas? Why do we make wrong decisions and do wrong things? If we meet good friends and have good teachers, we will make the right decisions in life. If we meet bad people, they will incite us to do the wrong thing and we decide our life in the wrong way.
A Buddhist family was once living happily. A friend gave the husband some sex disks. He was curious and watched them. From that moment on, his heart became agitated. His family could not satisfy him. So, he had sex with another woman and his family was broken. In contrast, another family always quarreled and fought with each other. Suddenly, someone gave them the Dharma disk. They heard it many times and applied Buddha’s teachings to life. That family became happy and loving.
Thus, the impact factor of important. It can change our fate.
your friends or good advice is very Everything was pre-arranged by God and karma, but we can change our fate. So a good friend or bad friend can do our wills good or bad, and our fate will change. This is a very important factor. That is why the Buddha did not use psychic powers to improve humans. Throughout his life, he only taught morality to educate people. Buddha also advised 60 Arhat – his first disciples: “Each one of you go to a different area, but do not come along a path to bring the Dharma to improve humans.”
At that time, the development of Buddhism was in conflict with longstanding belief systems in the countries of India, like Brahmanism and some pagan cults, especially Ni Kien Tu sect – un-dressed. This sect had a terrible conflict with Buddha. Today, when we learn about the history of Buddhism we only know a very small part of the conflict. In fact, the opposition to the Buddha and the Sangha was much larger, more than a thousand times bigger.
Buddha did not use psychic powers to destroy those who were against him. He did not use spiritual powers to win because he knew very well that the human heart can only be changed by thought and by morality. Buddha used ethics to teach people, helping them change individual cognitions. When they have good ideas, they will decide the right path. Their fate will change direction as well.
So, teaching ethics to people is very good, we can change the fate of others and that is the greatest blessing. When we share food and money with others we only have a temporary blessing. A few days later, they will be hungry again. We can create jobs for them, but they can still become unemployed or not have enough health to work at an old age. If we share morality with them, they will live better in this life and the after life. So, we can help them permanently and change their lives forever. Therefore, our blessings will be great.
So, who pre-arranged our fate? That would be God and the law of karma. But to have a good destiny, our will is essential. If our will wants us to do good, we will have a good destiny. But how do we have good will? It is because of education, good teachers, and good friends. So good teachers and good friends are an important factor. We always need a good teacher or a good friend to remind us and share with us good things to change our hearts. We need them and the other person needs them too. If we want to change our fate in a positive direction, other people also need to change their fate like that too. If we think we know how to become a good person and we strive to be a good person by ourselves, we are being selfish so we will not be successful. Therefore, we must share good things with others to change our fate together in a positive direction. No one is right to keep his own good things. It’s such in life.
To change our mind, we need to do four things:
_ We have to learn ethical standards.
_ We have to think about good things, and not think about bad things.
_ We have to order ourselves to do good things in a radical way. If we are selfish, we must order ourselves to not be selfish. We have to improve ourselves. As time passes, our evil mind will gradually reduce.
_ We must vow to Buddha that we will always improve ourselves every day. If each day we all bowed to Buddha and we prayed for Buddha to bless us to get rid of bad habits, after many years, we will change our mind and change the line of karma in countless lifetimes.
For this will open up a new horizon for our fate, help ourselves to change lives, and change our fate for the better. We are totally qualified to do this because we know Buddha’s doctrines are immense and infinite. We have enough material to improve ourselves. Many people do not know Buddha’s doctrines, they are still living in the dark and do not know how to light up their soul. We have countless lights of Buddhist teachings, let us resolve to make our hearts purer every day. We’re extremely happy, the remaining problem is the determination.
Four things will help us to change hearts, and our fate as well. We begin by resisting bad habits. When we vow to eradicate bad habits, we will face them. For example, suppose we like to drink and so we vow to abstain from alcohol. Buddha will then create situations to test our will. One day our friends may invite us to drink alcohol. Even when circumstances are favorable to drink we refuse and remain calm watching them drink without craving. From there, we will get rid of our drinking habits and self-indulgence.
Or we are greedy and selfish. Now we vow to live more selflessly. One day, our parents divide the inheritance into equal sections for all members. Previously, we wanted to keep it all. But now we have vowed to live without greed and selfishness. We will say to parents that “I already own land. You can give your land to my brothers and sisters.” Our hearts are now relaxed and family tension will also subside. Family members will also be happy because of our change.
When we have made the commitment to Buddha, Buddha will force us to face situations like this to test our willpower. If we pass the tests, we will gradually go up the path of saints. Our spirituality will move up one step, but we will not know that. Buddha will constantly challenge us like that.
Or we feel that we can do just a little blessing. So, we pray that Buddha will give us more opportunities for doing good. After vowing, we go out and we will meet a person who needs help. According to our old habit, we often ignore these situations for fear of trouble. Today, our conscience is torn but morality eventually wins. We try to find the best way to help that person. Of course, depending on our vow, big or small, Buddha will give us appropriate situations to deal with. If we vow to live a life for all living beings, not living for our life, Buddha will have more difficult challenges for us. Remember, every word we vow, Buddha will give us the opportunity to help us resist our bad habits.
Who arranged our fate? In terms of the physical aspect, our parents, the environment, society, nature, and government are all factors that affect our fate. In terms of the spiritual aspect, God has an impact on our lives. But God’s will is affected by the law of karma. And whether the karma is good or bad depends on our will. Therefore, we must build good thoughts. So, education is very important.
Remember, if we have good things, we must share them with everyone to perfect our souls together. Ethics must be spread, Buddha’s teachings must be shared by every Buddhist. We change our mind by four methods: The first is learning the correct teachings of Buddha. The second is changing our soul by applying Buddha’s teachings in life. The third is to order ourselves to do good things, not bad things. The last is vowing before Buddha.
We must always remember that when we begin to pray before Buddha, the challenges will come to us. Buddha will create adversity for us to practice patience and live in peace. We will meet the poor and have opportunities to help them. Buddha will bring temptation for us to cross. Our lives will always have difficulties and challenges. And we must overcome these challenges to go up the path of saints.
Why do we apply Buddha’s teachings? To move from human to saint. There are many different saints. Some will be born in heaven after death. And the most sublime saints will no longer be dominated by samsara.
Namo Shakya Muni Buddha
