Liao-Fan:After being selected as an imperial student, I was to attend the university at Beijing. During my year-long stay at the capital, my interest in meditation grew and I often sat silently without giving rise to a single thought. I lost interest in books and did not study at all.
Before I was to enter the national university at Nanking, I paid a visit to the enlightened Zen master Yun Gu at Chi-shia Mountain. We sat face to face in the Zen Hall for three days and nights without ever falling asleep.
Master Yun Gu questioned me saying:
Master Yun.Gu: The reason why mundane people are unable to attain sagehood is because they have too many wandering and false thoughts running through their minds. In our three-day meditation, I have not observed the slightest wandering thought arise in you - why is this so?
Liao-Fan: I replied, "Mr. Kong has clearly predicted the entire outcome of my life. I have seen that the time of life, death, promotion, and failure are all predestined. There is no use or need for me to think about it or to desire anything. That's why you have not seen me give rise to a single wandering thought." Master Yun Gu laughed and said:
Master Yun Gu: I thought you were someone of remarkable capabilities! Now I realize you are nothing but a common mundane person!
Liao-Fan: Feeling confused by what he said, I asked the Master to explain.
He answered:
Master Yun Gu: An average person's mind is forever occupied by his wandering and imaginary thoughts, so naturally their lives are bound by the chi of ying-yang and fate. We cannot deny the fact that fate exists, but only ordinary people are bound by it. Fate cannot bind those who cultivate great kindness, because their virtues accrued from kind acts are so great that these acts will alter their 'original' destiny for the better. The merits accrued can actually change their destiny from suffering to happiness, poverty to prosperity, and short lives to longevity. Similarly, fate cannot bind those who commit great evils. When a person's evil deeds are so great and powerful, they will cancel out the fortune and prosperity predetermined in his original fate, and his life can be transformed from good to bad. For the past twenty years, you have lived your life according to Mr. Kong's predictions and did not do a thing to change it. Instead, you became bound by your own fate. If you're not considered as a mundane mortal, then who is?
Liao-Fan: Taken aback, I proceeded to ask Master Yun Gu, "According to you then, is it true that one can change one's fate, that one can escape from it?"
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