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?"
The Master answered:
Master Yun Gu: Fate is created by ourselves. Good fortune or bad fortune are also determined by ourselves. When I commit evil, disasters are bound to strike. When I cultivate kindness, good fortune will naturally come my way. It says so in all the great ancient books of wisdom. In the Buddhist teachings, it is written that if one wishes and seeks wealth, position, a son, a daughter, or longevity, one can attain them. One only has to cultivate kind deeds in order to escape the control of fate. Since untruthful speech is one of the greatest offenses in Buddhist teachings, we can be assured that these are not lies. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas certainly have no reasons to deceive us.
Liao-Fan: I did not quite understand what he meant by 'attaining all that one wished for', and so I asked him, "Mencius once said, 'Whatever is sought for can be attained. The seeking is in oneself.' This refers to inner qualities such as virtue, kindness, and morality. These are all qualities one can work towards. However, when it comes to outside factors such as wealth, fame, and prestige, how can we seek and attain them? Don't these have to be granted by others in order to be achieved? The Master replied:
Master Yun Gu: Mencius was correct, but you misinterpreted his meaning. HuiNeng, the Sixth Patriarch of the Zen school has taught that all the fields of merit are within one's own heart. If one seeks from within, one can be in touch with all fortunes and disasters. The outside is merely a reflection of the inside. By seeking within ourselves, we can not only attain the inner qualities of virtue, kindness, and morality, but we can also attain wealth, fame, and prestige.
Narrator: If wealth, fame, and prestige are embodied in one's fate, then one will attain them even without having to seek. If they are not, then one cannot attain them even through plotting and scheming.
Master Yun Gu: Therefore, if one cannot reflect within his own heart but instead blindly seeks fame, fortune, and longevity from external sources, then this seeking will be in vain. Just as Mencius once said: 'In seeking, one should follow the right path. In attaining, one attains what one's destiny entities him to.' Whatever is attained in the end is still part of one's own fate. If one tries to seek these qualities from the outside, and even goes to the extent of committing evil deeds for them, then one will not only lose one's inner qualities of virtue and kindness, but predetermined fortune as well. Furthermore, evils committed in one's greedy mind to obtain more will often reduce the fortune of one's original fate. From this we can see that no benefit is derived from blind seeking.
No comments:
Post a Comment