Extracted from E-sangha
Hi. I have read "LiaoFan's Four Lessons" recently, so let me
endeavour to address your query from a layman's point of view. In a
nutshell:
* All men have their respective paths to walk in life, with the
final destination being death.
* Along this path, there will be happenings of ups & downs,
haves & have-nots, endowments & depravations, gains &
losses; just like you will find pumps & potholes, uphills &
downhills along a common road.
* The happenings on the path of life could take the forms of being
borne into a good family or otherwise, being blessed with intellect
or otherwise, attaining a high education or otherwise, getting a
good job or otherwise, marrying or remaining single, blessed with
filial children or otherwise, becoming a millionaire or otherwise,
being stricken with fatal illness or otherwise, living to a very
old age or otherwise -- this is one's DESTINY.
* Such destiny is a realization/ripening of KARMA (i.e. volitional
actions) that a person has accumulated as imprints in his
consciousness from previous lives or from an earlier part of that
person's current life.
* LiaoFan taught that past karma is not fixed, whether in form or
in intensity, but can be lessened in intensity or even completely
overriden by one's volitional actions in this current live. For
example, LiaoFan was originally destined not to have a son, but
through genuinely repenting for his past actions and performing
numerous merits, he succeeded in turning around this destiny and
was blessed with a son.
Therefore, one's destiny can be changed by "fighting" past karma
with current karma. Past karma will only run its course of ripening
without change IF one does nothing about it in current life.
Kapish??
