Chapter 104: Fate And Fortune
Seeing this, I didn’t try to persuade him further. After all, people sometimes need to make their own choices.
However, before Old Dog went back, I told him a theory about fate and destiny.
“Old Dog, have you ever heard of the relationship between fate and destiny?”
Old Dog was stunned. He had never thought about this before. If he hadn’t met me, he probably wouldn’t have embarked on the path of cultivation in his life. He would most likely have been like an ordinary person, working desperately to earn money, then buying a house, getting married, having children, and finally living a busy life until old age.
“No, what do you mean, Old Ghost?”
I coughed lightly and then slowly said, “So-called fate is actually the accumulated bad habits of every living being from past lives, as well as the thought habits and life habits formed by the influence of the environment after birth.
For example, if you are a very impulsive person, and someone asks you ‘What are you looking at?’, your first reaction is to say ‘What are you looking at?’
If you continue down this path, it’s easy to get into a fight or even get arrested.
But if normally you would say ‘What are you looking at?’, and you didn’t, no matter what you were thinking, you controlled yourself and said, ‘You have such a great temperament that I couldn’t help but look a few more times. Please don’t be angry.’
Then the outcome of this matter has been changed by you, not developing according to your normal habits. This way, you avoid conflict or being arrested. This is called destiny.
If you don’t avoid it like this and speak and act according to your normal thought habits, it is called creating karma through bad habits, and you will follow the pattern to do the same thing and obtain that result.
The opposite is also true. If a person is bullied and dares not resist, they will continue to be bullied. Or if they erupt one day, it may also lead to bad consequences. This is also creating karma through bad habits, and it is also fate.
The fate at birth is predetermined, just like where you are born cannot be chosen, so you cannot choose the environment in which you grow up or the kind of cognitive patterns you form.”
“Then what should we do? Does that mean everyone’s fate is predetermined?” Old Dog asked.
“Actually, it depends on how you understand it. In a sense, the fate at birth is indeed predetermined, and you cannot choose it. But it is not unchangeable. There is a saying, I don’t know if I’ve told you before, which is that nature can change fate, fate can change destiny, destiny can change temperament, temperament can change appearance, appearance can change countenance?”
Old Dog scratched his head. Well, by the look of it, he had forgotten whether I had said this or not.
I didn’t wait for him to say anything and continued,
“The so-called nature actually refers to the original heart, which is the same as the nature in ‘illuminating the mind and seeing one’s true nature.’ Everyone has two hearts. The outer one is called the discriminative mind, which is formed by habits after birth and can think and distinguish good from bad, evil from good. The inner one is called the original heart, which can also be called the non-discriminative mind. It is something that inherently exists and does not change. Being able to use the inner original heart to control how the outer discriminative mind thinks is equivalent to changing fate with nature.
To put it more simply, the inner one is called nature, and the outer one is called fate. By controlling fate with nature, and destiny with fate, people can change their originally predetermined trajectory of fate. Do you understand?”
Old Dog pondered for a long time but couldn’t understand what I was saying.
“Old Ghost, can you explain it more simply?”
“To put it even more simply, it means you can see your own cognitive patterns and actively change them. There are four major realms in life: first is unawareness, second is awareness after the fact, third is present awareness, and fourth is awareness beforehand.
Unawareness means not knowing anything. If you say the wrong thing or do something wrong, you have no idea.
Awareness after the fact means that after doing something or saying something, you realize in retrospect that something was not quite right. After reminding yourself, you will be able to detect it and not do it again when you encounter the same situation.
Present awareness means that through a long period of awareness after the fact and timely self-reminders, you can know what is going on and how to act when encountering any situation at the moment it happens.
Awareness beforehand means knowing how to handle a situation before it even happens, without fearing any right or wrong, and being able to resolve things easily when encountering them.
This is also a required course for being human. Regardless of whether one is willing or not, this is how one cultivates.
Often, many people are in a state of unawareness and awareness after the fact. Only those with a little comprehension can achieve present awareness. As for awareness beforehand, it requires opportunities and very strong comprehension. Cultivators, after cultivating very well, can achieve awareness beforehand.
“According to what you say, are those fortune tellers in the mortal world in a state of awareness beforehand?” Old Dog asked again.
“No, no. Those people merely use the laws of fate analysis to peek into the past and some predetermined numbers of others’ lives. Whether it’s drawing lots, making predictions, or communicating with deities, it’s all like that. However, they cannot peek into their own destiny.
What I call awareness beforehand is the ability to peek into one’s own trajectory of fate. For example, based on the choices I make today, I can know what I will be like in a few years or even more than a decade from now.
Through this method, one can change one’s own trajectory of fate.
For example, a farmer’s fate for his entire life is to farm or work. But one day, his cognition improves, and he chooses to start a business. In this environment, he comes into contact with other entrepreneurs, continuously learns, and improves himself. One day, after he succeeds, he changes his fate and becomes a boss. His son, when born, will no longer be exposed to farming but to doing business, which will also change his son’s fate.
Ordinary people have random control over this kind of destiny, or rather, they have no control at all. They can only see if there are any opportunities to change their cognition, and then they can achieve this. However, they cannot absolutely master the final win or lose.
Those who truly cultivate can actively change their cognitive patterns anytime and anywhere, thus having infinite possibilities for continuous improvement. There is a special law in this world: when you truly believe in something, it often increases the probability of success for that matter. This can be proven by science.
For example, if a patient truly believes they can recover, then at the moment of belief, they have already increased their chances of success by thirty percent.
It’s the same principle for doing anything.
Cultivators can absolutely believe in themselves, even if they arrange their own cognition to be the opposite of what they previously knew, they can still achieve absolute belief. This is also the effect of the phrase ‘naturally complete,’ reminding oneself to believe in oneself.
Many things in this world are actually contrary, and it is difficult for ordinary people to go against their own will and think the opposite of what they believe.
Great cultivators can easily achieve this. Their minds do not take any stance but actively choose to propel their cognitive patterns in the direction they desire. When thoughts change, actions change, and everything will slowly and subtly change along with it, and a person’s destiny will naturally change accordingly.
For example, I smoked for sixteen or seventeen years, and quitting was easy for me. I set a rule for myself: I do not smoke and I strongly dislike the idea of smoking. Then I absolutely believed the information I set for myself. Instantly, I quit smoking.
Of course, this does not mean all cultivators can do this. When cultivation is low, one can only constantly suggest it to oneself. When cultivation is high, it can be changed with a single thought.
Do you understand now?”
