Originally posted by VL:
That's a pathetic way of thinking.Destiny are not written in our hands but written by our hands.
I think I have been misunderstood. When I mean that everything is pre-destined, I did not mean that they occur randomly or decided by anybody else. What I mean is that what is going to happen to you has already been decided by your past actions or past lives, thus 'pre-destined'.
Whether a person go for a retreat or not will not change how much he is going to earn in the future, because that is just a drop in the ocean compared to so many things we have done in our past lives.
Having said that, you can change your destiny because that is pre-destined by your actions.
Look at Liao Fan's lessons. His life is already pre-destined by his past. What this simply means is that his current life is not something that happens randomly.
Maha-kusala cittas i.e great moral consciousness arise when ordinary worldings and noble persons, with the exception of arahats perform meritorous deeds such as (eg. alms-giving), sila ( morality ) and bhavana (meditation).
Buddha says:
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Negative states of mind such as anger, hatred, jealousy or pride, lead us to say and do negative things. These actions bring us undesirable results in the future. Positive states of mind lead us to positive actions of body and speech, which bring us desirable or happy results.
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Therefore our future is dependent on our present actions. However, do not think that there is no hope and that just because we have done bad actions in the past we deserve to suffer and can do nothing about it. The point is that we can abandon our suffering and improve our conditions. If we stop doing negative actions and develop virtuous mind, virtuous speech, and virtuous actions, we can purify all our past negativities. Hence it becomes essential to discipline or train our mind, body and speech in virtue. This is the practice of Dharma as taught by Buddha.
Through disciplining our mind, body, speech we can achieve a stable and clear state of mind, whereby we can gain realization of the ultimate truth. This leads us to complete freedom from all delusions and their resultant suffering.
In other words, practise the noble eightfold path for liberation.
Originally posted by Isis:Karma does not necessarily mean past actions. It embraces both past and present deeds. Hence in one sense, we are the result of what we were; we will be the result of what we are. In another sense, it should be added, we are not totally the result of what we were; we will not absolutely be the result of what we are. The present is no doubt the offspring of the past and is the present of the future, but the present is not always a true index of either the past or the future; so complex is the working of Karma.
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm
Nothing is predetermined nor fixed. Every moment is subjected to changes and is uncertain in nature.
In principle, karma is subjected to changes.
However, if one commit the following acts which carry extreme amount of negative force.
These are:
1 - to kill one's own father
2 - to kill one's own mother
3 - to kill an Arhat
4 - to physically injure a Buddha or one who represents the Buddha, such as one's own teacher - this also applies to the destruction of representations of the Buddha
5 - to divide the sangha
One will invariably fall into the hells of incessant suffering.
However... to be continue as i have to go off now
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Karma is fixed in the sense that.....
How karma is fixed
The Transmission of the Vinaya says ' Whatever karma is created will bring a corresponding result'
Now is the time that we create karmic causes so we must exercise care, for it is impossible to put things right once the cause has produced results.
Cause and effect is extremely subtle, because one accumalates will bring the corresponding result.
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Thus if you plant rice seed, you get rice
If you plant rice seed, you don’t get apples, pears and durians etc.
sources of reference: http://www.meaningoflife.i12.com/karma.htm
And the article on the four thoughts that turn the mind from samsara:
http://www.kagyu-asia.com/t_four_thoughts.html
Your future is not fated, whether getting a job or not has nothing to do with fate. Karma also, is not the same as 'fate'. There is no fate, Buddha taught that Fatalism is a false view, there is only karma and other factors/causes and conditions.
Getting a job has a lot to do with using your wisdom and your effort to get a job.
There's a whole host of conditions and past life karma is only one part of the many kinds of conditionings.
For example, getting a job or not depends also on your academic qualifications, your resume, etc. If you are a drop out from secondary school, then you can't expect a high paying job equal to a Ph.D (unless due to some extraordinary circumstances or self-employed, but chances are much less)
So you definitely cannot attribute everything to past lives, thats not possible or realistic.
Also lets say, cancer. Like my Master said you cannot blame cancer all to past life karma. There are many other conditions, like, what's your diet. Did you smoke? What's your family history on this disease? Lots and lots of factors to take in.
If you didn't take care of your health, if you insist on smoking, don't blame past life karma when you have cancer. That's just being in denial.
And also even if there are some bad karma or some sort of karmic obscurations in anything, it's not that there is nothing we can do to avert them.
You are also, right now, creating karma for future fruition, the future is not pre-determined and theres always opportunities to bring about change.
Originally posted by Isis:In principle, karma is subjected to changes.
However, if one commit the following acts which carry extreme amount of negative force.
These are:
1 - to kill one's own father
2 - to kill one's own mother
3 - to kill an Arhat
4 - to physically injure a Buddha or one who represents the Buddha, such as one's own teacher - this also applies to the destruction of representations of the Buddha
5 - to divide the sanghaOne will invariably fall into the hells of incessant suffering.
However... to be continue as i have to go off now
I have read somewhere that due to the great vows of amitabha, it could be possible for someone who has committed the above acts to enter pureland ?
Is this piece of information true or false ?
Hmm
When bad things or when things do not go their way, it does not mean that one is doomed to suffer. One can transform their mentality towards embracing the situation with a positive outlook. One can also change their circumstances when they take constructive action towards improving the current situation.
Anyway i have a friend's friend who was rejected by NIE four times but she has never given up. In the end, she was admitted into NIE.
Even the most unfortunate incident can be a stepping stone.
I have read somewhere that due to the great vows of amitabha, it could be possible for someone who has committed the above acts to enter pureland ?
Is this piece of information true or false ?
[JK] True, in è§‚æ— é‡�寿ç»�
Originally posted by maurizio13:
Death is certain, ultimately everybody has to die.
Question is when you will die and how you will die.