Understanding Destiny

There are three major eternal themes in human society: the pursuit of love, the exploration of the universe, and the contemplation of one's own destiny.

What is fate? Fate (called fate, destiny, fortune in English) is a kind of arrangement in the underworld, for which we can not control and can not be avoided, only accepted. In ancient times, man's ability to conquer nature was very limited, and fate would always show his power to conquer the whole world, and all people could only submit to it. "The time comes when heaven and earth are all in the same power, and the heroes are not free." With the development of science and technology, mankind's ability to conquer nature has greatly increased, and it is possible to move mountains and reclaim the sea. This has given mankind a growing feeling that they can control the environment and change it at will through technological means, but this is actually just an illusion. When Australia encountered forest fires, when the United States encountered hurricanes, when the human encountered earthquakes and tsunamis, people realized that human beings ultimately still can not conquer nature and dominate the fate.

What is life? Simply put, it consists of two parts: life, and life. "Life" means survival, and life, which is what most of us discuss most.

First, the discussion of fate in traditional Chinese culture

In fact, in traditional Chinese culture, 'fate' has always been a very important and even central part.

The sixty-four hexagrams in the I Ching, each hexagram is a combination of the inner and outer hexagrams, the outer hexagrams represent how the external environment, and the inner hexagrams represent how to deal with the inner. Qian Kun Kan Li, Zhen Burgundy Xun Tui, from the symbols on behalf of heaven and earth, water and fire, thunder, wind and water. The characteristics of the external environment and the attitude of the heart, but also represents a different meaning.

Confucianism can be summarized in four words: "the study of life". What is "life"? In the University, there is a saying: "The nature of destiny is the nature, the nature of the road, and the road of cultivation is the teaching". The common understanding of this sentence means: those of our innate abilities and qualities, is our "nature", according to the nature to live out their own, is the "road", how to let everyone live out their true self, is the value and significance of education.

Confucius said, "Fifty and know the fate of heaven", what is the fate of heaven? What is destiny? It consists of two aspects - the "bestowal of destiny" and the "limitation of destiny". To know the mandate of heaven is to know the laws of the universe, to realize the limitations of the objective laws, to know that some things can not be forced; at the same time, also know what their mission in this life, how to take advantage of the operation of the mandate of heaven, to follow the trend.

Among the Five Sons of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a very powerful character named Zhang Zai, known as Mr. Hengqu. Mr. Hengqu is a person with a great mission, he told us that the reader should "establish the heart for heaven and earth, establish the life for the people, succeed the great learning for the past saints, and open the peace for the world." To be able to do this is almost to be a saint. For heaven and earth, refers to the world to establish a "backbone", to help people establish the principle of the spiritual world, "for the people to establish life" refers to help people to live out their own, to achieve a better fate.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were two figures who continued to move forward on these two points of "heart" and "destiny". One was Wang Yangming, who established a complete system of teleology (the heart is reason, conscience, knowledge and action), teaching people how to cultivate their own level of consciousness; the other was Yuan Weifan, who, from the perspective of destiny (to establish a destiny, to change the past, to accumulate goodness, and to be modest and virtuous), taught people how to change their destiny against the odds in simple language.

Second, the evolution of the concept of fate from the development of Western astrology

The word "astrology" has a hint of fatalism. But in fact, modern astrology is more of a tool for personal spiritual growth,

it and modern psychology were developed together, astrology and psychology are water and milk relationship. Jung, who had a great influence on modern astrology, was also a famous psychologist, whose doctrine of the "collective subconscious" and "psychological archetypes" has been influential in many fields, including psychology, literature, history, political science, and artistic creation.

Third, from the cosmological point of view of fate

From the point of view of the entire universe, human beings still belong to the microcosm. What human beings call the three-dimensional world (length, width, height) is not really a three-dimensional world, but only a point on the combination of longitude and latitude on the earth, which is actually still two-dimensional. (If height is considered, the smallest atom, in fact, still has height, no matter how tiny it may be)

Astrology determines a person using a three-dimensional view of the universe, i.e., longitude, dimension, plus point in time on Earth. (Actually, from the point of view of the universe as a whole, the concepts of time and space do not exist, because there is no time, only space. Time is an earthly concept, which is really just the movement of celestial bodies (sun, moon, Venus)) The combination of these three dimensions constitutes a cosmic concept of man.

The reason why people feel lost is because there is no connection with the past and the future, to find their own position in the universe of space and time, so it is like being in a piece of the vast sea of duckweed, following the waves, no direction. Astrology is like a map that tells people where you are in the ocean and how to get to your target location.

This map, drawn by astrology, is particularly large; it is actually a map of the universe. It adds the flow of time, and parallel universes, in addition to three dimensions. In its plan view, we see the planes of the ecliptic, the orbit of the stars, and we add an axis of time to this map, and we can observe how the stars move over time. And all the parallel universes are contained in the symbols (language) above. And human consciousness is an important dimension in this map. Each symbol in the star map has many connotations and represents all the possibilities of man's future development, but when man's consciousness passes by and makes a choice, there is only one possibility left, and the other possibilities collapse instantly.

Thus, from an astrological point of view, destiny is certain, but the future is generative. Everything that has happened is bound to happen. But everything in the future remains dependent on our choices.

This map of astrology is particularly useful for humans. The nature of the universe consists of matter and energy. Matter is the equivalent of land in the universe, and energy is the ocean. Energy is omnipresent, and human beings are actually influenced by the energy of the universe all the time. The source of energy, on the other hand, is the individual stars in the universe. Therefore, by studying the laws of operation of the stars, we understand the mode of operation of energy. When our consciousness can vibrate with the energy of the universe, we can realize all the truths of the universe in an instant, and that state is what the Buddhists call "epiphany". By realizing the truth of the universe and adapting to the changes in energy, we can live our true selves and achieve wisdom and happiness.