The Four Lessons of Liao-Fan is a timeless guide to transforming karma and destiny through virtuous action, self-reflection, and spiritual effort. In this third chapter of the series, we follow Liao-Fan’s personal journey as he encounters a shocking confirmation of his predicted fate—and begins to question whether effort is truly meaningful. This turning point eventually leads him to a profound meeting with Master Yun Gu, who teaches him how destiny can be changed through cultivating the mind and purifying karma.
📍 The Accuracy of Destiny Predictions
🔮 Predicting Destiny with Precision
From that point on, in every examination he took, his rankings and results were always exactly as Mr. Kong had predicted. Only one thing seemed slightly off: when he was receiving the government stipend as a licensed student (shengyuan), the prediction that he would be promoted to a tribute student (gongsheng) after collecting ninety-one and a half shi of rice appeared to be inaccurate. In reality, after he had received just over seventy shi of rice, the Education Commissioner Tu approved his promotion.
❓ A Moment of Doubt
This made Liao-Fan feel a bit doubtful. (Note: "Predicted" here translates from "懸定," meaning "calculated and determined ahead of time." "Education Commissioner" translates the title "宗師," the official in charge of provincial education.)
📜 A Second Look Changes Everything
However, the promotion order issued by Commissioner Tu was rejected by Mr. Yang, who was then the acting provincial education officer. It wasn’t until the ding-mao year (when Liao-Fan was 33 years old) that the Education Supervisor, Mr. Yin Qiuming, happened to revisit the examination papers during his leisure time. Upon reading Liao-Fan’s work, he was deeply moved and exclaimed:
“These five essays are equivalent to five formal memorials submitted to the emperor—so well-written and insightful! How can someone with such knowledge and moral character remain stuck as a poor scholar his whole life?”
So he submitted the recommendation for promotion again—this time, it was approved.
🫘 Settling the Mind
Thus, Mr. Kong’s prediction had not been wrong after all: it was indeed only after receiving ninety-one and a half shi of stipend rice that Liao-Fan was promoted. Only then did he fully believe that fate exists—that everything in one’s life has its destined time and cannot be forced. His heart finally settled. He stopped clinging to restless thoughts and truly achieved the state of:
"No competition with others, no seeking from the world."
🌀 The Trap of Fatalism and Ordinary Thinking
🧐 The Ordinary Person's Dilemma
People like him are the standard kind of ordinary person. Yet we—who can't even be proper ordinary people—spend our days lost in wild fantasies and chasing desires.
As the saying goes: “If it is in your fate, you will have it eventually. If it is not, striving for it is futile.”
🧘♂️ A Year of Silent Practice
He lived in Beijing for a year, spending each day in quiet meditation, not reading a single book. Since everything was predestined, he believed thinking was pointless, so he quieted all wandering thoughts. To be honest, he was bound by fate and could only surrender to it.
🙏 A Life-Changing Encounter: Meeting Master Yun Gu
🏯 Meeting the Master: Yun Gu
The following year, he returned to the Imperial College in Nanjing. Before officially resuming his studies, he visited Qixia Monastery to meet Master Yun Gu. (Note: "Yun Gu" was his Dharma name; his ordained name was "Fahui.")
Master Yun Gu was a highly respected monk of the time. He began his Buddhist study and travels at the age of nineteen. After attaining enlightenment, he lived in seclusion, practicing asceticism. Later, local scholars and officials discovered him and helped revive Qixia Monastery. Yet Master Yun Gu remained uninterested in fame or gain. He continued his arduous practice at Tiankai Rock, a remote and rarely visited place behind the mountain.
🤐 Three Days, No Words
When he received guests, he rarely spoke. To anyone who came seeking guidance, he would simply toss them a meditation cushion and instruct: “Contemplate your original face before your parents were born.”
When Liao-Fan came to visit, the two of them sat together in silence for three days and nights, without exchanging a single word.
At last, Master Yun Gu said:
“The reason ordinary people cannot become sages is because they are bound by delusion, attachment, and discrimination—their minds cannot settle. But you’ve sat here for three days, and I haven’t seen even a flicker of wandering thought in you. Why is that?”
🔑 A Karmic Encounter
Master Yun Gu, who normally spoke little, said all this to Liao-Fan—this was indeed a special karmic connection. One must understand that some encounters in life are due to profound causes and conditions. Meeting Master Yun Gu was the turning point for Liao-Fan’s fate. It was from Master Yun Gu that he received the true teachings of “establishing destiny” (li ming zhi xue).
📟 Establishing Faith and Recognizing Fate
📿 Calculated Life, Unshakable Faith
He said his fate had been entirely calculated by Mr. Kong—"honor and disgrace, life and death, all had their numbers.” In twenty years, there was not the slightest error. Even to stir a thought of desire would be pointless. So, he settled his mind.
📊 Change vs. Transcendence
If Liao-Fan had lived his whole life according to his original destiny, he would have peacefully died at age 53 without major faults. In his next life, he would not fall into the three lower realms. That is the mark of a proper ordinary person. Ordinary people, as long as they have wandering thoughts, cannot escape fate. In other words, you cannot be without destiny unless your mind is still. If your mind is still, you transcend destiny.
Liao-Fan changed his fate, but he did not transcend it. Still, this was extremely rare. It brought us great inspiration. We should strive to follow his example.
🎯 Why Yun Gu Held Back
Why didn’t Master Yun Gu teach Liao-Fan the higher method of transcending fate? That was “teaching according to capacity.” True masters can observe one’s root capacity—whether high, medium, or low—and give the appropriate teaching. Thus, all beings who encounter such masters will benefit. Observing Liao-Fan’s nature and potential, he was of average capacity. For such a person, teaching the highest Dharma would not work; he wouldn’t accept it. Therefore, teachings must match both truth and conditions. If not, they become meaningless words.
🧽 Knowing Destiny vs. Transforming Destiny
🧽 Knowing and Not Knowing Your Fate
We must believe that every person has a destiny—a fixed course—but only because we do not yet know it. Liao-Fan had his fate calculated, so he clearly understood the direction and goals of his life. He simply followed it. But we, unaware of our own fate, grope blindly through life. If in that confusion we follow affliction, we will create evil karma, which reduces blessings and shortens life.
Yet those with deep virtue and blessings, even if they do not know their destiny, act kindly, refrain from selfish or evil deeds, and naturally increase their blessings. Without even knowing, they receive good fortune.
🌍 Living in a World of Chaos and Declining Morality
🌊 The Modern Chaos
Our modern world is more chaotic and impure than ever before. Ordinary people cannot help being influenced by such an environment. In bad surroundings, it is easier to create negative karma, often without realizing it.
Master Chin Kung once told a story: long ago, a man killed his father—a grave crime. The emperor ordered the son executed, but also punished the county magistrate, calling it a failure of education. He was removed from office. The regional governor was reprimanded. The city wall was torn down to mark the shame of producing such a person.
📉 When Morality Fails
Today, such crimes are common. In ancient times, education was aligned with virtue. That’s why peace and happiness were the norm. But today, even the wealthy are unhappy. Why? Because destiny is real, and our thoughts, words, and actions change it daily.
♻️ Changing Karma, Changing Destiny
♻️ Big Karma, Big Change
If the changes are small, your fate remains close to its original path, and fortune-telling still appears accurate. But if you do great good or evil, your destiny changes.
Great goodness can improve a bad fate. Great evil can ruin a good one.
🧘♀️ True Blessings, Real Power
Especially in today’s world of endless temptations, how can the mind remain steady? That’s why it is so difficult to succeed in study or cultivation. Today, success in learning or spiritual practice requires deep roots of virtue, blessings, and karmic affinity.
With virtue, you can see the truth. With blessings, you can remain unmoved by temptations. That is true power. That is true fortune.
📖 What Happens Next?
Just when everything seemed settled, Master Yun Gu burst into hearty laughter. Why? What profound truth did he suddenly realize—and what life-altering teaching did he pass on to Liao-Fan about changing fate against the heavens?
✨ Stay tuned for the next chapter!
✨ Essential Questions & Takeaways
Here are the central questions drawn from this chapter’s teaching. They are designed to clarify the main ideas and help you integrate the lesson into your daily thoughts and actions.
Why did the absolute accuracy of fate predictions trap Liao-Fan instead of liberating him?
ecause he misunderstood destiny.
He saw fate as fixed, so instead of cultivating virtue, he fell into passive fatalism and stopped studying or improving himself.
This reveals a key danger:
👉 Knowing destiny without understanding karma leads to stagnation.
It is not destiny that binds us — it is our misinterpretation of it.
What did the “91.5 shi of rice” incident truly teach Liao-Fan?
He thought Master Kong made a mistake — but the promotion happened exactly after 91.5 shi, just later than expected.
This showed him:
👉 Destiny unfolds precisely but not always on our timetable.
This confirmed the existence of fate and exposed his own shallow understanding.
Only then did he stop doubting and settle his mind.
Why did Master Yun Gu speak after three days of silence — when he normally never spoke?
Because he saw in Liao-Fan a rare quality:
👉 A completely still, unmoving mind untouched by wandering thoughts.
This indicated deep karmic readiness.
Thus, Master Yun Gu gave him the teaching of establishing destiny (立命) — the method to change fate through inner transformation.
This was not coincidence; it was karmic ripeness meeting karmic guidance.
Why didn’t Master Yun Gu teach Liao-Fan the higher Dharma of transcending fate?
Because true masters teach according to capacity (根器).
Liao-Fan was of middle capacity:
- Capable of changing destiny
- Not yet capable of transcending destiny
Teaching him the higher Dharma would not take root.
Thus:
👉 Spiritual growth must match one’s conditions — the wrong teaching at the wrong level becomes useless.
What is the real difference between “knowing destiny” and “establishing destiny”?
Knowing destiny (知命)
= Understanding what is already written, accepting the results of past karma.
Establishing destiny (立命)
= Creating new causes through virtue, restraint, purification of mind, and eliminating selfishness.
The first makes you obedient to fate.
The second gives you agency within fate:
👉 When the mind changes, destiny changes.
👉 When the mind becomes still, destiny no longer binds.
👉 When selfishness dissolves, the path to sagehood opens.
📚 Source: Venerable Master Chin Kung’s lecture on The Four Lessons of Liao-Fan, delivered on April 16, 2001, on Phoenix TV