🌟Introduction
Let’s continue from last week’s story in The Four Lessons of Liao-Fan. Previously, Master Yun Gu burst into hearty laughter when speaking to Mr. Liao-Fan. Why would a great teacher respond in such a way? Was it amusement, compassion, or a deeper lesson hidden within his words? Today, we will uncover the reason behind his laughter—and what it reveals about destiny, deluded thoughts, and the path to transformation.
🧍♂️Heroic Figure vs. Ordinary Man
Master Yun Gu laughed and said:
“I thought you were a heroic figure, but it turns out you are just an ordinary man.”
When Master Yun Gu heard this, he laughed heartily. He said:
“I originally thought you were a heroic and extraordinary person, but it turns out you are also just an ordinary man.”
👉 What is a heroic figure? That which ordinary people cannot do—if someone can do it, that person is a heroic figure.
For three days and three nights, not giving rise to a single deluded thought—that is something ordinary people cannot achieve, yet Mr. Liao-Fan managed to do it.
From this point we must truly awaken and understand. 🌱
We must see how Master Yun Gu guided and transformed Mr. Liao-Fan, and how he helped him to change his mistaken views. This is true learning.
🌸Virtuous Roots and Blessings
- Mr. Liao-Fan was able to accept and to understand—this was his virtuous root.
- He was able to deeply believe without doubt and to practice according to the teaching—this was his blessing.
- With virtuous roots, with blessings, and further encountering a good teacher who guided him—this was his condition.
💡 When virtuous roots, blessings, and conditions are all complete, then destiny can be changed.
🔗Why People Are Bound by Destiny
When asked why, Master Yun Gu replied:
“People are not yet able to be without mind, and so they are bound by yin and yang.
Only ordinary people are fixed by numbers.”
- Those of extreme goodness—their numbers do not confine them.
- Those of extreme evil—their numbers also do not confine them.
For the past twenty years, you have been completely fixed by destiny, not moving even the slightest bit. Are you not then just an ordinary man?
🌀The Deluded Mind
‘People are not able to be without mind.’ This ‘mind’ refers to the deluded mind, meaning the arising of thoughts.
As long as you give rise to thoughts, you will have numbers.
👉 As long as you have arising thoughts, you will have destiny.
Who can surpass destiny?
- Those without deluded thoughts.
- Those without deluded thoughts are heroic figures. 🌟
⚖️Examples of Good and Evil Destiny
Master Yun Gu gave two examples:
- 🌼 Extreme goodness: they do good every day, their blessings increase daily; therefore their destiny cannot be calculated.
- 🔥 Extreme evil: in past lives they cultivated great wealth and nobility, but by committing evil they diminished their blessings.
For example:
- Emperor Qin Shi Huang exhausted all his blessings in a few decades—his dynasty perished after only two generations.
- Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming dynasty—his descendants continued for seventeen generations.
👉 Destiny rises and falls with virtue and wrongdoing.
❓Can Destiny Be Escaped?
Mr. Liao-Fan asked:
“Then can destiny be escaped?”
Master Yun Gu replied:
🌸“Destiny is created by myself; blessings are sought by myself.”
This is also taught in classics:
- Seek wealth and one attains wealth.
- Seek sons and daughters and one attains sons and daughters.
- Seek long life and one attains long life.
False speech is one of Shakyamuni Buddha’s prohibitions. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas never deceive.
🙏Avoiding Destiny
After hearing this, Mr. Liao-Fan asked further:
“Since people have destiny, can destiny be avoided?”
The master replied again:
“Destiny is created by myself; blessings are sought by myself.”
✨ We must believe this. The ancient sages, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas already experienced it and thoroughly understood this truth without error.
🌌The Origin of Destiny
Dimensional Spaces
Where does destiny come from?
- In science, we speak of 3D, 4D, 5D space… in theory, space is infinite.
- Humans live in 3D; beings in higher dimensions exist, but we cannot perceive them.
- Science has even confirmed the 11th dimension.
When one breaks through space-time barriers, the past, present, and future can all be directly perceived 👁️.
This is not mere calculation—it is direct perception.
🧘Ancient India’s Meditation Practices
The Brahmanists, Yogis, and Samkhyas cultivated deep meditation.
- They nearly broke through dimensional barriers and could perceive conditions of the six realms.
- But they only saw the facts, not the reasons behind them.
Thus, Shakyamuni Buddha appeared to explain why phenomena exist and why transformations occur.
Because beings had doubts, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas naturally responded.
🪐How Dimensional Spaces Are Created
The Buddha taught:
“All dimensional spaces arise from delusion, discrimination, and attachment.”
- Thoughts are infinite and boundless.
- One thought perishes, another arises.
- In one day—countless deluded thoughts appear.
These create dimensional spaces and countless phenomena.
The Buddha said:
“The ten Dharma realms… are manifested by the mind alone and transformed by consciousness.” 🧠
It is like images on a TV screen:
- The image is manifested by the mind.
- Movement and change come from consciousness.
- Consciousness is delusion, discrimination, and attachment.
🌌 The mind makes appearances endlessly complex.
🌟Conclusion
Master Yun Gu’s teaching makes it clear: as long as we give rise to deluded thoughts, destiny will bind us. But once we turn our mind toward virtue and clarity, destiny is no longer fixed. This is the living wisdom of The Four Lessons of Liao-Fan: change the mind, and destiny changes with it.
🙏 May we dedicate this reflection with a heartfelt recitation: Amituofo.
🔜 Next Week’s Lesson Preview
Next week, we will continue with Master Yun Gu’s profound words:
“Destiny is created by myself; it is not made by others, and it has nothing to do with others.”
We’ll also explore how the Diamond Sutra teaches that all phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow—and why even the famous saying “I think, therefore I am” is still considered delusion in Buddhism.
🌌 How does Buddhism go beyond Western philosophy?
🌀 Why is even the thought “I think” not the ultimate truth?
✨ And what is the “One True Dharma Realm” that reveals the reality of the universe and life?
Stay with us next week as we dive deeper into these fascinating questions.
✨ 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 Master Yun Gu laugh when he said Liao-Fan was “just an ordinary man”?
Because Liao-Fan misunderstood “having no thoughts.”
He sat for three days without deluded thoughts not out of wisdom, but because he believed destiny was fully fixed and therefore suppressed his mind.
Master Yun Gu laughed because:
👉 Resignation is not enlightenment.
Suppression is not purity.
Stillness created by ignorance is still delusion.
The laughter broke Liao-Fan’s mistaken self-image and opened the door to real practice.
What truly distinguishes a “heroic figure” from an ordinary person?
A heroic figure is someone who can:
- stop deluded thoughts intentionally,
- through clarity and understanding,
- not through fear or fatalism.
Master Yun Gu explained:
👉 Ordinary people are controlled by thoughts.
Heroic figures can govern thoughts.
Liao-Fan could suppress wandering thoughts, but he could not understand them.
Therefore, he was still an ordinary man.
Why do deluded thoughts create and bind destiny?
Because every arising thought becomes karma.
As long as a person:
- discriminates,
- clings,
- reacts emotionally,
- judges others,
…they continually generate karmic momentum.
Master Yun Gu summarized this universal law:
👉 Where there is thought, there is number.
Where there is number, there is destiny.
This is why only:
- extremely virtuous people (good karma rises quickly),
- extremely evil people (bad karma erupts violently),
- or those without delusion (no karma is produced)
can escape normal predictions.
Can destiny be escaped or changed? If yes, how?
Yes.
Destiny can be changed, and higher than that, transcended.
Master Yun Gu taught:
👉 “Destiny is made by myself; blessings are sought by myself.”
This means:
- destiny is not imposed from outside,
- it is the accumulated trace of one’s thoughts, words, and deeds.
Therefore:
🌿 Changing thoughts → changes karma
🌿 Changing karma → changes destiny
🌿 Removing delusion → transcends destiny entirely
This is the foundation of all Buddhist teaching.
Where does destiny ultimately come from, according to Buddhism?
Destiny arises from the mind’s three poisons:
- delusion (ignorance),
- discrimination (conceptual thinking),
- attachment (emotional grasping).
These produce:
- countless thoughts each day,
- which create karmic energy,
- which form dimensional spaces (realms),
- which produce individual destiny.
The Buddha explained:
👉 “The ten Dharma realms are created by the mind and transformed by consciousness.”
Thus:
Change the consciousness → change the realm → change destiny.
Purify the mind → destiny cannot bind you.
Final Summary🌈
The deepest teaching in Chapter 4 is this:
🔥 Deluded thoughts create destiny.
🌱 Stillness created by wisdom changes destiny.
🌌 A mind free of delusion transcends destiny.
This chapter is the pivot in Liao-Fan’s life — the moment he moves from knowing fate to establishing destiny.
📚 Source: Venerable Master Chin Kung’s lecture on The Four Lessons of Liao-Fan, delivered on April 16, 2001, on Phoenix TV