How much is determined by divine will? Are we not master of our own life? What is fate? In what way can past catch up on us and can we change the directions and options the past sets us into?
Let us examine from various angles.
Some things in life we simply need to learn and overcome or come to terms with
Ever wondered why in your life some things just come easily while for some others you have to work your heart out before you can get them. Some things come to you easily with prayers but not others. Some things we somehow cannot have. Why? How effective are prayers? Do heavenly saints exist and are they effective? Can they help us? Why don't they free everyone from hell be it hell on earth in this very life of ours or the many levels of Hell? The answer below is perhaps no answer but gives some insight, otherwise the writer will be fully enlightened. All of us are learning and have to learn from life - the gospel of life!
We had some guidance from lord saint* that there are three ways we can get blessings. We worked for them and be blessing to ourselves. We get help from fellow brethren and they are blessings to us. We pray to Heaven for saints to bless us.
All saints like Lord Bo Tien remind us that there is the element of fate and by stroke of fate some things just come easily to us but not others. Every person is different in life from another because of fate.
But what is fate? Fate is self created by our past actions and deeds, be it past lives or the past of present life. If this be so, then we can actively change fate by creating actions which will change or at least modify fate. God helps those who helped themselves but what if we cannot help ourselves at all. That we cannot love ourselves at all cannot be the case. No matter how down and out we are, we must love ourselves and take note of the pluses and minuses in our life and move on. Don't give up or be frustrated. Frustrations will only ferment more frustrations. That is why those who are down and out appear perhaps by force of habit to continue to be in bad luck and be down and out. They resign themselves to fate - a four letter word.
What is critically lacking for those who lament that they have bad fate is self love. They do not love themselves to appreciate their life situation, both the good and not so good. Only when we love ourselves can we tap into the love of Heaven but even then, there will always be the element of fate.
Of course, we can exert control over life and how we steer our life. Then again why not heaven do things for us and steer our life. The latter cannot be as we are not puppets and we can think, do and feel. As we think so we will be. We are what we made ourselves to be. God and saints can provide blessings but we need to do the walking of life ourselves.
At each stage of life, there are things we need to do and overcome. What God and saints can do for us is to clear the way and make other issues not be added problems so that we can focus on the issue or issues at hand. Somehow, God and his heavenly saints will help us but we must live the various stages of life ourselves. The term crossing divine gate or door is used. We cross from one gate to enter another phase of life with another gate to tackle. There are divine lessons we have to learn with each stage.
Some things in life we need to learn and learn them well and not that Heaven is indifferent or harsh to us. We are fated to learn so to speak but we are not fated to fail to learn unless we give up and choose to be helpless. Fate means we have to learn to come to terms or cross obstacles in life. These are worldly obstacles but if fate be the case for us to have obstacles, then they are spiritual obstacles. Saints are god sent as they can alter life such that we need to tackle less obstacles and only the important ones at any one time. They clear the way so that we need only to handle the one or two lessons in life for each stage. But remember that Heavenly saints help those who help themselves. Heaven helps everyone but not everyone can receive help if they do not love and help themselves.
Bear in mind the two sides of coin of life - divine and individual when more blessings needed
For the clapping of hands, we need two hands. Likewise for there to be a coin, there must be two sides or faces unless we can envision a coin to be round like a ball.
In life, we may want some things out of life. But not always we will get what want. Often when we get what we want, it may not be the way we exactly want them to be. This is the true nature of life. We need to move along and adapt as the only perfection of life is that there is imperfection. That is why all that are born must face death and be reborn. But this does not mean we should not want to live.
Live we must and we have to live well but be balanced in our approach. Know the twin poles of nature. Even this is subtly true in Heaven. Amongst Taoists, we have the yin and yang. Yin is impermanent, so is yang but the two together is permanent. So we can either flow along and be tossed from life to life and from day to day or we can ride and be atop the yin and yang. Only the latter will provide dynamic peace and calm but the ultimate will be when full enlightenment is attained like the buddhas. Just look at most of the images of deities sitting down on dragon chair like that of Lord Bo Tien. There is always portrayal of balance with both feet on elements. Only then will there be peace and ease.
Let us focus on what we want to make out of our life. We may want something out of life but whether we get it depends on our inputs and our fate. Even our fate depends on what we do in past lives and in the past of current life. Even though our life is controlled by fate, we can still change by moderating our store of merits or life force. This can come about if we can push aside bad karma and make our good karma take fruit. Here is where Heavenly saints can come in. But we need to help ourselves by doing more good and trying to be more good. But this may not be enough and we need to pray to the saints to help us, to tip the balance and to make things happen. God helps those who help themselves.
We need two hands to clap and we need two sides before there will be the coin. We must make the change and want to change but this will not happen readily and bring desired results. We need to have fate on our side and for God and saints to bless us to help us modify, reap and have better fate. Nothing is cast in stone. Moreover, we have free will and we can make choices. That is both good and not so good depending on how we manage our life.
We came to this world and life for certain purposes, what some would say destiny of sorts. Our destiny is in our own hands. This is predominantly true . God willing, man can work for what he wants but this must be within the destiny or purpose of his life. How then do we know what is our own destiny? We must be mindful and have insight of our strengths and weaknesses in life as we too have yin yang aspects. There will always be life events and event language we can take note of. Not to take cognisance of this will not be wise. The wise one knows what he can have, that is, the options that are possible for him. But the not-so-wise and obstinate may go for the sky. The latter will have uphill task and he will find life disappointing for most part. He blames Heaven and laments that God is not on his side. The reality is that he is not even on his own side simply because he is not insightful. God willing the insightful seem to be able to get blessings but not the ones who see not the better options in their life. Man must live his life and God willing we can make life even better but man cannot tell God he don't want to be himself and want to be somebody else instead. Be ourselves and God willing we will be better but we cannot be someone else instead. Do not envy and be upset. Rejoice in what we have and what we can have but not go for what others have. Be ourselves and make ourselves better but never try to be someone else.
The coin of life has two sides - divine and individual. (For there to be hand clap for life goals to happen, two hands are required - one hand divine and the other is human.) Work for your own life and ask for blessings. God willing, success will be yours. Try to be someone else and this can never be. How then can God help you? Do not make things difficult for God and heavenly saints when you make things difficult for yourselves in the first instance.
Bear in mind the two sides of coin of life - divine and individual. Bear in mind that more clap of blessings can only happen if there are two hands -divine and individual. Man works for more blessings in life but divine support is needed to make them happen. Only then can destiny and fate be modulated and effected.
Lord Bo Tien has said. If we ask for blessings, big issues can become small issues and small issue become no issue. But we must do our part, be on our own side and then Heaven certainly will be with us on the other side to make up the coin of life. Cheers and all and anyone of us can have own success in life but not the same success as others. This spiritual insight is necessary for us to be at peace with life. Do be insightful and you will be better at living life. Cheers again.
Brethren one of the prominent religion had shared that man will not be saved by good works alone but by the grace of God. Simply put, our good works alone may not be enough to bring on better blessings but need the grace of heaven to top up our fate to make life even better. Praise the lord. Xie tien xie di. The coin of fate has two sides, and the thunder claps of blessings need two parties - man and heaven. At times, the term "man" includes fellow men. Our brethren can be of help and blessings to us. Do remember that blessings come from three angles - self effort, divine grace and fellow men. Our brethren in various other religions and sects are of blessings to us as well.
Hells and Storms of life do not last
Yes there certainly are bad patches in our lives. When down in such hell patches, we often resign oursleves to fate, a four letter word. Storms do not last and will give way to calm seas of life. Do have faith to help yourself in storms of life and with divine shelter it would be easier to weather the storm. Issue however big will become small issues and big issues will be no issue. Come out of storm of life by helping yourself as self effort is needed. God help those who help themselves. Hell may be long but is not infinite. Even those in so-called eternity of Hell can exit from Hell and be enlightened if they know how. Storms of life are much lesser hell so to speak. Associate with the wise and not the unwise aspects of life and men and you will steer clear of storms (or hells on earth) better and get out of storms instead of being stucked in the eye of the hurricane. Be a blessing to yourself that way. Get divine blessing and the blessings of good wise brethren as well. The trinity of love makes us blessed three fold.
Be pragmattic
Go for life in steps. Go for one level at a time. The difference between one heaven and the next higher heaven is sky wide. Human world is one heaven above animal world. Go for the sky that can have in our own social world. It may not be as lofty as others sky. But it will be heavenly for now. In time we can move on and be in heaven above heaven. There is no stop to how far we can go. But we must take the first few steps. What matters are that first steps. The rest will remain as fantasy if the initial steps are not made. Make the first steps and the rest will have chance to happen. We will be on your way.
Access to God and His saints important in our life
We must know ourselves and know who is God and who is man. Learn from our own life for life unfolds many timeless and invaluable lessons for us to make good even better. Heaven speaks to us through life. Learn not just from our own life but from the lives of our fellow men. But judge not for often we can see the follies of others but fail to see our own. Do not even judge one self and be critical of oneself for that will create poor self -esteem, lack of self love and confidence. Love one self and this is the way to go and to moderate so-called destiny. Only then can we move on and improve our lot or destiny. Only then should we love others. Loving others and not loving ourselves will not be tenable. If we do not have love for ourselves, how can we be effective in loving others as much as we love ourselves? Love is a beautiful four letter word. It fosters vibrancy and energise our life but it must be done with proper insight and not blindly. Only then can winds of change blow in our favor. Only then can we overwhelm our ill fate or karma with good vibrant karmic life force or what some may term good fate.
Look not to others to lend us a shoulder or for more lofty spiritual leadership. No religion has succeeding prophet to follow through the work of the founding prophet. Correct me if this is not true. I need not be correct and that must be the case. There is no intermediary between us and Heaven. We must be our own candle flame to lit up our life with peace and joy. Only God and his saints could shelter the candle flame of our life but we must still tend to our own flame. Only then will our flame grow and glow. We do not depend on other fellow humans for their candle flames to light up our life though our fellow men can help and be blessings of sort. But we must be right and correct in doing so. We do not go overboard and end up going for more shelter from other men, revering and worshipping fellow men when we should depend on the shelter of Heaven and rever and worship Heaven.
To repeat and to drive home more clearly, allow me to reiterate thus. We can have fellowship with others as a collection of candle flames is better than a solitary flame to shine up our life. But we cannot depend on another person's candle flame of life to have wellness be spiritual peace or worldly needs. We must nurture our own flame of life with the shelter of God and his saints.
But do derive strength in group fellowship with others of like mind and who are wise to want to have peace of life despite the trials and tribulations of life. Lord Bo Tien, like all heavenly saints, has advised us that the truth of life shall be our teacher and those who see, know and put into practice the truth see, know and are close to God and to all heavenly saints. We cannot go to God and his saints by buying or procuring an entitlement ticket from any other man even if he is the one who was good enough to bring us the inner truth and to open the way for us to have inner peace and eventual enlightenment.
Incidentally and to digress somnewhat. fellowship, brethren, is not just between men but also between religions and faiths of men. We can reach God via any religion but fellowship and harmony amongst religions will facilitate more to reach God and his saints.
The truth is that we can reach God, redeem our lot and improve our life and fate if we somehow still keen to use this word. We need to remind ourselves that we need to do so on our own as much as we can to avoid crutch mentality. We should not rely on and go through fellow men but we should not forget that group fellowship may still be needed from time to time.
Group fellowship is often needed to give strength. We are like sand particles and can be insignificant. Sand particles can be blown by the wind but when made into integral part of concrete pillar with cement provided by divinity, we can wheather all storms. Putting sand particles together is no use unless we can get the cement of divinity to bind and transform us into pillar to withstand the storms and elements of life of yin and yang. Divine hand is necessary but Heaven bless those who bless themselves and more so if we can be blessings to one another.
Somehow the writer is uncomfortable to advise that we make use of others as crutches for we need to cultivate ourselves well. We need to be primarily strong on our own but can secondarily rely on group strength to augment and to make life and fate better. What is even more important is to tap into divine grace to cement our life and lives as pillar to be unaffected by the storms and elements. That would mean fate will have little effect on our individual life. Cheers ever the more....
In summary the pointers are universal
The above pointers derived from the guidance of lord messenger Lord Bo Tien are common to all faiths and sects. They are not the sole purview of the lord saint. He merely re-explains the simplicity of truth of life which as many sages refer to. We fail to see the true or whole picture because we are too involved and become part of the complex and scenery. We should have overview and see the big picture so as to realise the underlying basic truth that forms the denominator of all religions. We refer to this as the Inner Truth. Also, we are not required to "kowtow" (kneel down and prostrate in veneration) and fear the lord saint or any heavenly saints for that matter. There is really no need for hysterics and over adoration. There is no need to even think that the lord saints like Lord Bo Tien exist. The pointers are there before time and advent of modern religions. They serve to add understanding of inner truth behind fate and life. They serve to strengthen the fibre of immortality or God 'spirit' or inert ' divine energy' in us through any sect, religion and belief so that we can have life not affected or at least less affected by fate and by worldly elements of yin and yang. Cheers once again. Cheers indeed....
Regards
inner truth netizen
