Question: I've been listening to your talks on Changing Destiny and reading how Yuan Liaofan was able to change his destiny by practicing good deeds. Why was he able to change his future when so many other good people have not been able to?
Response: Excellent question! Having had his future predicted and then having seen it unfold exactly as he had been told it would, Yuan Liaofan gradually quit worrying about what would happen to him. He already knew! So he planned and worried less and less, and began to practice meditation. One day, he sat in meditation for three days with a Zen master who asked how he was able to do this. Yuan Liaofan honestly replied that since he already knew what would happen there was no need to think about it.
The Zen master said that Yuan Liaofan had done nothing to change his future. To this Yuan Liaofan replied that he didn't know he could! So the master taught him how to change his future for the better by performing good deeds.
Since Yuan Liaofan was so good at focusing his thoughts, when he did a good deed he sincerely focused on helping the beneficiary of the good deed. As his good fortune increased, he and his wife did not enjoy their good fortune, rather they passed it on to others through their good deeds.
So, first, Yuan Liaofan's ability to control his thoughts enabled him to not think of himself or of self-benefit when he was acting to help others. Many people do not have his ability to do this, or perhaps even realize how important it is that they do so. It also gave him the ability to not be distracted from performing the good deeds. He and his wife did not decide to take a day off from their dedication to helping others. They were so dedicated that they both counted how many good deeds they had done that day. And they did this every day.
Second, as Yuan Liaofan's good fortune increased, he and his wife passed it on to others instead of enjoying it themselves. This in turn, further increased their good fortune to such a degree that their lives improved in their current lifetime.
Yuan Liaofan, who was not destined to sit for the imperial exams, ended up passing the county and regional examinations, and then placed ninth in the provincial examination. He received promotions far above what he had been destined to receive. He died at seventy-four when he was supposed to die at fifty-three. He and his wife had two sons when they had been destined to be childless. It is rare to have someone change their destiny this soon and so dramatically.
Third, we actually never know how people are changing their lives because we do not have the ability to know what those lives were supposed to be like. For all we know, the people we think are not currently reaping the benefits of their self-sacrifice may well be doing so. Perhaps what they were supposed to endure was to have been even more difficult.
Our difficulty in sorting out causality and destiny is that we see such a tiny portion of reality. We cannot remember the past nor see into the future. But at the very least we do know how we feel when we do something wrong or something good. So even if someone is still unsure of destiny, much less of changing it, we can still decide how we want to feel for the rest of the day.