Extracted from the website of Buddhist Vajrayana Charity Funds Association and translated (天意如此) into English:
Predetermined by Heaven's Intent |
Rinpoche gave this discourse on 20th August 1995 |
Uploaded to website on 7th November 2014 (after about 19 years) |
Introduction
Is there such a matter as ‘Predetermined by Heaven's Intent’? If so, how ‘grim’ would it be as a human being? Or perhaps, there is really a dominant force within the Universe?
Contents | |
1. | Who makes the decision on ‘Abilities of organisms, creatures, materials or products to compete in the struggle for existence by Natural Selection’ in nature? The inferior animals or the animals with high mortality rate must have strong reproductive power. What is the determining factor? |
2. | Some animals that have a high mortality rate soon after birth, often have shocking reproductive power when it comes to reproduction. Certain types of fish can reproduce tens of millions of baby fish in one go; although the mortality rate is high, there are bound to be some that slip through the net and hence avoid the chance of extinction of their breed. |
3. | Should those animals of the higher form, like lions and tigers, have the same reproductive power, it would be disastrous and human beings would be long extinct. |
4. | Small animals that lack defence abilities naturally have instinctive 'camouflage'. Whose idea is this? |
5. | Animals, insects, etc. that can rely on their genetic codes to enable the survival of generation after generation, is such a wonderful and intriguing matter. |
6. | The Universe and the Stars are arranged in such orderly formation and the ecology of nature is also wonderfully balanced. Is it really ‘Predetermined by Heaven's Intent’? |
Conclusion | |
1. | Anyone who does not believe in fate (fortune-telling); who does not understand divination; and who does not have any religious beliefs, as long as he has passed a certain stage in life, no matter whether one has experienced much adversity or not, should still feel that there are a lot of matters which seem to have been predetermined a long time ago. (Postscript: Actually, it is the Cause & Effect, Fate and Link that dominate this phenomenon.) |
2. | What is the ratio between humans with high level of wisdom and those with low level of knowledge?
What is the ratio between people who learn Buddhism and those who manage to attain Buddha status? Haven’t these already been prearranged? |
There are many sentient beings, many lost soul, many of those who have been taken advantage of and even more of those who are selfish and harmful to others. Is this ‘Predetermined by Heaven's Intent’? |
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Although there are plenty of mishaps and sufferings among sentient beings in the world, Bodhisattvas diligently commit to cultivate the Great Compassion Practice within the six realms; hence, Bodhisattvas do not see the faults of sentient beings. | |
3. | One learns Buddhism and does it badly, how many of those have learned it well? Is this 'Predetermined by Heaven's Intent'? |
4. | There are so few Buddhist followers who manage to achieve success, how can one find those higher form living creatures (denote Bodhisattvas)? If one fails to find them, is this ‘Predetermined by Heaven's Intent’? |