Do you truly believe in destiny?

Like many people,
I used to perceive life as more or less fated:
I thought we were somehow destined
to walk a certain path,
to meet certain people, and
to settle at certain places...

My baseless prejudice on destiny
was thoroughly challenged and renewed
when I was recommended by Venerable Chin Kung
to read this amazing book,
"Liao Fan's Four Lessons" (了凡四训).

This is the book that shakened
the very 'fundamental' of
my past excuses
for not making adequate effort
to make changes in life,
to pursue my dreams and
to treasure what I already had.

Liao Fan's Four Lessons
is an autobiography of
Mr Yuan Liao Fan, a 16th century Chinese.
He wrote this book, in the hope that,
it will serve as a legacy to his son,
by teaching him
how to change the fate of a person,
like how Liao Fan successfully changed his.

In this book, he detailed on
how his every aspect of life,
initially seemed to be accurately
predicted by a Taoist monk,
gradually got transformed
when he cultivated true kindness
and accumulated tremendous merits
from his good deeds.

I was fascinated with Liao Fan's advice
after reading.
My first impression then was:
How easy it is to reform my life
by cultivating kindness and do a lot of good deeds :D

This is how Liao Fan inspired
the path I have been endeavoring
in the past few years,
untiredly doing a lot volunteering
and contributing constructive values
to my family, relatives, friends and society.

Do read this book slowly,
line by line, word by word,
with great sincerity.
In between the lines, one will gather enough
wisdom and motivation
to reform one's life!


With metta,
Kee Yew

p/s: watch Liao Fan movie here :)
.