When I was reading "Historical Records" many years ago, I noticed that Tai Shigong raised this question: Why are some good people not rewarded? Tai Shigong was puzzled. It wasn't until I came into contact with Buddhism that I discovered that it could be explained by "causality in three lifetimes". It is obvious that during the Western Han Dynasty, Tai Shigong did not come into contact with or accept this idea. Traditional scholars have always believed that "the way of heaven has no relatives and always associates with good people" and "influence between heaven and man", and do not believe in fate.
I read Jiang Xiaoyuan's "The True Origin of Heavenly Learning" some time ago. The book divides astrology into 1. Military astrology and 2. Birth astrology.
Traditional Chinese astrology is 1. Military astrology, which is used to predict military and state affairs. Because under the idea of ??"reception between heaven and man", only the king can communicate with heaven, so the celestial phenomena change. What is reflected is the emperor's family affairs and has nothing to do with ordinary people, unless someone wants to rebel.
However, astrology in the West, including India, is 2. Birth astrology, which is to use the celestial phenomena at the time of birth to predict the destiny of a person's life. Anyone, whether royal or common people, can establish relationships with the celestial phenomena. connect. This idea was introduced to China along with Buddhism, and gave birth to Chinese eight-character fortune telling in the Tang Dynasty. This contains a kind of "fateful" thought for ordinary life. Because the celestial phenomena are certain when you are born, your destiny is determined. This kind of thinking was almost non-existent in China before the Tang Dynasty. Here I will analyze it from the perspective of magic.
The so-called Shushu is also called Shushu. "Shu" refers to Qi numbers and numerology, and Shushu is the method of calculating Qi numbers. The language used is the Ganzhi Bagua and the Twenty-eight Constellations.
"Three Styles" is the oldest magic number, and it is said that they all originated in the Huangdi period. The "Three Styles" are Taiyi Shenshu, Qimen Dunjia, and Da Liuren. They are all deduced using the "Shipan", so they are named. All three are related to astronomical phenomena, and their essence can be said to be astrology.
The Taiyi divine number mainly predicts national events, such as the quality of harvest, wind, rain and drought, war, famine, and the rise and fall of chaos.
Qi Men Dun Jia mainly predicts war situations, such as where to attack and where to retreat.
Da Liuren mainly predicts personnel affairs, such as divination of ancestral property, family home, marriage, wealth and other matters.
The scope of the "three formulas" may be large or small, but their common characteristics are all calculating "things" rather than "fate". In other words, there is no fatalistic thought. Miraculously, the results of the divination tests are consistent with traditional ethics and morals. For example, a friend was having various troubles, and I guessed the cause. I guessed that it was caused by confusion in the relationship between men and women. However, this is indeed the case, and it is obvious that this is not in line with traditional morality. Therefore, there is a saying that "He who is good at Yi cannot predict", which means that if you understand the true connotation of Yi (part of ethics and morality), you will naturally know the good or bad of something. This sentence is particularly obvious in "Zuo Zhuan".
Tradition holds that both emperors and ordinary people should follow the laws of heaven and ethics. The consequences of not following them will be auspicious and evil for the emperor, and will be misfortunes and blessings for ordinary people. The prediction results of the "Three Forms" are exactly the reflection of this direction. But some facts reflect that "the outcome is still bad even if ethics and morals are followed." This is the reason for Tai Shigong's doubts.
The ancient name of Feng Shui is geography, the principle of earth. It is mainly for the site selection and construction of the yin house, but also involves the location and decoration of the yang house.
In the preface of the "Xie Ji Bian Shu" compiled in the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong wrote: Those who work in the Xie Ji and Bian Fang should respect the rules of heaven and the rules of the earth, and stop and speak silently every time. , the reality of heaven and earth comes, how big it is. For example, if you say: If so, it will be good, if so, it will be bad, if so, it will be blessing, if so, it will be misfortune, this is the way to understand. Although between respect and disrespect, good and bad fortune will follow.
The general idea is that the art of choosing auspiciousness in Feng Shui is to imitate the heaven and earth. It does not mean that doing this will definitely be auspicious, and doing that will definitely be unlucky. The reason for doing this is to respect the way of heaven. Since the way of respecting heaven must be accompanied by good luck.
From this we can see that Feng Shui and auspicious selection are also based on the idea of ????"reaction between heaven and man" that is permeated with respect for heaven and earth. The main reason is to make choices in order to conform to the way of heaven, not just for the sake of auspiciousness.
As mentioned earlier, astrology that uses the celestial phenomena at birth to predict life's destiny is called "birth astrology." This kind of astrology did not exist in my country before the Tang Dynasty. With the introduction of the Indian Seven-Year Technique, this typical "birth astrology" was introduced but not widely spread because it linked celestial phenomena with the fate of ordinary people. In ancient China, things were considered treasonous and unethical. But ordinary people also have the desire to explore their own destiny, so the eight-character fortune telling came into being.
As the name suggests, eight-character fortune telling is to use eight characters to predict destiny. The so-called eight characters are the person's birthday time expressed by the stem and branch timing method. For example, Wang Yangming's eight characters are [Renchen, Xinhai, Guihai, Guihai], which respectively represent the year, month, day and time. This kind of fortune-telling skillfully avoids the royal taboo of real celestial phenomena. It contains a complete fatalistic thought. The good or bad fortune of a person's life is entirely determined by his birthday and cannot be changed. Fatalistic forecasting techniques have an obvious tendency to dislike the poor and love the rich, because under this kind of thinking, poverty is unchangeable, so what if I dislike you.
Personally I don’t like this fatalism.
Considering the introduction of Indian Qi Yao and the creation time of Bazi, this fortune telling should be influenced by the fatalism of birth astrology. Although Indian ideas were introduced to China along with Buddhism, fatalism is not the purpose of Buddhism.
Buddhism talks about cause and effect in three lives. If you plant causes in the past life, you will get the results in this life. If you plant causes in this life, you will get the results in the next life.
If we only look at this life, are the experiences in this life unchangeable? It is true that most of them cannot be changed, because the causes planted in the previous life will surely bear the fruit in this life. This force is called karma, and its power is so powerful that most people find it difficult to resist. Unless he makes a great vow to do good deeds, such as the famous layman Yuan Liaofan, his good deeds are enough to be rewarded in the next life. Because the good deeds are too great, they also affect this life in advance, so his destiny in this life will also be improved accordingly.
The problem of Tai Shigong can be solved by the cause and effect of three generations. If we only look at the cause and effect of one life, it really cannot be explained.
Looking back at the "reception between heaven and man" and ethics and morality, they have absolutely positive significance for improving destiny. For ordinary people, although there is not much involvement in "reception between heaven and man", they should follow ethics and morals, that is, respect heaven. Many people think Buddhism is very negative, which is completely a misunderstanding. In fact, Buddhism is very active, active in learning, and active in doing good deeds, so that its disciples should not be greedy for the happiness of meditating and entering concentration, but should take action.
In short, we should respect heaven and law, abide by ethics and morals, firmly believe in the truth of cause and effect, study diligently, and do good deeds.
As for fatalism, it is just the self-comfort of those who are unable to change their destiny.
The ethics and morals formulated by the sages are consistent with the cause and effect of the three generations of Buddhism. Their goals are the same, which is to persuade people: Do not do evil and practice good deeds.
The above are actually worldly laws, and Buddhism has a higher pursuit.
Buddhism believes that even if a person is very blessed, he will also have a lot of suffering. Just like movement and stillness are relative, pain and joy are also relative. Where there is pleasure, there must be pain.
There are eight sufferings in life: the suffering of birth, the suffering of old age, the suffering of illness, the suffering of death, the suffering of resentment and hatred, the suffering of separation from love, the suffering of not being able to obtain what you want, and the suffering of the five aggregates of clinging.
Based on the view that life is inherently painful, the Buddha not only talked about the cause and effect of the three lives, but also pointed out how to escape from the circle of reincarnation. Human nature is pure and unsullied, and there is no reincarnation. However, people will have delusions. If they have delusions, they will act, create karma, and plant seeds. In this way, when they die, they will be reborn under the pull of karma, and the six paths will be fulfilled. Reincarnation has no end. The key to the problem is having delusions. How to tame your heart and avoid delusions is what the entire Diamond Sutra teaches.
Human life is rare, and among the six realms only humans have the facility to hear and learn the Dharma. The hell realm has been tortured and there is no leisure, the animal realm has poor wisdom, the hungry ghost realm and the asura realm have too much anger, and the heavenly realm has too much enjoyment. However, after suffering all the blessings of the heavenly realm, one will still fall back to other realms. Therefore, only humanity is easy to listen to and learn.
"If you don't cultivate the Tao after attaining a human body, it will be like entering a treasure mountain and returning empty-handed." Only by working hard can you live up to your integrity.