Description
The Four Essays On Karma covers the real life story of Yuen Liao Fan, a man born during the late Ming dynasty period of the 1600s. He tells his own life story of how he had his fortune told with incredible accuracy. This caused him to become nihilistic, thinking that everything is predestined, so why worry about anything if the future is already set? A chance encounter with a Buddhist master who introduces him to the practices of the great Cundi Buddha Mother and the paramita of dana changes his life and he sets out to write his own destiny.
Considered an important text on the law of cause and effect, his own account of his progression through the various grades of Imperial Court service until obtaining a high rank are backed up by the court records of the time – such a person did indeed exist, and did keep getting promoted, just as this book recounts. Whilst the court records document that his achievements are true, this book is where he tells how he did it, and gives detailed instructions on what are neccessary to make one’s efforts have the result desired. It gives an illuminating testimony to the power of Chinese divination and fortune telling practices for exploring one’s fate, as well as of the power of mantra and doing good deeds.
We all know that doing good deeds is part of accumulating good karma, but when is it truly good? If a someone does something good in the hopes of looking good, whilst still doing wrong, will that generate them good karma? What difference does it make if the deed is known or hidden from others? With many such tantalising questions are explored by someone who went there with all of them and wrote his lived experience to tell others how to do well.
Download this translated version of this brilliant text as a pdf here. The pdf is free and you’ll be emailed a download link upon completing checkout.
