There Is a Reason You Became Who You Are Today

📖Master’s Reading

Worldly fate seems unfair: some are born rich, some toil from childhood; some are healthy and smooth, some pass through hardship. We cannot help envying others, even grieving and complaining: "Why is he so fortunate and we so poor?" Yet from the view of cause and effect, none of it is heaven's favoritism. The Rinpoche points out profoundly: "No one becomes a person for no reason; there must be a factor." That you came here to become the present you must have a cause.

The kind of family we are born into, the starting point we hold, are in fact all determined by the merit and karma of past lives. With insufficient merit, one naturally lacks the fortune to be reborn into a wealthy home; if there were debts in the past, this life meets setbacks to repay them. No circumstance in life is without cause; the present you is the accumulated result of countless past arising thoughts and choices.

If you only stay in envy and complaint, unwilling to change old habits, the course of destiny keeps repeating. True practice is bravely facing and earnestly understanding your own particular "lesson." Rather than envy another's script, learn to calmly accept your own starting point. When you no longer complain and are willing to mend past gaps in the present, striving to change yourself and accumulate merit, you take back the lead of life and create a wholly different future.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• Understand that worldly circumstances are not heaven's favoritism.
• Accept that the present starting point is all determined by cause and effect.
• Stop envy and complaint; bravely face your lesson.
• Mend the gap in the present and take the lead of life again.
• Accept your present starting point; mending the gap creates the future.