【Description】
What is implied by dreams of our children being involved in accidents? Is it caused by our overthinking or do these dreams really mean something?
In this video, Grandmaster JinBodhi talks about life energy and how merits affect our fate, as well as how to accumulate sufficient merits to forge a good fate.
【You will learn】
- How life energy does not relate to physical strength
- How merits affect fate
- How to transform fate
【Featured aphorisms】
- Real liberation comes from having enough merits.
- Those destined for great wealth are blessed with a wealthy look.
- Life in every environment has its crises; sufficient merits are needed to stay safe from them.
- All blessings come from having sufficient merits.
【Content】
(Q: Three months ago, I had a dream in which my eldest son was going to school on top of a mountain. I went to look for him. Suddenly, there was a horrible landslide. Mud slid down the mountain. I hurriedly pulled my son to take cover, but the mud was pressing down on his chest. In a moment of terror, I woke up.
Then, I had another dream. In the dream, I took my two sons to play by the river. There was a big hill by the river. My younger son was on a skateboard, racing down the hill toward the river. I saw my eldest son chasing after him. Worried that both of them would fall into the river, I ran toward them.
When I got to the riverbank, there were many people gathered. They were yelling that someone had fallen in. I saw someone rescue my younger son. Crying, I removed the chains from his body. However, I did not see my eldest son being rescued. Both dreams involved my eldest son being in danger. What is the dream trying to tell me?)
Dreams are not easy to interpret because they’re illusory. Fatigue, emotions during daytime, and current events can all affect the kind of dreams you have. But when dreams have a particularly strong directive pattern and are especially clear, then we should be more alert.
The first dream was about a landslide pressing on her oldest child’s chest. Then, both sons fell into the river, but only the younger son was rescued. She mentioned taking the chains off her younger son. What does that mean? This can sound a bit eerie, but usually, in Chinese lore, the messengers of hell use chains to escort spirits to the underworld. Does it mean that the child will be taken away in chains?
The even scarier part is that the eldest son is nowhere to be seen. The way she describes the dreams makes me worry about both sons. Being taken away in chains. (Taking off the chains is like wrestling him away from death.) Yes, it seems both of the children’s life energy is very low.
The level of life energy has nothing to do with one’s physical attributes. It doesn’t mean that he won’t grow tall or will lack muscle. There are cases where the person looks strong but suddenly passes away. It’s not uncommon. Life energy is different from physical strength. There are some people who rely on medicine but live to 99. They may be weak in terms of health, but their life energy and genetics enable them to have a long life.
(Q: Grandmaster, is a person’s life energy sustained by their merits?)
Yes, merits and fate are connected, but they are not completely equal to one another. Your merits are the foundation of the good and bad you experience, especially the good. Fate, on the other hand, refers to your whole life course. For example, living to be 128 years old, becoming a billionaire, falling in love 18 times, etc. Fate decides your life achievements and what kind of person you become. That’s fate. Your merits and fate together decide who you are as a person.
But not everyone with a good fate lives to be 128 years old, or falls in love 18 times. Some might pass away at 28, but that doesn’t mean they have a poor fate. They’re fated to die at 28 in this life in order to be reincarnated as a governor elsewhere. In The Earth Store Sutra, the mother of the girl named Bright Eyes was saved by meritorious deeds; her first reincarnation was as a servant girl who died at 13. But after reincarnating once again, she lived to be 100 years old as a practitioner, and was then finally reborn as a Heavenly being.
Our merits and fate are not always equal and in proportion to each other. However, those with greater merits usually have a good fate. If you have a good fate, it typically means health, longevity, wealth, power, love, and smooth family relationships. You’ll have many descendants who are nice, sensible, and successful in career. You will also be successful yourself; this is an example of good fate.
However, as we discussed earlier, regarding that dream, from my understanding, it is indeed not very auspicious. There is no exact reason, I can only say you need to accumulate more merits for your children. That’s the only solution. Usually, when disaster comes, I can’t just use a sword or spell to fight it off and then you’ll be saved forever. All results are short-term. Real salvation comes from having enough merits. So, if you truly want to be liberated, you need to basically change your fate, which is not easy.
I’ve seen people planning to make big money or get their company to go public. I advised them to do more good deeds and gain merits. They thought I was joking and didn’t believe me. Then looking at them and their fate, I knew that they weren’t blessed enough to have such a large company, earning them such a vast amount of wealth. They didn’t have that “look.” Do all rich people have a certain look? Yes, those destined for great wealth are blessed with the looks indicating they can bear such wealth.
The result was that after a couple years, they got their company listed and made money, only to be scammed clean by others. It’s just like on the show Animal Planet. The ocean is not a fish tank with only tame and cute fish. Can your pet fish survive in the ocean? It’ll most likely get eaten by something bigger. So I’m just saying that you’ll face crises in life, in every environment. It’s not something that can be resolved through dharma powers; it requires a certain amount of merits to match.
With a foundation of merits, we may achieve longevity, a happy marriage, wealth, and maybe good children. These blessings must come with a support, there’s no simple spell you can just cast to achieve it. Accumulating merits is the only way to make us and our family blessed with health, auspiciousness, longevity, and peace.