There was an old retired professor who liked to hang out with Asian students in the campus. He was a sixty-plus-former-athletic-turned-to-physics-professor with a keen interest in spiritualism and astrology. Whether rain, shine or snow, he always carried this back pack, wore solid boots and walked all over the campus, appearing to the student dinning hall every day precisely at the same time. He would find his corner among the Asian students who were the poorest in their ability to communicate in English. He had this habit, whenever there was someone new, to ask their birth details and would give him/her a hand written astrological report within next few days. As though proving a hypothesis in physics, he would lay out his readings step by step in such a detail that he had fairly good reputation for his accuracy.
Soon after I started to appear in the dining hall as a new student, he asked my birth details and I got my report also. It was my first exposure with any kinds of astrology or occult reading that which was astonishing. How would he know about me so well of the facts that I wasn’t even aware? He wrote about my characters, inclinations, past, unhappy home life including mother, father, siblings, and other things with some future prediction. I started to be curious about how he did that rather than being flattered by the prediction that was quite optimistic. Not long after that, I met then-my-future husband Lee who was a Chinese Medicine physician living just outside of the campus. I was having some health trouble and my classmate referred me to him. As it turned out, he himself was an avid seeker of ancient knowledge like Taoism, Hinduism, anything else that is mysterious and esoteric including Western and Indian astrology.
As I shared my experience with the written astrology report, he recommended me to do a more professional reading by his good friend, Doug Adams. We arranged a personal one-to-one meeting which lasted for 2 hours with our conversation, questions and answers were being tape recorded for future reference. It was even more interesting than the written report. I wanted to learn that astrology. Lee knew some basics of Indian astrology and he offered me to teach it for free (of course, he had other intention as well). As I was to find out later, Doug had told Lee after our meeting that I might be his future wife! Doug knew of Lee’s astrological details and Lee was waiting for his wife to appear as it was about the time that was predicted. Sure, I was to become his wife but I didn’t know about the behind story between him and his astrologer friend. It was much later, after we become close, that Lee shared with me what was predicted about his life and wife not only by Doug but also by other astrologers from India.
It turned out that I was much intuitive and quick in grasping the language of stars beyond Lee’s ability. So I pursued it further by taking other courses and eventually met my astrology teacher Mr. K.N Rao. I learned it fast and started to do the readings for friends with fare rates of accuracy. However along the way, I started to notice of what people expect from astrologers and I disliked it. They didn’t want to know anything bad but only good and extraordinary. They didn’t like to wait and work harder to make good things happen. Instead they demanded to have everything almost immediately in the way they want it. They came to astrologers not to learn how to improve their life but to hear about what good is waiting without them doing much effort. I could not disappoint them or be harsh. I sugar coated anything negative in soft tone; to accept what was inevitable in the past as life lessons and to work toward future with patience and effort to get what they want out of their life. And yet with the limitation to fully express of what I see from their birth charts as how it might affect their psychic in positive or negative ways, and yet with the people’s absurd expectation to be special regardless of what they deserve, I started to wane away from doing astrology reading further.
Then I came to learn about Western astrology in where you don’t have to predict but can do very good psychology readings. It helped me to understand myself in more humanistic angle than Indian astrology that is more definitive about our selves and our past, present or future life. There was another important lesson came together to put all this together to make the picture more complete, the Liao Fan’s Four Lessons on how to change our astrological destiny. It is a true story that solved my predicament in knowing astrology that seems fixed and the role of spiritual cultivation in changing what seems to be fixed. Karma definitely exists but we had choice to be influenced or not. We had choice to choose our life as suffering or bliss. For that, we needed to cultivate our wisdom muscles to be able to make the wise choices every time, and accumulate merits to get what we want and to revert what we don’t want out of life.
Some say Western astrology advocates free will and choices of life, whereas Indian astrology is all about the fixed destiny that has no way escaping from it, thereby encouraging people to adopt fatalist approach toward life. Astrology is not about fate but is about destiny that we have the power to alter it by making wise choices rather than blindly believing or accepting. When we see life in terms of fate operating according to the karmic function, the laws of cause and effect, then, it seems to be life is more of fixture rather than fluid. That means we don’t have control but to accept because we are the victims of whatever is happening regardless of whether be good or bad, like it or not. There are some lucky ones who seem to have it all breezing through life with ease while many others suffer miserably from constant strings of misfortune one after another. How do we make sense out of that because it certainly looks unfair as no one wants to suffer misfortunes but to enjoy good luck and the best of all life has to offer?
The truth is, not by some luck or misfortune, but by how we choose it to be, that our life become how it is today. In every moment, life presents us with variety of choices to make, ranging from as simple as choosing brands for grocery or clothes to more weighty ones like what to study, what kinds of job, house or cars to get, love or commitment to marriages, etc, there are as many other choices as we can think of to make. We constantly face dilemma in various life situation, not because the issues are difficult to handle but because we are not sure what to choose from the multiple options available out there. People often turn to religious authority, counselors, occultists or astrologers to get the answer when they are confused. They are afraid of making choices their own not because it is difficult but because of what we might miss out if you choose one for another (nice term for it “kiasu”). It is a fact that we can’t have everything in life, then, we have to know what we are willing to give to gain another. To find out that answer, we have to search within, not without. Parents, friends, teachers, spouses or children, they are all part of it but not everything in life. No matter how significant their roles might be, they cannot substitute the inner voice in leading our life in the way we want it to be. We need to tune into our inner voice, to listen and be clear with the priorities in our life. So that we can make conscious decision in every step of the way and become fully responsible for whatever the outcomes are.
When we are clear with what we want, then it really doesn’t matter whatever we choose to become in life, a busy businessman who amasses fortune but don’t have time to enjoy, or a fisherman who enjoys leisurely peaceful life but poor. Each choice comes with pros and cons. We just need to be aware of what each path entails and consciously choose according to our tendency. If you are an active and zealous person who can’t stay still, then it will be better to be like the businessman. If you are a solitude loving person with very simple needs, then becoming like the fisherman will brings you more happiness. Conflicts happen when either of them trying to impose each other’s preference to another. The businessman can never be happy in the fisherman’s shoes, so is the fisherman. Let others be their own way while you live in your own way. We don’t have to be uniform in the way of living and pursuing. Diversity amongst millions different kinds of forms and name and tendency are what make the universe unique. Its intrinsic beauty, diversity in infinite stretch of time and space, the universe keeps on rolling to exist in eternity. Our body in the present is the transient holder of our soul that exists within the same wave patterns of this vast universe. How do we know what we will become of when this body perishes or born again in another body in next life. They are all nothing but speculation. Our concern is knowing what we have and how we are made of, for which astrology can give good insights into it. And then move on to make this life fuller and more complete by cultivating wisdom and merits, instead of eyeing over the other side and keep hesitating or regretting over how it could have been different. Time has wings to fly and our karma comes around to catch up with us unless we do something about by doing goods and make efforts to turn about in our favor. The best is knowing that you will get your turn, work toward what you aspire to become in life with compassion and patience while being content but can be better with the person you are at the moment. Happiness is always around the corner.
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