When people talk about Life Reading, the preconceived idea is that a person’s life path is already fixed and any reading done is just to reveal what you are here on Earth for and you just need to follow through your whole life as what the reader says. This is an absolute wrong view.

In one of my past blog posts, I mentioned about the difference between destiny and fate and how you actually are the driver of your life.

Here I would like to elaborate this idea with a line quoted from a Qing dynasty writing and has been spread and circulated till today especially in the Metaphysics field on the factors that can determine one’s life quality and experiences. In other words, these are also the main factors that can have the power to change one’s life.

The line goes like this in Chinese:

“一命二运三风水四修阴德五读书六名七相八敬神九交贵人十养生”

In English it says:

“One Destiny, Two Luck, Three Fengshui, Four Secret Acts of Kindness, Five Education, Six Build Reputation, Seven Improve Physical Appearance, Eight Respect Forces of Nature, Nine Befriend the Good, Ten Health Maintenance”

Here are my short elaborations on each of these factors in reverse order.

Ten, Health Maintenance

Without the body, nothing can be accomplished. Without health, all possessions, attachments, attainments such as career, wealth, fame, relationships meant nothing.

Health is one of the major pillars in one’s life. It is important to take care of your own health and body as in return, the body will take good care of you and let you experience what life has to offer. Without health, no matter how good and comfortable the external environment you are put in, you still have to endure the internal suffering brought by illnesses and diseases. A life without good health is sometimes comparable to living hell.

Therefore taking care of your health is one factor that will steer your life towards the better.

Nine, Befriend the Good

Friendships and the company you mix with play an integral role in shaping his or her identity. This is because as human beings we feed off of each other’s energies, thoughts, dreams and even differences.

Friends shape your values, influence your attitude towards life, impact the quality of your decisions and encourage independence. Therefore friends do have a heavy influence on the person you will become, as well as your life’s path. So it goes without saying that you should choose your friends wisely and befriend the good.

Eight, Respect Forces of Nature

We as human beings are part of Nature. Our body energies follow the ebbs and flow of the universal energies. Nature influences and nourishes our body. Therefore respecting and taking care of Nature is equivalent to respecting and taking care of ourselves.

Failure to do so will result in the destruction of Nature which has deep impact on our body, our lives and future generations to come. Examples of not respecting the forces of nature are pollution of the environment, engaging in practices that are against nature such as cloning or even simply leading a lifestyle that is not following the body clock of the body and the seasonal changes of Nature.

By respecting the forces of nature, we learn to go with the flow and flourish with life instead of fighting against life.

Seven, Improve Physical Appearance

There is a metaphysical saying called “相由心生”. In translation, it means one’s appearance is formed through his or her thoughts or emotions.

Therefore your external physical appearance can be a reflection and representation of your internal world. So by changing your physical appearance, it can have an impact on your internal world as well.

As a matter of fact, changing or improving your life is actually an inner work of changing perspectives. Therefore, improving physical appearance can have the effect of uplifting your moods, emotions and the deep reverberating impact of changing your perspectives and ultimately bettering your life.

Six, Build Reputation

Reputation determines the social standing of a person in the society. It is a measure of your influence and your ability to provide more value for others.

When you are able to give more, you will receive more in return for all aspects of your life.

When you build a positive reputation, you attract better people which will influence you and guide you to be involved in experiences that will bring about positive impact on your life.

Five, Education

Education empowers people to rise out of poverty as they become equipped with valuable skills necessary for gaining employment.

Education supports a person’s ability to enact specific changes and catalyse wider capacity for personal growth, transformation and creativity.

Education changes perspectives towards life.

Education is one of the most powerful weapons -- it can change people, communities, entire nations and the future of humanity.

Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Four, Secrets Acts of Kindness

The Universe works by the Law of Cause and Effect. What you give out comes back to you, multiplied and folded over.

By doing acts of kindness in secret, we eliminate the factor of doing it out of personal agenda for recognition or pride. We remove the ego in doing so and inculcate selflessness which is one of the key ingredients for happiness – the whole point of changing life for the better.

Three, Fengshui

Since the earliest times, humans have needed to be sensitive to their surroundings to survive, which means that we have an innate awareness of our environment and seek out environments with certain qualities.

The environment can influence mood. The environment can influence people’s behaviour and motivation to act. The environment can facilitate or discourage interactions among people and the subsequent benefits of social support.

Feng shui is the science of altering the environment to improve its effect on a person and definitely his life.

Two, Luck

Luck here in Metaphysics is about Timing. When the time is here, everything will be aligned for us just like the wind blowing in the direction of our ship. You will meet the right people with the right abilities in the right place at the right time.

Although it seems like this factor cannot be controlled by us, it is actually predetermined as it is calculated based on the elemental make up of the person at birth and we simply do a mathematical projection to ‘predict’ what may occur. But this Luck is not given to the person by the Universe or some other Higher Power out there. It is due to the past actions, thoughts and intentions of the person with that elemental makeup that results in such potential occurrences.

Therefore this Luck is not by chance. It is created by you.

One, Destiny

Some parts of life have been predetermined at the point of birth, such as the land and family that one is born into, the body constitution that one has, the physical appearances and features. Although it seems like destiny is indeed out of our control, there is more to destiny than a mere predetermined course of events that we cannot influence or change.

In fact, a part of our destiny is the energy that we inherit from our parents and other ancestors, which enters our bodies through the ‘gate’ closely related to the Kidneys. This is how information is transferred through generations, how our bodies reflect our ancestors and how we can carry emotions of our ancestors in our lives without really knowing what triggers them or where they came from. Similarly, it is also possible that certain knowledge or skills can be transferred from distant past, mysteriously skipping several generations.

For example if your ancestor was taken as prisoner-of-war or grew up in wartimes, the inherited traumas and associated feelings of paranoia, hopelessness, anxiety, shock, anger, grief may be transferred to the descendants like you.

Another part of the destiny are actions and deeds that one has done in the past which have their effects reverberated till this life that you are born into. For example if you have done lots of good in the past, the effects of these actions can ripen in the current lifetime or even future lifetimes depending on when the conditions are fulfilled and right. That is also the reason why some people may be born with a silver spoon while some may be born in a harsh environment.

Therefore Destiny, how predetermined it seems, is actually created by you as well.

What You Do Now Determines Your Life

As you can see, I have analyzed the ten factors that can determine one’s life quality and experiences and have the power to change one’s life.

The last eight of the ten factors can all be executed right now if you really want to better your life. This means you already hold 80% of the power to make your life better. It is a matter of whether you are aware of them and if you are ready to do it. Therefore to say that your life is destined to be in a certain way is erroneous.

You always have the control to change the course of your life for the better, or the worse.

And for the first two factors (Destiny and Luck), they are in fact also created by you for the future you or by the past you for the current you. You always get to decide what kind of life you will get by what you do now. Any Life path reading or Bazi Reading only brings awareness to what may come. This awareness gives you the power to take charge of your life, not to surrender to it.

What you do now determines your life. What you do not do now also determines your life.