Many things in this world find neither an answer nor a proper explanation. For example, why should two become a couple among the billions of people on earth? Why dont they love each other even though they live together everyday, and yet one of them falls in love with someone else at the first sight? Why do the members of a family quarrel daily but still stay unhappily together? Why cant they get married in spite of the fact that they are a perfect match to each other? Why should one toil so much for the other? Why should the love-infatuated always be deserted by the heartless?.....
People remain puzzled in spite of their great effort to understand the endless questions, so they invented the all-embracing word---predestination. In order to be more precise, different combinations were derived from it: love predestination, sinful predestination, evil predestination, and kind predestination etc., hence we have the sayings like: Predestination will definitely bring you together despite the great distance while without predestination, youll never know each other even though you are standing fact to face A distant couple is tied up with the thread of predestination and even the phrases and expressions like the god of marriage, predestination without luck, luck without predestination, Coming across each other is a kind of predestination, Enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road, They shall not marry each other unless they are predestined lovers. If people still can not find answers, they turn to reincarnation for help. Lin Daiyu is always in tears just for repaying for the water Jia Baoyu had given her when she was a plant in her previous life in A Dream of the Red Mansions .
In fact, the so-called predestination is often a kind of coincidence or chance encounter, even a kind of accident. If you dont meet this person, youll surely meet some one else. But people insist on adding some colors of emotions or superstition, thus generating various religious factions, the main theories of which are no more than that of reincarnation, heaven and hell and the ever-lasting soul etc.
But does anyone know anything about his previous life or his after life? What could he do even if he knew them? If he cant grasp the present life, whats the benefit of commenting on the visionary after life? Giving up today is the same as giving up tomorrow, for they are closely connected. How absurd it is to work like the horse or cattle in the present life in order to be above others in the next life.
Have you ever seen emperor Qinshihuang reincarnate? Have you ever heard of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty going into another life? Where is now Monk Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty (What we know is the Big Wild Goose Pagoda)? Where is the Monkey King (The Flower and Fruit Mountain does exist, though)? And where can we find those great emperors such as Yao , Shun Yu and the influential philosophers like Confucius, Laozi and Zhuangzi?
How many heavens do we find? Are they also divided into the oriental and the occidental world? Is God a Chinese or westerner? Which is the greatest religion among Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, Catholicity and Islamism? All religions advocate doing good deeds and not killing, but why do they keep contending against each other, even fighting and killing among themselves? Is the paradise the same one in all religions? Theres only one sun in the sky, and there should be only one emperor in a country, but do all religions believe in the same God, or do they have different gods of their own? If all of us expected Gods help, wouldnt God be too busy and too tired?
Does God respect science? If not, why does he allow computers and telecommunications to run rampant? If it is God who created human beings, then doesnt He feel out of control of what the human being are doing now (the nuclear weapons and bio-chemical weapons, etc.)?
We human beings have an origin, and is it the same with God? Does God get married? Is God hereditary, or is it the same ever-lasting one?
We have all those questions but who can answer them?.
Predestination needs us to strive for; friendship needs us to maintain; good will needs us to treasure and future needs us to create. There is no Savior, nor Goddess of Mercy who once saved people in the past but cannot do anything to help the people at the present. The world is developing too fast.
People have to work together and associate with each other. Talking about predestination, its just a kind of explanation about what has happened, and Im afraid nobody can predict it before hand. From ancient times till the 1980 s, once getting married, the couple had to stick to each other for their whole life. Can we say it is because of their life-long predestination? It is just because of the marriage system. In the western countries, life-long marriage is rare. Can we say it is because their predestination makes it so? It is actually the result of human nature. The color of love could be attached to predestination, but not the color of superstition.
Predestination is a lovely word which we should treasure and respect. In the present world, we should always follow the win-win or multi-win policy, instead of being single-handed. In order to achieve success, we must gain mass support instead of indulging in self-admiration. We might as well call the communication, the cooperation, the common concerns and the common aspirations of human beings predestination.
Translated by Zhang Baodan
中文
人世间有许多东西即没有答案，也解释不清。例如几十亿的人类，为什么就你们俩结为夫妻？为什么天天在一起没感情，素不相识的会一见钟情？为什么一家人会天天吵架，又吵而不散？为什么看去很般配的又不能结为连理？为什么一个为另一个付出的太多？为什么多情总被无情弃？……
百思不得其解，于是人们创造了缘这个包罗万象、包容万物的词汇。为了左右逢缘，人们又派生了情缘、孽缘、善缘 、恶缘等几大支脉。诸如：有缘千里来相会，无缘[你阅读的文章来自:]对面不相识，千里姻缘一线牵，甚至还创造了月下佬、有缘无份、有份无缘、相逢即是缘，冤家路窄，不是冤家不聚头等。再解释不通，那就求助于前生后世了。连林黛玉流泪都是为了还前世欠贾宝玉的浇灌之情。
其实所谓缘份，经常是一种巧合、偶遇，甚至误打误撞。你不遇到这个人，你也会遇到别的人。但人们执意将其加上感情色彩，甚至迷信色彩。由此竟引出了无数的宗教门派。其主要理论无非是前生后世之说，天堂地狱之说，和精神不灭之说。
可是前生谁知道？知道又怎样？后世谁予知？知道又怎样？今天在眼前的尚不能把握，还谈什么虚无飘渺的后世？放弃今天，其实无异于放弃明天，因为二者是连续的。为了来世高人一等，宁愿今世当牛做马，是很荒唐的。
谁见过秦始皇转世？谁听说过汉武帝托生？唐僧今在哪里（空余大雁塔）？孙悟空又在何方（花果山确有其名）？三皇五帝至于今，包括孔子、老子、庄子等诸子，我们还能在哪里找到他们的身影？
天堂有几个？是否也分东西方？上帝是中国人、还是外国人？、道教、基督教、、伊斯兰教……哪个教更正确？哪个教更伟大？各教都主张行善、不杀生，为什么彼此、甚至内部仍争斗不休、甚至打打杀杀？西方极乐世界是各教共享吗？天无二日，国无二主，上帝是大家一个，还是各教不一？都希望上帝保佑，上帝是否太忙，太累？
上帝是否崇尚科学？如不，怎么会允许电脑、电讯泛滥？如果是上帝造人，、等）是否让上帝感到失控？
人有起源，上帝是否也有起源？上帝有无婚姻？是世袭，还是千古一帝？
许多问题也只能是问问，谁能作答？
缘份也要争取，友情也要维护。恩赐也要珍惜，未来全靠创造。没有救世主。观世音能救古代人，帮不了现代人。世界发展太快了。
人们总要共事，总要交往。说缘，也只是事后的解释，事前谁能予料？中国古代，乃至八十年代前，基本上一婚到底，能说就都是一世的缘？不过是中国的婚姻制度使然。而西方很少一婚到底的，你能说就都是缘本肤浅？其实是生活逻辑的自然体现。缘份可以加进感情色彩，但不必添加迷信份额。
缘份这个词是蛮可爱的，要珍惜和维护。当代世界，任何事情都应该是双赢或多赢，而不应是唯我独享。事业要成功，就一定要搞浩浩荡荡，不能搞孤家寡人。我们不如就把人们这种沟通、这种共识、这种合作、这种情感叫作缘。
宋远利
2002/1/16