Life Script
As a player, you are unaware that before your birth, as a Spirit, you had already chosen your life script.
Your current life, whether you perceive it as good or bad, is unfolding according to the script you chose yourself.
However, this is not destiny; destiny means everything is predetermined, while the life script is not a ledger of life and death, nor does it specify in intricate detail what you can or cannot do each day. The life script merely establishes experience points at certain junctions, subtly guiding you to fulfill them. Yet, how you experience and confront these experiences must be completed by you; the life script is continually refined and perfected through the process of your life's experiences.
Why Is There a Script
You may wonder, why is there a life script? If there is a script, what is the meaning of life?
We delved deeper into the meaning of life in “Guide: The Meaning of Life”; if you haven't read it, it can help you understand this topic in conjunction.
The life script does not have a purpose that states you will gain something by completing it; in reality, you gain nothing. The life script is not something that must be adhered to. Until you realize there is a life script, you will not be aware of its existence; you will unconsciously be influenced and act accordingly.
The life script serves as the initialization settings for your game on Earth. You cannot appear out of thin air, nor can you escape the influences of everything already in existence; there must be an initial setting, and thus a script is necessary.
As a Spirit, why did you choose your current life script?
Simply put, the Spirit is the sum of all possibilities, and every possibility is indispensable. Your life script is a manifestation of one of many possibilities to experience and go through. You have your current script because you are experiencing it now; otherwise, you would be experiencing other scripts. [1]
For you already in the game, what’s important is not why there is a script, but how to understand and accept your script, thereby playing the game better and truly experiencing life.
What the Script Says
The people and events you encounter are all the ones you are meant to meet; if viewed from a perspective of stillness, they are all coming to you. This is the most intuitive feeling of the life script.
However, the life script does not dictate whether you will be impoverished or wealthy in this life. A person living in poverty can still work hard, while a wealthy person might experience frustration and anxiety. Experiencing poverty and wealth can occur in an instant, such as incurring a debt of one hundred million or receiving one hundred million.
All existence or non-existence of external objects—the moment you possess or lose them, the experience is already complete.
This applies to fame, fortune, power, and emotions as well. If the life script were to write these out, there would be little worth writing.
Each Self in dominance lives in a self-constructed cage, feeling various emotions that brush over you endlessly, preventing you from finding peace. Do not interpret the cage and emotions mentioned here as merely negative; both positive and negative emotions continuously transform into one another, and this constant transformation is the source of unrest in the heart.
From this perspective, everyone is fundamentally the same. Yet, everyone can also be different—it hinges on whether you can follow your inner voice to change when facing your self-constructed cage, transitioning to a state that is no longer affected by these emotions.
What is written in the life script is the transformation you must undertake.
The people and events you encounter are all meant to facilitate your transformation; you can choose not to change, but the life script will have you repeatedly face the same problems, bumping into walls, until you transform to progress to the next scene.
Transformation does not imply that what was before is bad and the new is good; transformation itself holds no good or bad distinction. What matters is the transformation itself. You need to change your traits and Self, which will be elaborated in “Guide: Human Traits” and “Guide: Self”.
Realization of the Script
Why does your life proceed according to the script?
Because the life script initializes your Self, setting personality, psychology, and behavioral traits that are influenced by the family you are born into.
Subsequently, the Self will silently execute the life script, and your thoughts, self-fulfilling prophecies, and the life scripts of others you encounter will collectively influence you.
Initialization
The life script is initialized through two aspects.
The first aspect encompasses the traits that humanity collectively evolves and inherits ( 👉Human Traits ). This is unique to the Earth game and immutable.
The second aspect is completed through the family you are born into—namely, your parents and family environment [2]. This is the most critical method of initialization for the life script.
- Parents' genes influence your genes, along with related factors like IQ, appearance, physique, and personality.
These are predetermined from birth and will continue to influence your entire life. IQ is the most rigid setting, indicating that it's nearly unchangeable. High or low IQ often signifies that there are nodes related to IQ within your life script that you need to experience.
Although appearance and physique can be adjusted through effort, this requires more input and may bring corresponding troubles. Many believe personality to be acquired, but genes will determine its foundation, with the continuous influence of parents and the environment resulting in strong innate characteristics.
- Parents' backgrounds influence your accepted social culture and beliefs.
Whether you are born in China or an African tribe determines whether you are influenced by Chinese civilization or tribal civilization, whether you are born in a peaceful region or a war-torn area, influencing your surroundings, moral standards, and values.
- Parents' beliefs/cognitions, wealth/resources, and networks/circles influence your living, educational, and growing environment.
Parents may believe in God or be atheists, think the Earth is flat or round, be impoverished or wealthy, be blue-collar workers or nobles; all of this will shape your growth environment, wrapping you in it. Different environments will bring different people and events into your life; those around you will further influence your cognition and personality, which will affect the trajectory of your life.
- Parents' life scripts will affect the changes you face while growing up.
Parents also have their own life scripts, and their experiences will impact you. When you are confronted with your parents' transformations, it may serve as a reminder for you to change.
You can feel that it is difficult to evade the life script's initialization. This initialization will solidify in your brain through genes, personality, and concept, forming the Self, influencing you throughout your life. Most of the time, you are unaware of this influence.
Of course, initialization is not unbreakable; as your cognition improves, you will gradually become aware of its existence, and you will attempt to change. However, as the saying goes, “A leopard cannot change its spots,” such changes require considerable effort.
Many players, upon realizing the existence of the life script, feel a surge of “I control my life, not fate,” and insist on changing the life script, but this often leads to abandonment. Unbeknownst to them, the life script is precisely what you chose as the Spirit. When players truly recognize this, they can understand what the life script is, which will not affect their experiences and encounters in the game. In other words, when you let go of your obsession with what the life script is, the life script will vanish.
TIP
In your own life, you may also fulfill parenting as a side quest; at this point, you will have a profound impact on others. Please read “Guide: Side Quest - Parenting” for details.
Thoughts
The parameters set during the life script initialization are largely saved by the Self.
The Self almost continuously generates various thoughts 24/7: was the past right or wrong, and how so, will the future turn out alright, and how might it not. Sometimes thoughts can seem inexplicable, recalling a trivial matter from 20 years ago or a worry from 20 years into the future.
Under the influence of these thoughts, you will respond in various ways, consciously or unconsciously executing the script.
TIP
In “Guide: Self”, we will elaborate more on thoughts.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
You will also continuously execute the life script in a self-fulfilling prophecy manner.
A self-fulfilling prophecy means that your preconceived notions, regardless of their correctness, will more or less influence your actions, leading these judgments to culminate in reality. When you form a psychological expectation, you will sift through external signals, receiving those that align with your expectations while filtering out those that do not, thereby reinforcing and sculpting your behaviors to meet your expectations.
In simpler terms, it is a form of psychological suggestion; your expectations for your behavior are invariably influenced by the personality and values established during initialization. You are continually realizing your expectations without awareness, creating a self-fulfilling loop that strengthens the original expectations and reaffirms them.
Thus, you are continually acting according to the parameters set by the life script.
Even if you recognize this and attempt to unilaterally change your behavioral expectations, you may observe signs of change but will ultimately revert to the old path. The root cause lies in that your established personality and values do not genuinely believe in the success of this new path, thereby leaving your innermost self still engaged in the old self-fulfilling prophecy.
To break the cycle of self-fulfilling prophecies, you must genuinely change your nature to do so.
Homophily
There is a saying: “Birds of a feather flock together.” Humans possess a preference for homophily, showing a tendency to associate with those who are similar. Similar groups often have comparable life scripts, and similar personalities and values further reinforce self-fulfilling prophecies. These similar individuals subtly help others play out their life scripts.
Sometimes, group influence over individuals can be significant, generating a herd mentality [3]. On one hand, individuals may conform under group pressure, adopting the thoughts and behaviors of the majority and losing themselves; on the other hand, individuals may make decisions unconsciously, thus avoiding responsibility and gaining a sense of security.
Humans have evolved into social beings and are gregarious animals, making it difficult to escape group influence. Combined with homophily, this influence ensures the realization of the life script.
Similarly, to break free from group influence, you need to change your nature and eliminate the “Self.” The section on “Destiny Fortune Tendency” will explore how to alter the life script.
Conclusion
Regardless of what the life script entails or its progress, its ending is certain: the vessel will die.
Conscious human vessels have lifespans; this finite life is a unique setting of this game, which means there are not many key nodes in the life script. However, if transformations cannot occur at certain nodes, time may run short, creating a sense of tension and urgency, causing many to be more easily swayed by the script rather than breaking free, making their limited life even more constrained.
While the death of the vessel is certain, the manner and timing of death are not contents of the life script; they resemble outcomes or side effects:
- Genetic predispositions, health risks, physical defects, safe or enriching growth conditions, and whether one's personality is paranoid—all will directly or indirectly affect the vessel's lifespan.
- Unhealthy lifestyles and habits, late nights, smoking, drinking, or even drug use;
- Untimely adjustments to physiological and psychological conditions, antisocial behavior, depression, reliance on violence, etc., in extreme cases, may lead some to end their lives deliberately;
- Random events can also lead to unexpected deaths; for instance, if you are an extreme sports athlete, you have a higher probability of facing an untimely end. While the cumulative effects of life scripts may foster greater adventurousness and athletic ability, specific preferences, like skateboarding or free climbing, are not deterministic; even if you prefer the more dangerous free climbing, encountering death remains random.
When you observe the beginning and the end of your life script, you should become more aware that what matters is not the specific time points of beginning and ending but rather the process between them—this process is the experience and journey of life.
Quality of the Script
Some feel they were dealt a bad hand at birth, while others believe they received a great one. This variation is normal; everyone has different hands dealt to them.
The life script has no inherent concept of good or bad:
- Good and bad are merely judgments of the Self.
What is good, what is bad, who deems it so? There are no constants here; they will change along with your perspective and the surrounding environment.
For example, radium, once a popular health product, was believed to be beneficial, but now it is widely understood to pose significant dangers. [4]
Some think tattoos are cool and a good thing, while others perceive them as painful and indicative of untrustworthiness, viewing them as a bad thing. Whether something is good or bad entirely relies on your perspective and context. - Good and bad can transform.
The Self typically struggles to see the entirety of life, often acting short-sightedly; "prosperity leads to decline, fullness leads to emptiness," and everything is in cyclical change.
When you are hungry, food is good, and you wish to eat more; if you've overeaten, food becomes bad, and merely thinking of it makes you nauseous. The same food can drastically change in perception of good and bad. - Good and bad are inseparable.
They are merely two sides of the same coin; you can’t find a coin that has only the side of good or bad. Good events may be perceived as bad from another perspective, and bad events can accompany good events; the universe is fundamentally the totality of all possibilities. [5]
For instance, "the old man lost a horse, how could one know it’s not a blessing," [6] where the old man experiences several good and bad events, each entwined in cause and effect. It is impossible to wish for only good things without bad ones or vice-versa.
When you let go of your obsession with good and bad, transcending the Self, everything becomes just right for you, allowing full acceptance of all that life has to offer.
You will no longer care how the life script is written; it's only by letting go of this fixation that you can freely experience and embrace life.
Rewriting the Script
Destiny Fortune Tendency
Destiny and fortune are often paired in expression, but destiny, fortune, and tendency are not the same thing. These three words are commonly heard, and combined with the life script, we can gain deeper insights into them.
Destiny
Destiny refers to your life script, which you had already chosen before birth. The initialization of the life script is something you cannot avoid or change.
Many people, when they see they cannot do certain things, feel pessimistic and disappointed. This emotion is a human trait (the inability to control leads to anxiety and fear), but it is unnecessary.
Your life script was not chosen by others; it was selected by you as a Spirit. If you are still struggling to understand why you chose such a life script, you might as well accept that this choice has profound significance. [^hopeyouunderstandthisissimplyabridge]
There is no need to be obsessed with changing your destiny because only the initialization of the life script is unavoidable and unchangeable.
After initialization, that is now you, merely continuing to unfold according to the inertia of the life script; your most significant obstacle is your own inertia.
Inertia indeed possesses great power, pushing you toward the nodes set by the life script. Yet, when you recognize the role of the life script, you can exert greater strength to alter this inertia; the guides will gradually tell you how to do this.
Fortune
Destiny merely sets the nodes; between nodes, there are countless paths, all of which can be more easily decided by you—that is your fortune.
Fortune represents every choice and decision you make in the game that converges into various paths; it's the way you can decide how to experience, supplementing, perfecting, or even altering the life script in “real-time.”
If each time you face a choice you are lost and decide based on your nature, then your fortune will merely become a puppet to your destiny, and you will exactly follow the life script—this is the approach your Self requires the least resistance to;
If each time you face a choice you do not decide based on your nature, then your fortune will morph into an entirely new destiny, leading your life script to undergo a dramatic change, which requires tremendous effort.
Tendency
Tendency refers to environmental cycles and trends—results accumulated and altered from the birth of Earth to the present, and the development of humanity (among other factors).
For example:
- We are currently in the interglacial period of the Quaternary Ice Age, when humans developed during this brief climate-friendly period.
- Humanity has developed both the theory of relativity and quantum theory within the last century, leading to substantial enhancements in technology.
- Human society is undergoing a significant debt cycle, teetering on the brink of world wars.
You can rarely influence tendency, but it can easily influence you. You are essentially flowing with the tide of tendency, sometimes elevated high above a trough with minimal effort. What you need to do is follow the momentum, leveraging minimal effort for maximum effect.
Fortunately, tendencies almost entirely exhibit cyclic changes, allowing us to anticipate them. Accurate anticipation allows your fortune to occur more easily.
TIP
A piece of literature, “The Poem of the Broken Kiln,” has circulated in Chinese folklore for centuries. Exemplified in the voice of the Song Dynasty's Chancellor Lv Mengzheng, it illustrates various instances to describe “destiny, fortune, and tendency,” making for an interesting read. You can click below to reveal the full text.
Full Text of "The Poem of the Broken Kiln"
Heaven brings unexpected storms, and fortune can shift day by day. A centipede has a hundred feet, yet cannot match the speed of a snake; a rooster’s two wings cannot carry it beyond a crow. A horse can travel a thousand miles but cannot get there without a rider; a person with sky-high ambitions cannot succeed without fortune.
It is said: In life, wealth cannot lead to indulgence, nor can poverty lead to immorality. The most excellent works fail during troubled times, just as great warriors may fish at the Wei River. Yan Yuan died young, yet was no villain; Dao Zhi was long-lived, yet was hardly virtuous. While Emperor Yao was wise, he had an unworthy child; the blind Penuri was foolish, yet bore a filial son. Zhang Liang was originally a commoner, while Xiao He was merely a county clerk. Yan Zi, despite being a mere five feet, was made prime minister of Qi; Zhuge Liang lay in his thatched hut yet became a military strategist for Shu Han. Though Titian of Chu was powerful, he ended his life at the Wu River; Han Wang, though weak, had vast territories. Li Guang had the might to shoot tigers but died without title; Feng Tang, gifted with dragon riding, did not find success in his lifetime. Han Xin, before his rise, could barely afford meals, and upon his rise, carried a jade seal; yet, when fortune waned, he fell victim to assassination.
There are those who begin poor and later become rich, as well as those who start strong but do not escape decline. A well-read person might grow old without recognition; while a less learned one may achieve early success. In deep palace courts, the once-fortunate may end as courtesans; while loose women may marry into grandeur.
A young beauty may attract a foolish husband; a handsome young man may match with an unattractive woman. The talented dragon goes unnoticed among fish and turtles; the gentleman often loses to petty people. Although clothing may be torn, one must maintain composure; even when sorrow-stricken, one must embrace a mind of tranquility. If disfavored by fate, it is prudent to remain content with poverty; if the heart remains honest, one shall inevitably find relief. A humble gentleman is born with noble character; a petty man, once wealthy, cannot shed his poor upbringing.
If the heavens do not cooperate, the sun and moon dim; if the earth is unfavorable, grass and trees do not thrive; if water fails, storms rage; if people are not in sync, advantages become elusive. Blessings and fortunes are predetermined; everyone desires riches and honor. If one does not adhere to their foundational elements, how can they rise to be a peer or a minister?
In my former days in Luoyang, I sought food from monks at dawn and slept in a broken kiln at dusk, yearning for garments that could not cover my body and sustenance that could not quell my hunger. The high regarded me with disdain, the low were contemptuous; the world deemed me lowly, yet I did not abandon myself. Now residing in the court, I hold an esteemed position; though I must bow under one, I am above millions. I possess a staff to beat bureaucrats and a sword to execute the unpopular. I think of fine silks when I need clothing, and savory dishes when hungry; entering, gallant men tend to me, exiting, lovely ladies do; the honored cherish me, and the lowly revere me. People praise me for my wealth, yet it is not by my doing but by time, fortune, and destiny.
Alas! In life, one cannot indulge endlessly in riches nor fool oneself in poverty. One must allow heaven and earth to cycle, endlessly repeating.
To Be Continued......
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Translation Note
The original language is Chinese, and the English translation is automatically completed by ChatGPT. There may be inaccuracies or errors in expression; please refer to the original wording for accuracy.
If this is your first encounter with this section, you may find it confusing, which is normal. For a deeper understanding of this section, please refer to “In-Depth Understanding: Spirit”. ↩︎
Orphans, single parents, adoptive parents, etc. also have an impact. If you are an orphan, welfare institutions like orphanages also count as a family environment. Therefore, "parents and family environment" here should be understood in a broader sense, but their overarching influence does not change. ↩︎
In the 1956 Asch conformity experiment, the subjects were male students from Swarthmore College seated in a semi-circle, where 6 were accomplices of the experimenter, and only one was an actual subject, unaware of the other six's true identity. The experimenter displayed a standard line X, along with three lines A, B, and C for comparison. One of these lines was of the same length as X, while the other two differed significantly (approximately identifiable by any subject). The group was then asked to announce which line matched X in length. In the experimental groups, 36.8% of the subjects conformed to the erroneous opinions of others’ false answers, approximately three-quarters conformed at least once, while around one-fourth maintained independence throughout. ↩︎
Radium water emerged in 1925, produced by the "Bailey Radium Laboratories"; it was marketed as a panacea. Advertisements claimed that the alpha particles from radium decay could "energize" the human body, revitalizing the endocrine system, thus claiming radium water could treat over 150 ailments, including high blood pressure, anemia, and epilepsy. While this claim lacked scientific basis, the radium water business flourished, likely because Bailey provided generous kickbacks to physicians recommending it. Over 400,000 bottles of radium water were sold worldwide between 1925 and 1930. ↩︎
Detailed explanation can be found in “In-depth Understanding: Universe - Probability”. ↩︎
An old man's horse runs away (bad), only to return with a better horse after some days (good). Seeing this better horse, his son insists on riding it, resulting in a broken leg (bad). Later, during a war, since the son was injured and could not go to battle, he was saved (good). ↩︎