缘份 Yuanfen

While sending my brother and his girlfriend back to the hostel tonite, dad suddenly said, "I feel like I have a strong connection with this uni. Maybe it's 缘份". Why did he say that?

Many years ago, before he met mom, he used to go to the campus everyweek to play basketball with his friends, who at that time was a lecturer there... After a few years, when he met mom, he would visit the campus often because mom's brother was a student there .... And, finally after 20 ++ years, he is back to the campus again when the daughter and son also study there ....

So, what is 缘份? Some findings from wikipedia as follows:

Yuan (缘) or Yuanfen (缘份; pinyin: yuán fèn) is a Buddhist-related Chinese concept that means the predetermined principle that dictates a person's relationships and encounters, usually positive, such as the affinity among friends or lovers. In common usage the term can be defined as the "binding force" that links two persons together in any relationship. The concept of synchronicity from the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung can be seen as similar to yuánfèn, which Chinese people also believe to be a universal force governing the happening of things to some people at some places. Yuánfèn belongs to the family of concepts known in theology as determinism.

Some believe that the driving forces and causes behind yuánfèn are the actions done in the previous reincarnations. Therefore, it can be understood as the relational- as opposed to the physical- aspect of karma in Buddhism. However, while karma often refers to the consequences of an individual's actions on him- or herself, yuán is always used in conjunction with two persons.

To be one person's daughter and sister in a family ...
To have a group of friends who grow up together and still together after 20++ over years ...
To work in the industry at first thought to stay away from ...
To know people who has the same birth date as you or just a few days apart ... etc ...

I guess more or less it has got something to do with 缘份 ... (^_^) ...