This tool is built from the wooden-wheel method (mulun xiangfa) recorded in the Sutra of Divination on Good and Evil Karmic Retribution (Zhancha shan'e ye bao jing), translated by Bodhiruci of the Sui dynasty. It reconstructs the sutra's three-wheel method as a digital convenience, so the structure and phase-judging logic are easy to understand.
What is the three-wheel method?
In the sutra, Earth Store Bodhisattva teaches the wooden-wheel method so that all beings - lay or monastic - "seeking to be freed from birth, old age, sickness and death, and to pass from suffering to joy" may examine karma through ten, three and six wheels, in three rounds:
- First wheel: ten wheels, examining which of the ten good and ten evil karma-seeds from past lives are now "manifest" or "unmanifest".
- Second wheel: body, speech and mind wheels (long red, short red, long black, short black), reading the manifested karma's amount, weight and distance - much/little, heavy/light, far/near.
- Third wheel: six wheels, each with three number faces and one blank; cast three times, sum the numbers, and map to one of 189 phases of karmic distinction, indicating retribution received across the three lives.
Why a digital convenience version?
- Physical wheels require proper making, repentance rites and sincere casting; the digital version only reconstructs the "algorithm and phase judgment", omitting the wheel and rite forms.
- Digital randomness differs from physical casting: the physical phase hinges on sincerity, and if not corresponding one should re-recite and re-divine; the digital version is only for familiarizing with the sutra's structure, not to be taken as a verdict.
- The sutra states plainly: a phase "is called corresponding if it matches this life's retribution and the suffering-joy and fortune-misfortune experienced; if not matching, it means insincerity, and is called false".
How to use it for self-reflection?
- Read the rite summary first, and understand that "divination" is rooted in repentance and pure faith, not in winning at fortune-telling.
- The first wheel shows whether karma-seeds manifest; the second shows weight and distance of body/speech/mind; the third shows the category of three-life retribution.
- A very small (e.g. "one") or very large (e.g. "189") number is extremely rare; the exegetes say the matter it indicates is all the more sublime - treat it as an encouragement to "earnestly repent and make great vows".
The divination method, in the end, is about "removing obstacles, increasing pure faith, and indicating the direction of repentance" - use it to examine yourself, not to fortune-tell.