Fortune-Telling and Charms
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Hard work is the luckiest star.
Although Buddhism does not refute belief in deities, spirits, astrology and fortune-telling, the Buddha's advice was that people should not be slaves to any of those forces. A good Buddhist can overcome all his difficulties if he knows how to make use of his intelligence and will-power. The above mentioned beliefs have no spiritual significance or value. Man must overcome all his problems and difficulties by his own efforts and not through the medium of deities, spirits, astrology or fortune-telling. In one of the Buddhist Jataka stories, the Bodhisatta said:
'The fool may watch for lucky days,
Yet luck he shall always miss,
The luck itself is luck's own star,
What can mere stars achieve?
He believed that hard work was the luckiest star and one should not waste time by consulting stars and lucky days in order to achieve success. To do your best to help yourself is better than to rely solely on the stars or external sources.
Although some Buddhists practise fortune-telling and dispense some forms of charms or amulets under the guise of religion, the Buddha at no time encouraged anyone to practise such things. Like fortune-telling, charms come under the category of superstition, and have no religious value. Yet there are many people today who, because of sickness and misfortunes attribute the cause of their illness and ill-luck to the power of charms. When the cause of certain sickness and misfortunes cannot be ascertained or traced, many people tend to believe that their problems are due to charms or some other external causes. They have forgotten that they are now living in the twentieth century. This is the modern age of scientific development and achievement. Our leading scientists have thrown aside many superstitious beliefs and they have even placed men on the moon!
All sicknesses owe their origin to either mental or physical causes. In Shakespeare, Macbeth asked a doctor if there was any medicine that could cure his wife and the doctor replied: 'More needs she the divine than the physician.' What he meant was that some diseases could only be cured if the mind was purified. Some severe mental disorders manifest themselves in a physical manner--ulcers, stomach aches, and so on.
Of course diseases are purely physical and can be cured by a competent doctor. And finally, some inexplicable disorders could be caused by what Buddhist call the ripening of the kammic fruit. This means we would have to pay for some evil deed that we have committed in a past life. If we can understand this in the case of some incurable diseases, we can bear it with greater patience, knowing its real cause.
People who cannot be cured of their sickness are advised to consult a medical specialist and obtain specialized attention. If after having gone through a medical check-up, a person still feels in need of attention, then he may want to seek spiritual guidance from a proper religious teacher.
Buddhists are strongly advised against falling into the miserable pit of superstitious beliefs and allowing the mind to be troubled by unnecessary and unfounded fears. Cultivate a strong will-power by refusing to believe in the influence of charms. -
This is a situation which I would like to bring up which is related to fortune telling.
Recently, a colleague of my friend had consulted a fortune teller to foretell the destinies of his 2 young sons. The fortune teller had told him that the destiny of his older son will be rather good. But to his dismay, the destiny of his younger son will not be so fortunate. The fortune teller said that he will have a difficult life ahead and also will be easily mislead by bad company and do bad things.
After the consultation with the fortune teller, my friend's colleague became very very worried and sad. But his worries isn't groundless. Moral and ethics in our society had gone downhill and most people are after material gains and to get all these material gains, alot of people will resort to any means to get it and our educational system does little to infuse correct views into young minds. So all these made him very worried.
I was pretty amazed by the situation.
Let's look at this situation with a logical mind first without using Dharma:
1) How can we confirm that what this fortune teller said is true? Is there any methods in verifying his words?
2) Should we just rely on just one source of information? We should get more than one source of information and see if the multiple source of information points to the same results.
Now, let's look at it with Dharma:
1) No one, can foretell the future, especially when it is far far away.
2) A person's behavouir and characteristics determinds one's future. And a person's behavouir and characteristic is moulded by our karma accumulated since beginningless time. So to change your future, you will have to start changing your behavouir to a more positive one. By practising the 10 virtues, alot of good karma is accumulated. If the environment a person is in is very good, he will have no chance to do evil.
3) Only the Buddha can know of our many past life and what holds for us in our future. Sentient beings do not have that kind of power.
Eventhough my friend's colleague does not have firm correct views, we should also not discriminate them because they are superstitious. It is due to the fact that they did not understand what is impermanace and did not have enough merit to encounter the Dharma. We should all the more help them. But the help we give must be tactful and not too hard-selling, else they might run away!
Cherrio -
I believe fortune telling is possible through several ways but again it is not so good to rely too much on these things. Those who know the dharma knows that his so called "fate" (which is not fate) can be changed through the dharma.
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personally i do not believe in seeking the future by fortune telling. the future lies in your hand, meaning what actions you take will shape the future, which comes to the word kharma. i believe the good will be rewarded. it is just the matter of time. Being worried or sad cannot change anything. it will only worsen your mind in advance. why not take things as it come your way?
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by reading fortune or destiny analysis..........1 cant change his destiny... this is
a forever truth...........
a correct mindset of consulting such teller is know liao then change......
change the bad character to good 1...
and also at the same time know the natural element that is there to assist u in cultivating a good character............
many time a seeker came with a wrong intention, then in the end such wrong intention distort the reason for doing a destiny analysis............
when the reason is distorted..ppl start to say doing a destiny analysis is supersititous..........
so is it destiny analysis a form of superstition or the seeker is superstitious?
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Very well said!Originally posted by jacqn:personally i do not believe in seeking the future by fortune telling. the future lies in your hand, meaning what actions you take will shape the future, which comes to the word kharma. i believe the good will be rewarded. it is just the matter of time. Being worried or sad cannot change anything. it will only worsen your mind in advance. why not take things as it come your way?
Cherrio -
Agree with all the above posts.
However, recently a lot of fengshui/ fortune tellers etc emphasizes that the ultimate determining factor of your future is still dependent on your actions and your karma (an example would be Mrs Lilian Too, a Malaysian fengshui master and a Buddhist), and that the Fengshui advice is just that, an advice for consultative purposes only.
In this regard, I believe that fengshui can still have a role to play in propagating Buddhism and the dharma. -
i am wondering if feng shui to be considered as unrighteous living just as the Buddha forbade his followers to do predictments and practise from all source of magic as a living.
even if a feng shui master would to include Dharma to the clients, does 90 percent of dharma makes a 10 percent of fengshui a buddhistic practise ?
In buddhist context, i think .. the best fengshui is no fengshui .. with faith and good affinities, everywhere is good fengshui ...
No good luck positions and good luck charms for me pls ... being a Buddhist is my best "charm". -
steady lah!Originally posted by enci:i am wondering if feng shui to be considered as unrighteous living just as the Buddha forbade his followers to do predictments and practise from all source of magic as a living.
even if a feng shui master would to include Dharma to the clients, does 90 percent of dharma makes a 10 percent of fengshui a buddhistic practise ?
In buddhist context, i think .. the best fengshui is no fengshui .. with faith and good affinities, everywhere is good fengshui ...
No good luck positions and good luck charms for me pls ... being a Buddhist is my best "charm".
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Yes this is gd attitudeOriginally posted by enci:i am wondering if feng shui to be considered as unrighteous living just as the Buddha forbade his followers to do predictments and practise from all source of magic as a living.
even if a feng shui master would to include Dharma to the clients, does 90 percent of dharma makes a 10 percent of fengshui a buddhistic practise ?
In buddhist context, i think .. the best fengshui is no fengshui .. with faith and good affinities, everywhere is good fengshui ...
No good luck positions and good luck charms for me pls ... being a Buddhist is my best "charm".