Truth is found in silence and stillness. It is not found in activity. Doing ritual practice, reciting mantra, studying Buddhist philosophy and participating in voluntary work are all good things to do, and are very helpful in putting you on the right path. But they are activities and so your mind is agitated. Truth will only come when you sit down and meditate. When your mind is calm, still and silent. Read more →
It doesn’t matter if you have taken refuge in the Buddha, meditate regularly, have a spiritual guide or do some elaborate ritual practice, if you do not follow the five precepts you cannot, in all honesty, call yourself a Buddhist. I understand this statement will ruffle some feathers, but I strongly believe it to be so. Read more →
‘To expect happiness without giving up negative action is like holding your hand in a fire and hoping not to be burned. Of course, no one actually wants to suffer, to be sick, to be cold or hungry but as long as we continue to indulge in wrong doing we will never put an end to suffering. Likewise, we will never achieve happiness, except through positive deeds, words and thoughts. Positive action is something we have to cultivate ourselves; it can be neither bought nor stolen, and no one ever stumbles on it just by chance.’
This was written by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and I believe the best way to obtain true and lasting happiness, and not material happiness, is to follow the Eightfold Path as taught by Buddha. I do not mean understanding the path intellectually or chanting it each day. I mean to make it part of your life, your very being. This way all your actions of body speech and mind will be positive and your life will be truly happy.
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People, for centuries, have been indulging in superstitions, lucky charms, omens, divinations and fortune-telling. They have used these things to help them make decisions and keep them from taking responsibility for their own actions. In some cultures, they are still placing a lot of importance on such things. However, if you look carefully you can see these things stem from ignorance and fear. They certainly are not a reliable way to help you navigate through life.
In Buddha‘s day you could put superstitions and omens down to a lack of education, but I am not sure what the reasoning is behind it in today’s society. You still see people touching wood or keeping their fingers crossed to bring them good luck. Others wear a rabbit’s foot for good luck – though I think it is not very lucky for the rabbit. They don’t put new shoes on a table, walk under ladders or put umbrellas up in the house just in case it brings them bad luck. People become visibly scared if they break a mirror or spill salt, and don’t lets even mention Friday 13th.
In the Tibetan culture it is inauspicious to start a journey on Saturdays. So, people pack their things on Friday and leave the house as though they are starting their journey. But in fact, they only take their bag to a friend’s house and then return to their own home. On Saturday they walk out of their home and collect their bag and then start their journey. This way they believe they have tricked the superstition. So, it is clear that such thinking only creates a vicious circle where superstitions are used to cheat other superstitions.
As you can see the list of superstitions and omens are endless, but they do have one thing in common, and that is that they are totally irrational and based on fear and a lack of education.
People go to a fortune tellers or Rinpoche (a holy person) for divinations. This is so they can shirk their responsibilities and get someone else to make an important decision for them. But if these people can see into the future it would mean our lives are predetermined. That would in turn mean we could never improve our lives, as things have already been decided for us. Thankfully, this is not the case and these people who say they can see into the future are just playing on people’s ignorance and fears. You may say that there is no harm done, but I would beg to differ. I have heard of a person who was seriously ill going for a divination. They were told not to have an operation but to do some prayers instead. This person died needlessly, because if they had had the operation they would have survived. So, I believe these people are acting not only irresponsibly but fraudulently as well.
Many go to holy people for blessings, believing that if they are touched on their head their lives will be OK, or they wear something around their necks hoping it will protect them from any danger. They also go to long-life ceremonies thinking that they will live a long time, even though they do not change their life-style or do any practice, such as meditation. Again, these things are just superstitions and without you changing your actions of body, speech and mind you will not be able to change your life.
Buddha called all of these practices ‘low art’ and on many occasions, stated that such things are of no use, as we have to take responsibility for our own lives. In the Anguttara NikayaBuddha stated that this is how responsible people act:
‘They do not get carried away by superstition; they believe in deeds, aspiring to results from their own deeds through their own effort in a rational way; they are not excited by wildly rumoured superstition, talismans, omens or lucky charms; they do not aspire to results from praying for miracles.’
There is a story about a Brahman who was an expert in predictions drawn from cloth. Who held a superstition that once a piece of cloth, no matter how new or expensive, was bitten by a rat it would become inauspicious and bring you bad luck.
On one occasion he discarded a piece of his expensive cloth in a local cemetery because he believed it had a rat bite on it, and so was now only going to bring him bad fortune. Later on, he heard that the Buddha had picked up the cloth and was using it. He ran as fast as he could to find the Buddha and warm him about the bad luck that was going to come his way if he didn’t throw the cloth away. However, once he found Buddha he was dissuaded from this irrational superstition and shown that only he himself could bring good or bad circumstances into his life.
We all have to take responsibility for our own lives and stop trying to pass the buck
Buddha did not believe in luck, fate or chance. He taught that whatever happens does so because of a cause or causes. If you want to pass your exams you have to study hard and put a lot of effort in. So, there is a clear connection between passing the exam and study. It is of no use praying to a god, chanting some mantra or wearing some kind of lucky charm to pass your exam, as there is absolutely no connection between those things and you passing the exam.
So, what did Buddha believe? Well he believed in individual responsibility, rational thought and social obligations rather than unhealthy fears and irrational superstitions. This point was made very clearly in the Mangala Sutra. In this discourse the Buddha was asked what the most auspicious omens were and which ones they should follow. He didn’t directly answer the question, but instead gave guidelines of how we can make our own lives auspicious without relying on any outside omens.
So, I believe there is no room for superstitions and fortune-telling in today’s society. We all have to take responsibility for our own lives and stop trying to pass the buck.
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Traditionally, what is talked about in Right Meditation is being able to concentrate single-mindedly on an object of meditation. However, I feel that before we can get to that point, we need to learn about single-minded concentration on our actions of body, speech and mind – our daily actions, in other words. How do we do this? We study Buddhist teachings, contemplate them and then meditate on them. Read more →
What do we need to be mindful of? Everything. We must be mindful of our actions and the impact they have on ourselves and others. These actions will shape our lives now and in the future, so it is very important to be constantly mindful. Read more →
The Buddha has shown us a path; it is up to us to follow it. Our minds tend to hop and jump around like a drunken frog. Read more →
A right livelihood is one that does not bring harm to anyone or anything. Buddha
listed five professions that constitute wrong livelihoods. They are dealing in weapons, dealing in humans, dealing in meat production, dealing in intoxicants and dealing in poisons.
Traditionally these professions are dismissed out of hand, but I feel a little uncomfortable with that. I have Indian friends that have joined the army so they can provide for their parents and siblings. They didn’t go in to the army with the sole intention of killing people, although that may be a consequence of their action. Also, if a country didn’t have an army, how long would it be before another country took it over. These days the army also does peacekeeping missions and so, in that way, is helping society.
It isn’t as black and white as Buddha’s list suggests. I think one should aim for a profession that does not harm, is not deceitful and dishonest, doesn’t involve trickery, treachery or any kind of fortune-telling. Buddha went into a lot of detail regarding the last one, fortune-telling, in the Samannaphala Sutra:
Whereas some priests and contemplatives, living off food given in faith, maintain themselves by wrong livelihood, by such lowly arts as:
reading marks on the limbs [e.g., palmistry];
reading omens and signs;
interpreting celestial events [falling stars, comets];
interpreting dreams;
reading marks on the body [e.g., phrenology];
reading marks on cloth gnawed by mice;
offering fire oblations, oblations from a ladle, oblations of husks, rice powder, rice grains, ghee, and oil; offering oblations from the mouth;
offering blood-sacrifices;
making predictions based on the fingertips;
geomancy;
laying demons in a cemetery;
placing spells on spirits;
reciting house-protection charms;
snake charming, poison-lore, scorpion-lore, rat-lore, bird-lore, crow-lore;
fortune-telling based on visions;
giving protective charms;
interpreting the calls of birds and animals …
[The list goes on and on, but I think you get the point] Translated from Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Any type of fortune-telling or predicting the future is a form of deceit and trickery, even if it is done by some religious person. All you are doing is peddling false hope.
It is never right to deal in humans, such as prostitution, people trafficking, forcing children into work or teaching them to fire a weapon. Nor is it right to make illegal drugs and poisons. All these professions are bringing harm to people and so should be avoided.
The bottom line is that our livelihood must not bring harm to people, animals or the environment. If we stick to this, we will be on the road to living a responsible life.
The next part of the eightfold path is right action. This is talking about actions of the body. We have to ensure that our actions do not bring harm to ourselves and others. Read more →
Speech is a very powerful tool. If we hit someone, it will hurt for a short time and then go away. But if we verbally attack someone, those words can stay with them for many years. Read more →
The second aspect of the Eightfold Path is right intention. Here I am talking about our motivation; the spark that fires us into action. Read more →
In the fourth of Buddha’s truths he explains the path we need to take to free ourselves from suffering. It is known as the Eightfold Path and it comprises of three aspects Read more →
This truth is called nirvana, liberation, enlightenment and so on. It is hotly debated these days. Some think that if you reach nirvana you will never be born again, others think you will be reborn, but you can pick where. For people who do not believe in rebirth, they see it as something we can achieve in this lifetime. I have no idea who is right and who is wrong – it maybe they are all wrong. Read more →
In the last post I mentioned unawareness. So, what are the things we are unaware of? Usually, in Buddhism, they talk about three main things, namely suffering, not-self and impermanence. Read more →
In the first truth Buddha encouraged us to fully understand that there is suffering in every corner of our lives. In his second truth he tells us what causes these sufferings. Read more →
