Transcript

I often get questioned about people and luck, and that they saw a certain psychic person, or they saw a bomoh, or they saw a soothsayer, or they saw a master or sifu (whatever country you come from), and a tarot card reader, and they will tell people, “Oh, you have a lot of luck” or “you don’t have luck”, or “you need to do this for luck”. I want to explain two things here. I want to explain about people who tell fortunes and I want to talk a little bit about luck.

For the people who tell fortunes, whether they use cards, they use their ‘eye’, they use a feeling, they use images, or they use beads, they use rice, or they can use water, or they can use a tarot card. Basically, if they’re a psychic person, they can use any medium to express their psychic abilities. That’s one. Another one is that they’re not really psychic but through these instruments, they can use different beings (ethereal beings, formless beings, spirits) to give them answers. So let’s say if you use chopsticks, some soothsayers use chopsticks, some use cards (some western soothsayers use tarot cards). So what happens is that they can use these cards to contact a supernatural being (an ethereal being, a formless being) to kind of tell them the future.

Shells are one of the tools that psychics use to foretell the future

So therefore, sometimes its accurate, sometimes it’s not accurate, because it depends on the spirit they’re contacting. The spirit they’re contacting may be a good one, it may be a bad one pretending to be a good one, it could be a good one with limited powers, it could be one that’s very powerful. Whatever it is, we’re not sure because we’re not able to gauge the spirits. And sometimes the spirits can be tricky and just tell us information that is okay and that matches us for a while, but ultimately, they want to harm us, so they say things to us to lead us on and then later on it actually harms us. Some spirits actually want to help us, but they have limited abilities so they kind of tell us things that’s going to happen for the next one year. But because of what they said, we do it, and they said it with good intention, then the following year ‘things’ happen because of what we did that preceding year.

So there are many, many cases (there no one set rule for across the board) because it depends on the person doing the fortune and it also depends on the spirit. Similarly, for fortune tellers or soothsayers, or tarot card readers; some have psychic powers and it depends on their powers. It depends on if they can see into the past or present a few years, a few months, a few days, or even a few lifetimes. People have different sets of powers. So for soothsayers, unless we know the soothsayer perfectly or we know the entity they are contacting perfectly, soothsayers and people who do tarots and fortune reading, sometimes may be reliable, sometimes may not be reliable, but we should take it all with a pinch of salt. That’s not to say there are not genuine fortune tellers, soothsayers, masters, sifus. Of course there are, but the issue is whether we can tell if they’re genuine or not.

So therefore, we should take all that with a pinch of salt and we should listen to what they say but not hang on and live our lives around it because we don’t know if it’s one hundred percent accurate or not, or if it could be applied to us or not. That’s one. Number two, when they talk about, “our luck is down”, we need to check. Is our health relatively okay? Are our five senses relatively working? Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, taste, tactile, feeling. Do we have a free mind? Do we have the opportunity to go and learn more? Are we able to go to sleep? Are we able to wake up when we want? Are we able to dress as we like? Do we have food? Do we go hungry? Do we have a roof over our heads? Are we safe? Are we protected from wild animals? Do we have the freedom to change jobs? Do we have the freedom to find a partner or not find a partner? Do we have the freedom to go out as and when we like?

If we have all that and we have the freedom to acquire a little bit more…I would say that we’re pretty lucky. I would say that we have a lot of luck and I think that our lives are pretty good. And I think what’s important is for us to look at what’s in our lives, to see what is good, and to always focus on the good things. Do we have family that love us? Do we have friends? Did we have a good upbringing? Of course none of that can be perfect. Some of us have this one and don’t have that one. Some of us didn’t have a good upbringing and we have a good adult life. Some of us are a little restricted at work. Some of us are tired or exhausted. Some of us get sick sometimes. But you see, what we need to see is that there is nothing perfect in life. There is nothing perfect in existence. There is no God or no entity, or no spirit, or no deity, or no being that can afford us a perfect life. And there is nobody on this planet that has a perfect life (although it may look like it on social media, for some people who portray they have a perfect life). How could that be possible? We are adult enough, educated enough, and we are mature enough to know that there is no perfect life.

So what we need to look at is why we are dissatisfied. Why we are unhappy with our situation. Why we are unhappy with what we’re doing. It’s easy to say that we don’t have luck. What does luck mean? Luck means merit. Luck means a force of energy that we carry with us, from doing very good things in the past (from doing a lot of good actions in the past). Even a past life. And this stock of energy is brought forward and its there for us to use, and it brings whatever we like. It fulfils our wishes. So luck is kind of like a force of positive energy (that we have collected from our previous life or previous time in this life and brought forward) that we can tap into to make our lives better. For example, if we did a lot of charity and we fed a lot of homeless people, and we did it for many years, and we did it whole-heartedly (we did it with a lot of love and care). That is positive energy or, in some languages, positive karma. And so when you collect that, that will bring us ‘luck’ eventually, because we have done something good.

Kechara Soup Kitchen was founded by H.E. Tsem Rinpoche to serve homeless and underprivileged communities in Malaysia

So therefore, instead of looking at whether we have luck or not, or looking for a deity or a God, or some spiritual resource or person to give us luck. We have to take charge of our lives and create luck. How do we create luck? We create luck by making our minds light, being very kind to people around us; not to be taken advantage of. If someone’s trying to take advantage, of course you don’t allow that. But to be kind to people, to make our minds light, to do a little bit of meditation everyday (it doesn’t have to be spiritual meditation, it can be meditation on the breath). We can google and we can check meditation on the breath. Breath meditation for ten to fifteen minutes a day to release the mental toxins, and release the stress, release the unhappiness that we have and feel lighter. We can do little meditations everyday about the things that we have in life. And what’s important is to watch documentaries. There are millions of documentaries online, about (sorry to say) people in poor countries, in poor ghettos (like in New York, the poor suburbs and ghettos in the projects), in Africa, in South America…Even the poverty you have in Europe, where people have money, but they have a sense of deep loneliness and suicidal. That’s very deep poverty. Like in Asia there are countries that are poor.

Meditate daily to relieve stress and feel lighter

So when we watch these documentaries, I don’t want to say, “compare our lives to these people and feel we are so good, and they are not doing well”, because it’s not a matter of judging them. It’s a matter of saying, “look, there are people much worse than us”. And if we realise that, we understand that, we feel a little light. We’re not targeted in life to not have luck. We’re not the only target. Destiny is not our only target. So when we feel our luck is down and some sifu or master or someone told us our luck is down, what we need to do is stop looking for a supernatural remedy (which doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but there are no shortcuts), but to start doing things. Start doing things with our lives to create luck. Start doing charity. Start volunteering in a homeless place. Start volunteering in an orphanage. Start volunteering in places that people need to be washed and cleaned (elderly places). We can start creating that luck by doing good things back for society. And when we do that, and we do that continuously, we kind of grow our luck, we kind of grow our good fortune, and along the way, we find some type of release because we realise that our life isn’t as bad as other people.

So therefore, to always say we don’t have luck…That could be the case, or it could not be the case. But to always say that we don’t have luck, and to wait for something to happen and wait for someone to give us luck, or change our destiny in the future, then it may never happen because nothing in life comes from no effort. I repeat. Nothing in life comes from no effort. Sometimes, that’s how our life is right now. So there might be another question that comes to mind, which is, “is my destiny and fate sealed?”, “is my luck sealed?”, “is it, that’s it and there’s nothing else and it can’t change?”. Absolutely not.

So if we do something, if we want a better job, perhaps we have to go get education (part time) to further our knowledge so that we are qualified to get a better job. If we want to meet friends, maybe we have to go places that we meet the kind of friends we want to meet. Doing ‘negative’ things such as drinking and alcohol, and drugs, and excessive partying and all that… Those are not ways to meet people or improve our lives or do better things with our lives. We have to do positive things to bring positive things into our lives.

So what’s important is, no, our luck is not stuck. Our fate is not stuck. And if it was stuck, then every single human being on this planet, past, present and the future, can never improve their lives. And we have seen, over time, there are people who are in much worse and dire situations than us, who have improved their lives through sheer effort, tenacity, consistency and focus. So if we have tenacity, consistency and focus, and we’re constant about it…definitely some result will come. Maybe for some of us, the result takes a little longer. Maybe for some of us, the result takes a little less. But the result will come. Therefore, we shouldn’t think that we’re stuck with our bad luck (if there is such a thing), and we shouldn’t think that’s it and whatever the soothsayer tells us…that’s it and we’re stuck that way. The important thing is to not give up hope and not to always look for supernatural remedies. The important thing is to say, “look, let’s do the best we can day by day, by effort, consistency, and trial and error”. That’s very important.

And then along with that, whatever faith we are, maybe we can do a little prayer. We can do a little meditation on the divinity that we believe in (because all religions are the same) and it doesn’t matter which one we believe in; all are equal. We can do a little meditation on a divinity to visualise lights coming from the divinity and entering us and blessing us. In the Buddhist faith, in my particular lineage, we can visualise the enlightened Buddha, Dorje Shugden, floating in front of me and I recite his mantra, ‘OM BENZA WIKI BITANA SOHA’. I chant it slowly and rhythmically, to the number I’m comfortable with, that time allows. And then I visualise lights coming from him and entering my body and clearing me of sickness and illness, and especially mental toxicity. And I become light and I become clear and I become encouraged, I become enforced, I become recharged. It’s like, when you do this meditation, you’re going to a far away Caribbean island spa to rejuvenate your body, but in this case, the spa is in your mind, the spa is in front of you. You rejuvenate your mind with this meditation, every single day.

Dorje Shugden

And you don’t have to be a Buddhist to do this, because (as I said) divinity blesses everyone, regardless of what religion you are. Religion and the label of religion, and what religion, are labels made by humans. They don’t really exist. If it’s a divinity and we contact them, and they’re good divinities, they will always help us and assist us, no matter what religion. So let’s say that I’m a Buddhist. Let’s say that you may be an atheist, you may be a Hindu, you may be a Jain, or you may be a Jew, or whatever you are. Let’s say that you meditate on Dorje Shugden and ask for help. Of course Dorje Shugden will bless you and assist you and help you. It doesn’t matter what religion you are because this being has compassion. Divinity has compassion, and love, and care, and positive energy.

Now if we don’t believe in divinity meditation, that’s fine. We can meditate on our breath and we can meditate on the things that we have in our life that have gone well and focus on that. So in a nutshell…

1. We can definitely respect soothsayers, and fortune tellers, and psychics, but we don’t necessarily have to live our lives around them and be stuck and be doomed or be afraid. We can definitely do something about it.
2. Luck is a force that comes from the good things we have done, and that energy is there, stored and potent, for us to tap into. How do we tap into it? When we want to do something, that energy will open.
3. Fate is not something stuck. We’re not fated for just this, this, this… If we do nothing about it, we seal our fate. If we do something about it, we can change our fate. Fate can be changed, otherwise no one in the world can improve their lives.

The last thing is not to leave things, to always ascribe it to a supernatural being that’s doing something negative to us. Yes, there are negative entities. Sometimes they can harm us, but that’s not always the case. But if we do the meditation on Dorje Shugden every day, then definitely negative entities cannot disturb us. Why? Negative entities are afraid of positive thinking, positive energy and compassion. So if we develop kindness, we do good things to other people, and we have good intentions, and we live our lives that way…negative energy, negative entities are not attracted to that. They can’t do anything much.

Alright? So we can definitely change our luck, and nothing is stuck. I hope this will help people. I’ll put this on YouTube and all that. And I hope this will help people who have this kind of question and I want people (after listening to my little sharing) not to think that they’re stuck, they’re fated, and they can’t do anything about their lives. Of course you can. Just will it, wish it, do it and be consistent, and make a real genuine change, and it can happen.

Thank you.
Tsem Rinpoche.