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DIVINATION, MAGIC, LUCK AND FATE |
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Divination
is the supposed ability to tell the future and magic is a power that
is supposed to be able to change the course of natural events by
other than normal means. Luck is a quality which, if a person has it,
is able to confer on him or her success or happiness while fate is
the supposed pre-determined course of all events. |
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The Buddha dubbed all these things 'base arts' and expressly forbade his monks and nuns to practise them (D.I,9). He said that a good monk 'will not chant magic charms, interperate dreams or signs or practise astrology' (āthabbaṇaṃ supinaṃ lakkhanaṃ no vidahe atho pi nakkhanaṃ, Sn.927). In one of the most severe rebukes he ever made, he also said that any lay disciple of his who believed in or practiced these superstitions would be 'the outcaste, the stain, the scum of the lay community' (A.III,206). The Tipiṭaka lists some of the people who may be reborn in purgatory; among them are executioners, butchers, slanderers, corrupt judges and fortune-tellers (S.II,255-61). The
Buddha was probably opposed to all these superstitions for several
reasons. Firstly, the belief in luck and fate contradicts the
teaching of kamma. The practice of divination and magic is
inevitably related to a concern with wealth and thus reinforces
ignorance and greed. Fortune telling and the hawking of magic charms
and amulets usually involve fraud, dishonesty and cheating.
Paradoxically, all these superstitions are widely accepted as true in
most Buddhist countries today and are often practised by monks. See
Astrology and Blessing. |
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