Negative Side of Art of Fortune Telling

There are many people now who are attarcted to the art of Feng Shui. Once people learn Feng Shui, they will naturally learn Bazi too. That's the art of fortune telling based on the date and hour of birth of the person. There are many positive aspects of fortune telling. If done correctly, you could possibly direct a person to much fulfilment in life. Perhaps you will be more certain of which career you should be pursuing, and what are the pitfalls you should watch out for.

I know one tarot reader who read the "fortune" of a young lady. Based on the cards on display, he saw that one baby of hers will die or perhaps had died. But he was careful not to jump to conclusions. Instead he advised her that she should take care of her health for her pregnancy. After careful and wise probings, the lady revealed to him that he had indeed had a baby that died after a few months pregnancy. And thankfully, this tarot reader didnot ask for thousands of dollars in return for "washing away sins" or anything like that. I think that this tarot reader is much wiser than a lot of other fortune tellers.

The problem with Bazi reading (like palm reading, face reading and others) is that it gives the person whom it is read a feeling of his/her destiny being etched permanently. That's what most Bazi readers will tell you, i.e. you can't change your destiny. But then, those unscrupulous readers will then offer "extra services" to their clients for "purify" away those bad fortunes that they have predicted. And these "extra services" often are costly. I think it is irresponsible for such fortune tellers to be telling a happy couple (with no affairs at all at that time) that one of them will be having affairs and that he/she can purify away such misfortune by paying him thousands of dollars. He would tell the couple he has a Thai master or he knows of some Thai monks who can look into past lives and with some prayers he can eliminate the potential affair. Lots of couples have fallen for that and have parted with thousands of dollars to such unscrupulous fortune tellers. I know of men whose wives had never had any doubt on them before, would thereafter start worrying if their husbands will cheat on the wives. And the wives continue to give their husbands headache after headache and not a shadow of any mistress can be seen...yet.

And those people with mistresses, they often failed to see that coming. Take a peron I know for instance. Her husband was caught having an affair. When she came to me to voice her frustrations, I asked her if she had ever had her fortune read based on her date of birth or palms, and she confirmed that her fortune teller told her that she will not suffer from her spouse having affairs.

Then there was another case of a young girl who was told that her current boyfriend would not be her future husband but would be parting from her soon. Her daughter was told that she will meet another guy (much older than her) who is rich but will not have a smooth lovey-dovey life with her. The good news is, according to the fortune teller, is that this "future husband" of hers will die young and she will inherit his wealth. Due to this fortune telling, Guess what was the consequence of that "fortune telling"? The mother, who was there with her daughter when the fortune was read, advised her daughter not to be so committed to her current boyfriend after that. What do you think about that? For me, this is pure silliness. It's like trying to make the fortune teller's "story" come true. It's ridiculous!

Then I know one person told my mother that she will be lucky this year and will win the lottery or 4-Digit numbers. My poor mother believed her and spend a lot of money buying numbers. If I know who give her that advice, I will sure pay him/her a visit and give him/her a piece of my mind. But I will have to take the risk of adding some negative karma as a result of any anger for I will sure give him a good scolding.

Face reading is even worse. Those with crooked nose are said to be dishonest, manipulative and cannot be trusted. I think I have read that somewhere. There are feng shui masters who had even publish this in newspapers and magazines. But yet, they have the cheek to put in a caveat to advise people not to be judgemental. Now, how do we not be judgemental when you have already warned us about people with crooked nose? Just imagine how people with crooked nose will feel. They will surely feel humiliated. And worse, if human resource managers in every corporation were to know about this and believe it. Then people with crooked nose will never get a decent job.

Look, even if those "affairs" and "split with current boyfriend" are in the destiny charts, we know that in Buddhism nothing is inherently there. The same is true for our destiny. Destiny is not just made up of previous karma, but fresh new causes and condition that keep coming together and changing all the time. It is never carved in steel. There is no such thing as a destiny book where all our lives' paths are written. It's a fiction. A myth. Even if there is, we will realise that the writings on the book keeps on changing every moment. So, our destiny's constantly changing. The palm and time of birth only captures a snapshot of our destiny at a particular point in time. It's like a Balance Sheet. If you know accounting, a Balance Sheet captures a snapshot of the asset and liabilities of the company on a certain date. The next day's Balance Sheet will look different. Same with our destiny. It keeps on changing based on fresh causes and conditions that are very complicated and inter-dependent. Never fall for fatalistic comments by irresponsible or unwise people. They are unwise because they could have given better dharma advice to these people so that they could make their own decisions on a better platform.

There are many other examples that can be cited here that tell of irresponsible fortune tellers who not only not helping people but end up ruining the very lives they are suppsoed to help. Isn't that a pity? More negative karma created for themselves, probably.

Remember this - OUR DESTINY IS ALWAYS IN OUR OWN HANDS...I don't mean it's those lines on your palms. But I mean, DON'T LET FORTUNE TELLING DECIDE 100%FOR US, ...You can consider what was said by the fortune teller ...BUT YOU SHOULD DECIDE BASE ON A SOUNDER PLATFORM, i.e. on WISDOM and COMPASSION... and definitely, LOADS OF COMMON SENSE.

Prayer Needed From You

Someone is undergoing surgery right now at a local hospital to remove a tumour from her brain. For each of my reader, please recite at least 10 times "Na Mo Kuan Shih Yin Pu Sa" or more for ET Yeoh and pray to Kuan Yin to remove all obstacles from the surgery so that the tumour will be removed without any complications, and that she recover fully and completely therafter.

Do it now. Only 10 times if you do not have the time. Thank you.

Tips on Mo Divination

For the benefit of Buddhists worldwide, let me share with you a few good uses of the Tibetan Mo divination. Let's say, you know someone who has been diagnosed with some serious illness and you do not know which doctor/hospital will be good for him/her where the surgery will be successful or that will aid in his/her quick recovery. In this case, you can consult a Mo divination and see a good Lama or a lay practitioner of this type of divination. And there are experts in this field who are not necessarily high lamas/rinpoches. The accuracy of this divination depends largely on how expert the person is and how sincere he is in helping the seeker.

When you consult a Mo expert, you should first list out your options. For instance, in the case above, you options might be: -

1. Doctor A of Hospital A
2. Doctor B of Hospital B
3. Doctor C of Hospital C
4. Doctor D of Hospital D
5. Doctor E of Hospital E

It is best to have at least 5 options. That's because the MO divination comes with 5 results. But, you should have at least 3 options. You are discouraged to have only 2 options. You see, if you don't provide yourself options, there could be other options that are better and you are not putting these on the table for consultation. Hence, sometimes when things do not work out, or less than expectations, you cannot blame the MO divination nor the consultant, but yourself for not giving yourself enough options during the MO consultations.

Next, is to construct your "question" carefully. What is it you want to consult? Your question must be single-minded and focused. You cannot put 2 or 3 things into one question. For example, in the case above, you can construct your sentence in these ways: -

1. Would the patient's eye operations be successful if he/she visits Dr. A of Hospital A? (in this question, you are focusing on successful operation)

2. Would the patient have the best chance of recovery post surgery by visiting Dr. A of Hospital A? (in this question, you are focusing of post-surgery recovery)

Other example on property selection and job selection are:

1. Will this property provide the owners with wealth? (this question focuses on wealth only. Again I caution against putting many things such as "..wealth, good career, have many children". Don't be greedy. If you need to, do each one seperately.)

2. Will I, by accepting job offer X, be able to gain quick promotions? (this one focuses on promotions and not annual increments, bonuses, harmony with colleagues, etc) You can consult this if you receive more than one job offer and you are not sure which to accept.

Of course, you can generalise by using the word "happiness", but it will dilute the focus of the divination. You may get happiness, but in what way? You won't know. You get what I mean?

A good Mo expert will be able to extract from you what you really want and may even help you focus on what you want. This is important because the expert is going to focus on that question and different focus will give different results.

Hence, you should choose your questions carefully and ask the divination to consult for you by asking the same question over all your options. Remember that it is possible to come up with more than one "Excellent" results. If that is the case, then you can go for either options. It does not matter. Again, remember how you had asked the Expert or Lama the question. How he phrases the question while doing the divination is important! If got two same results, it could also mean the "question" might need to be rephrased in another way to determine which one you should choose (i.e. by looking into other aspects of the issue you are consulting).

For those who do not know what is Mo divination, can always search in the internet. But the above are some tips from me based on my personal experiences while seeking Mo consultations and other types of divinations. I was having some "issues" and I was seeking answers from divinations. I learn some of these through one expert (who is not a Lama) and some through my own realisation via "trial and errors" while doing the "seeking". You get what I mean? I realise that how you ask the questions also makes a difference. But I am not a Mo expert. I just know how to approach a Mo divination with an expert. Nevertheless I am sharing these knoweldge and "tips" with you so that you know what to do... not every Lama or Mo expert will know these "tips". So, use it carefully and wisely for the benefit of all sentient beings. Don't let my tips go to waste for trivial purposes. If used wisely, it could be a tool of your own Bodhicitta activities.

Garden of Bliss

I know a spiritual dream when I have one. This morning I woke up early and remembered what I dreamed. I had dreamed of a friend who is currently in the US. I dreamed that he was at a temple explaining something. Then he also mentioned that he had to lead a group of students to Mt. Hiei (in the dream I had the thinking this is in Japan where there is a temple associated with the tendai buddhist tradition) and another place.

But the real dream that I wanted to record here is I dreamed that I went up a dark path and went up a mountain/hill. I donot know what mountain is that but at the top I did my meditation. I dreamt I did my meditation there for quite a long period of time and my wife had to support my daily needs there. Up there in the mountain I had a glimpse of a very beautiful garden of flowers. It was so beautiful, it was out of this world. More beautiful than those at Kopan Monastery, Nepal. It was not only beautiful but there was a blissful feeling there. It made me think it was the Pure Land or something. It reminded me of the time I dreamt of certain parts of my hometown where the road was not made of tar and rocks, but lapis lazuli. Yes, I had dreamt of this dirty Earth of ours turned into Pure Land. But it happened only once. And now the garden of bliss on this mountain top... I don't know what to say.

Or, was the blissful feeling from my dream-meditation? I am not sure, but I certainly felt blissful in my dream. It was very strange and the memory of the blissful feeling is now stuck in my mind. O-dear! Attachment.

2012: Chinese Astrology and Mayan Prophecy

If it was just the Mayan prophecy, I would not have thought so much on the doomsday Year 2012 prediction. However if the chinese astrology also says it, wouldn't we pay more attention to it?

It was only recently that I read in Lillian Too's World of Feng Shui magazine (March/April 2010 edition) that 2012 will be a "turbulent" year. In fact she said that the next 3 years will be bad years. The Year of the Rabbit was described as "clashing" year, while the Year of the Snake as "fire battling with water" year. She didnot give further details except to say that only in 2014 will it be a more "palatable" year.

It was when a colleague asked me what year will be the year of the dragon that I realised Lillian Too's prediction of worst things to come in the following years apparently supports the Mayan prophecy of the end of the world. While we donot know how bad is "turbulent" and "fire battling with water", we can probably assume that whatever that is going to happen in 2012, the bad effects of it will continue to be felt after that, perhaps way into 2013 and only slightly improving in 2014.

And if you think the fengshui theories are wrong, you should be informed that Lillian Too had predicted more earthquakes to come after the big one at Haiti. One particular master even accurately predicted the earthquake in Chile. That's because according to fengshui, the South-West sector is "5 killing" sector and is a bad sector (to put it in simple language). And Chile and the surrounding countries are at that sector of the globe. Another sector said to be the 2nd worst is the North-East. And Lillian Too and this other master (and perhaps many others) also said that a disaster (or major disease, etc) in China or Taiwan is also very possible in the Year iof the Tiger. This type of geographical fengshui prediction is seldom wrong. But, we'll still hope it is wrong. Furthermore, it is believed also that the Western astrology also indicated something negative, similar to the Chinese astrology. It is something on the planets of Neptune, Jupiter, etc also shows something "bad" that's going to happen in the next few years.

Hence, I believe that some major dissaster is indeed looming in the horizon in the next few years. But I trust it will not be the end of the world. Nevertheless many people on a global scale will be affected by it. And needless to say, perhaps many death too. I am not an expert in the astrological things, but the recent events in Haiti and Chile and shifting of the Earth's axis, and the predictions by the astrological experts have made me think that we cannot deny or simply brush it away as nonsense.

Moreover, I also realised that I had dreamed about major floods (perhaps tsunami?) that hit my home town quite a few times. I never understood these dreams till now. Maybe one day I will relate more of my dreams later. I do think that perhaps it is a prophetic dream of what's to come. I don't know, ...perhaps I am thinking too much.

Newsflash: The next morning (4 Mar, 2010) after I wrote the above (wrote on night of Wed, 3/3/10), there was this news of a major earthquake in Taiwan (North-East). There will probably be more to come. This occurence jives with the fengshui predictions.

Note: Since the above post was written, I have written other blog posts on 2012. Read those posts under the subject "2012" on the left side of the home page. Please go to the homepage to read other dharma posts too. Don't be so obssessed with 2012.