Yep, it’s actually stopped for a while! Remarkable. It’s very, very cold though. Hits you in the bones. So it’s a day at home again. A day to muse on the world in general and the winners and the losers in particular too. And fairness or lack of it. Sometimes there is nothing to be done it seems. So what is good luck then?
The dictionary defines luck as ‘believing that whatever happens, either good or bad, to a person in the course of events is due to chance, fate or fortune.’ The Buddha denied this belief completely. Everything that happens has a specific cause or causes and there must be some relationships between the cause and the effect. Becoming sick, for example, has specific causes. One must come into contact with germs and one’s body must be weak enough for the germs to establish themselves. There is a definite relationship between the cause (germs and a weakened body) and the effect (sickness) because we know that germs attack the organisms and give rise to sickness. But no relationship can be found wearing a piece of paper with words written on it and being rich or passing examinations. Buddhism teaches that whatever happens does so because of a cause or causes and not due to luck, chance or fate. People who are interested in luck are always trying to get something – usually more money and wealth.
We can find if we dig deep enough some causation for much of what happens to us most of the time. Sometimes we abandon ourselves to hope but miracles are still rare enough.
Other religions are of course available 🙂
A relative has had recently in almost equal measure good and perhaps bad fortune. It may be that for them this is as good as it gets. But at present to resolve their particular situation they look for a remedy that may or may not exist. Should they wait to see if a better hand is dealt them or cut their losses?
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