2. How to obtain a good life - Luck?

Everybody wants to have a good life. However, until today, how many of us have really achieved this? For those who are already past their sixties, ask frankly to yourself, have you lived the way you wanted?

Many of us may not have lived the way we wanted. Why is this so? There are of course many reasons to this. My many years of searching for the answers has led to me the conclusion that many people believe that they would be able to live the way they wanted if they had better "luck" in their early days.

“LUCK” is what many people believe in. They believe that luck plays an important role in life. They believe that besides being hardworking, honest, the academic qualifications and etc., “luck” is still necessary to make things happened. They quote examples after examples. Some even quoted to me the famous film show “My Fair Lady” in which the song, titled “With a little bit of luck" to justify their claims!

What do you think? Is there such a thing as “luck”? Do you believe in luck?
Here I would like to share with you some of my findings from my travels to many places during these last 10 years of my life. I met people from different parts of the world and from different walks of life. I realize that most people are not sure of what they mean when they say by "being lucky”. Some believe that "luck" just happen by chance. I find that Japanese can interpret the word" luck" with clearer expression.

The Japanese word for “luck” is ”運”(pronounce as “wun”). ”運” can be good or bad. But ”運” is customary followed by another word ”気” (pronounced as “qi”) which means energy. Let me quote here what a Japanese had said to me,"When “運気” goes up, you can attract good luck or fortune. When the “運気” comes down, you'll attract bad luck." This is similar to the Chinese belief that when one’s essence of positive energy “福” becomes strong, life is good. Things go smoothly. Everything is fine. Most Japanese think this way too. Hence, we need to create the causes and conditions for “福” or "運気" to take place in one’s life.

Buddhists believe that we have sown the seeds of both good and bad Karma in our countless past lives. If the seeds of good Karma manifest in this life in abundance, we will have a good life, no doubt about this. But if we lack the “福” in this life, we shall have obstacles. However, we can remove these obstacles. We do this by prayers and merit accumulations.
Buddha has taught many ways to increase our “福” (merit accumulations). Thailand is a Buddhist country. They take the advice of Buddha very seriously. They go to “taan bun” (merit accumulations) whenever and wherever they can.

On 21st Feb. was an important day for the Thais. The day was known as "Makha Bucha" Day. It was the 15th of 1st Lunar Month, a full moon day. It is an auspicious day for both Thais and Chinese. Traditionally, it is the last day to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The Makha Bucha Day is for merit accumulations. On that day, the Thai Buddhists circled around temples or holy stupas with candles in the evening. (Enclosed here are some of the pictures taken in Wat Phra Sri, Bangkok. Wat Phra Sri is only 20 minutes of walking distance from where I live.) The Makha Bucha Day is a public holiday in Thailand. Millions of Buddhists all over Thailand go to monasteries in the evening to do "wian tian" (candle circling), which is one of the important events in Thai Buddhism.

When we do merit accumulations in this life, it may help to kindle the seeds of merits sown in our past lives. We don't know exactly which kind of good deeds we have done in this life that would help to kindle the seeds of good Karma done in the past lives. Therefore, try to do as many different types of good deeds and as much as possible. There is no such thing as we have done enough good deeds in this life already. If you have such a thought, it boils down to the same thing by saying that "I have enough money already!". I have never heard people saying that they had enough money already. But I always heard people saying, "I have done enough merit accumulations already!"

This is the mistake many people made. Like money, Hock （福）is being used up moment to moment in our life. We transform our Hock （福）in life energy in order to carry on living and dying and living daily, moment to moment in our life. Hock （福） is being destroyed at the moment our defilement (e.g. pride, jealousy, greed, etc... ) appear in our mind. Hock （福）can be decreased and increased moment to moment in our life. So, it's very important to keep on increasing our Hock（福）. Spending some money or efforts to do good deeds are similar to investing in blue chip stocks. There will definitely be good returns in the future.

Merits （福）are accumulated from generosity practices with right motivation (i.e. compassion and loving kindness) . The merits--Hock（福）-- gathered in this way would definitely help to kindle further seeds of merit planted in the past. When abundant seeds of merits ripen in this life, we would definitely have our wishes come true.
For certain, a good and wonderful life is attainable. Some people may think this is just "lucky".

In conclusion, "luck" does not happen by chance or at random. "Luck" is dependent on its own causes and conditions to bloom. We can plant the seeds of these causes and conditions for it to blossom through accumulation of merits--Hock （福）.