I'm not sure this has anything to do with Nichiren Buddhism, but I found it interesting. I know many people -- including myself -- who report that when they chant more, they feel more "in rhythm" or more fortunate, luckier.
Here's a fellow who says that "luck" is mostly a matter of relaxation, being open to the new and unexpected, and trusting your intuition.
It's tempting to ascribe a perceived boost in "luck" to mystical aspects of chanting: Oh look! a miraculous parking space just appeared! It must be because I did gongyo this morning!
But maybe the increase in luck is real. And maybe it's not mystical at all. Maybe chanting helps us to relax, open our minds, let go of expectations and trust our guts. More from the article after the jump....
In the wake of these studies, I think there are three easy techniques that can help to maximise good fortune:* Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches. Lucky people are interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation. I think this helps them because gut feelings act as an alarm bell - a reason to consider a decision carefully.
* Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine. They tend to take the same route to and from work and talk to the same types of people at parties. In contrast, many lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives. For example, one person described how he thought of a colour before arriving at a party and then introduced himself to people wearing that colour. This kind of behaviour boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety.
* Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagine how things could have been worse. In one interview, a lucky volunteer arrived with his leg in a plaster cast and described how he had fallen down a flight of stairs. I asked him whether he still felt lucky and he cheerfully explained that he felt luckier than before. As he pointed out, he could have broken his neck.
Read the whole article here.
2 comments
Is the glass half empty, half full, or just too big? I've a few stories like this, but this one will serve. On my way to my brother in law's house to watch a basketball playoff game, I was t-boned in an intersection, in my driver's side door, by a kid with no insurance who ran a red light at 50 mph. Totaled both vehicles. It's not the first time this has happened to me. His passenger in the back seat looked like he was shot in the chest because of so much blood on his shirt. People kept asking me if I was oaky. I told them I needed a minute to take inventory. Besides I was still watching Tweety Bird, Sylvester The Cat, and Yosemite Sam circle my head while each of them in said "Hiya Joe". What I was immediately aware of, and "aware" is the ironically operative word, was that there were people there, passersby, offering help. In fact the police officer who offered and indeed escorted me home was my neighbor. I didn't recognize him because he was in uniform, which for me was out of uniform and context. Simile? One of my best friends, my Buddhist mentor in study, has a saying: I love it when things go right. I wont go into my argument about karma and why, because of it's subjectivity, it remains an unprovable hypothesis, regardless of what Deepak Chopra, T.Z. Knight, or anyone else for that matter, claim. I will state, however, that because of my Buddhist practice of daily looking at all aspects of my life, I have become hyper sensitive to the mundane. We all noticed and complain about things that don't happen the way we expect them to and we label that "wrong" or negative. The only thing that makes them "wrong" is the label we assign to it. Perhaps that's the real power of the Lotus Sutra. All of us who are reading this have been born, we are going to suffer occasionally, and then we are going to die one day. How marvelous that we are aware of this. It's so precious that we fabricate scenarios extending our sense of self continuing on into other existences and surround that belief with ritualized organizations we are willing to die for. But on a daily bases, I love it when things go right.
I appreciate your pointing out this article, Brooke. Joe, thank you for elaborating.Awareness is a key word, I agree. Sensitivity. Something more than "luck."To me the word luck implies that the individual has no influence on what happens. I am not suggesting that we can control our own destiny. as Joe points out, we will die, and we know neither how nor when. Yet we can develop our sensitivity to what's going on around us and, most important, what's going on in our own heart.I think of Nichiren, naturally, when he was banished, living in a precarious state, without a reliable supply of food and water, enduring extreme cold and extreme heat. What did he say? He declared himself to be the most fortunate person in the nation. Why? Because he grasped the meaning of the Lotus Sutra.By today's standards, not many people would see Nichiren as a lucky man.