The Three Best Ways To Predict The Future
– a Buddhist view on fortune telling
Karma is a word that comes from the Sanskrit language meaning action.
In Western thinking, karma has connotations about destiny and fixed outcomes. Or, it is often in kitchen philosophy linked to some esoteric external influence, almost like a force or divine function of the universe.
A funny version of this is the trivialisation of a philosophical concept. We hear people say: “I have such bad karma”.
Once, I overheard two ladies talking at the counter of a department store: “Can you believe Sally, I have such terrible bra karma! This one is the third that I had to return because of broken stripes!”
What has this to do with fortune-telling? Nothing and everything.
We believe that some things and circumstances are given. “Why do I always fall in love with a married woman?” Bad love karma, supposedly. Or: “I always miss the bus” — very unfortunate transportation karma.
It is easier for us to be a victim than take full responsibility. Nichiren Daishonin (1222–1282) wrote in one of his most cited and famous treatises, Opening of They Eyes:
“If you want to understand the causes that existed in the past, look at the results as they are manifested in the present. And if you want to understand what results will be manifested in the future, look at the causes that exist in the present.”
That is, in a nutshell, the law of karma and how it works. We are not victims of some external and often unfair force that dictates the outcomes of our life.
We create our karma by living our life.
Every moment we make causes that simultaneously contain also the consequences. Those effects of our causes may take a while and the right circumstances to become a reality, but the results will surely come.
One often misunderstood aspect of karma is the simultaneity of the cause and effect. Those two aspects of karma are one but sometimes manifest themselves apart from each other timewise.
We cannot do anything without implanting the potential effects in our lives simultaneously.
Like Nichiren Daishonin insightfully tells us to look at the results you are living now to understand what causes you made in the past and, similarly, think about what kind of causes you make to predict the future.
So, what are then the three essential and unavoidable methods we can use to predict the future and understand the past? How does our karma formulate or become the Gordian Knot we need to open and become the Alexander the Great of our life?
Thoughts
The first stop is our thoughts. Everything we think is a cause. Neuroscience has shown how our thoughts are linked to every part of our body. Our nerves and electrochemical processes transfer information back and forth in our bodies. Our mind is one with our physical existence. The changes in our minds change everything in our bodies and vice versa.
If you want to predict your future, observe your thoughts now. If your thoughts are gloomy and full of negative emotions, the effects will be gloomy and negative, too. It is too easy to let our minds wander and trick us into believing that what happens in our heads has no long-term effect, but that’s a trap.
Our thoughts are the most powerful tool to predict the future. Dare to think big, and your future becomes bigger. Evil in our minds pollutes the lands. Nichiren Daishonin wrote in 1253:
“…if the minds of living beings are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds”.
Words
The second stop in predicting the future is our words, or how we talk and express ourselves in spoken and written language. Words carry meaning and intentions but sometimes blur, hide, and lie.
In many ways, social media has emphasised destructive language, violence and cruelty. The effects of that language are easy to see. The civility is so forgotten that our communications are filled with cynicism and clever cruelty — or just plain stupidity.
We don’t need to have a crystal ball to see the effects of the language we use. Just listen and read the words and imagine the consequences. They will manifest for sure — like the terrible war in Ukraine due to the rhetoric Putin has been diligently implanting in the Russians.
Deeds
And then the last step is to look at the deeds. Our actions matter. Often they are the visible outcome of our secret thoughts and whispered words.
Talking about Russians — the outstanding playwright and Physician Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904) wrote something along these lines: if there is a rifle on stage, you need to fire it at least once before the play is over.
We must be careful what kind of play we are part of and what weapons we use. If we think that life is a battle and then use the language of war, the tool we use to carry out our actions will likely kill somebody or all of us.
It is easy to judge by the actions, but the deep-rooted causes are in the thoughts and language.
So, now we know the three powerful tools to use when predicting the future. Thoughts, words and deeds create our karma. It is not fixed or destiny set by some external force but by our choices.
Predicting becomes easy if we take full responsibility for those three aspects of our karma creation. After all, we can hide our motives and thoughts from others but not from ourselves if we are honest. And honesty is the way out from the vicious circles of bad karma — whether bras or world peace.
About the Creator
Jussi Luukkonen
I'm a writer and a speakership coach passionate about curious exploration of life.
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