Buddhism Made Simple

Good and Bad Luck

Myokyo, July 2018

Have you ever considered the events that you experience in your life as being lucky or
unlucky or as having good or bad fortune? For example, some of you might have said, “I’m
lucky today! I got paid my allowance,” or “I was running in the hallway at school and
bumped into my teacher. I was so unlucky!”
What does “fortune” mean, when we speak of having good or bad fortune? Also, is it
possible to use our own power to change things that we deem to be lucky or unlucky?
What is Luck or Fortune?
A certain dictionary describes “luck” in the following way: “A phenomenon that brings
forth good fortune or bad fortune and changes conditions, which is brought about by chance
and cannot be manipulated by human power. A chance encounter. Destiny.”
Another dictionary entry states: “Providence. A good or bad phenomenon that occurs by
chance. A phenomenon controlling the ways of the world, which is beyond human wisdom
or power.”
In this way, luck is also characterized as destiny and fate. People are made to feel that
good and bad events occur without any connection to their will or capability. Luck is
considered to be a function beyond the thoughts or powers of people, which brings about
happiness or unhappiness in their lives.
However, if it is true that the happiness or unhappiness of people is predetermined
regardless of their capabilities and efforts, then consequently, it would not be worthwhile to
do anything to change it, since everything is determined by destiny anyway.
Furthermore, there are many people in the world who support fatalistic concepts and
believe that negative outcomes occur because of bad luck and that it is not a problem to
engage in bad deeds, if you have good luck.
Is it true that our happiness and unhappiness are determined by fate and that we cannot
change it?
The Principle of Cause and Effect Expounded in True Buddhism

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Nichiren Daishonin states the following in “The Strategy of the Lotus Sutra” ("Shijo
Kingo dono gohenji"):
When one comes to the end of his good fortune, no strategy whatsoever will avail. When
one’s blessings are exhausted, even his retainers will no longer follow him.

(Gosho, p. 1407; MW-1, p. 245)

Here, the Daishonin teaches us that all things will proceed in a negative direction when our
good fortune runs out and the good karmic effects from the causes we made in our previous
lifetimes are exhausted.
Buddhism instructs us that, if we amass good causes (positive karmic actions), we will
invite good effects. If we amass bad causes (negative karmic actions), we will bring forth
bad effects.
This process is described through the principles of the retribution of cause and effect.
Good causes produce good effects, and bad causes produce bad effects.
In other words, the fortunate and unfortunate events that occur in our lives are all effects
of our own deeds that we amassed in our past lifetimes. According to the principle of cause
and effect, those who accumulated negative deeds in their past lifetimes will receive
negative effects in their present life.
There is no doubt that these people are suffering the consequences of their own actions,
since they brought it upon themselves. However, is it possible to change the negative effects
brought on by the bad causes that they previously made?
The Tremendous Power of the Gohonzon
The Daishonin wrote the following in the “Reply to Kyo’o” ("Kyo’o dono-gohenji"):
Exert your efforts, increase your faith, and pray to this Gohonzon. What is there that you
cannot achieve?

(Gosho, p. 685, Summarized)

Furthermore, he expounded the following in the Gosho “On Immutable and Mutable
Karma” ("Ka'enjogo-gosho"):
Sincere repentance will make even immutable karma vanish. How much more is this so
with mutable karma.

(Gosho, p. 760)
The karma that we have amassed from past lifetimes (our good and bad deeds) is referred
to as karmic effects (shuku go), and the karma that we are already decidedly set to receive
is known as immutable karma (jo go).

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Thus, even if there are those who have amassed negative karma in the past and are set
to suffer the negative effects of those deeds in this lifetime, if they believe in the Gohonzon
inscribed by the Daishonin and if they sincerely chant Daimoku and pray to the Gohonzon,
they can expiate their sins (karmic deeds that prevent people from attaining enlightenment)
and they can be led to enlightenment, the life condition of supreme happiness.
High Priest Nichinyo Shonin stated the following about this matter:
We have encountered the Dai-Gohonzon, our supreme karmic bond, and so, based on
the great benefits of Myoho-Renge-Kyo, even if we have amassed the worst karmic
causes from the past, we can change our lives according to the principles of changing
poison into medicine, earthly desires are enlightenment, the sufferings of birth and death
are in themselves nirvana, and the saha world is in itself the land of eternally tranquil
light.

(Dainichiren, February 2006)

As this explanation teaches us, based on the tremendous benefits of the Dai-Gohonzon
of the High Sanctuary of the Essential Teaching, we are able to change poison into medicine;
to transform the delusions of common mortals into the enlightenment of the Buddha; to
convert the suffering of birth and death into the life condition of Buddhahood; and to
transform the chaotic land into the peaceful realm of the Buddha.
Tremendous Good Fortune
Some time ago, the Sixty-seventh High Priest Nikken Shonin stated:
We have achieved the tremendous good fortune of being able to uphold before our very
eyes the Dai-Gohonzon of the High Sanctuary of the Essential Teaching, which is based
on the sacred teaching of the Daishonin—the great Law hidden in the depths of the sutra
from the infinite past of kuon-ganjo, the fundamental essence of the Juryo chapter.
(Dainichiren, February 1989)
As this passage explains, the Daishonin took Myoho-Renge-Kyo, the most supreme and
precious of all the teachings, and manifested it in the form of the Dai-Gohonzon of the High
Sanctuary of the Essential Teaching. The Dai-Gohonzon is, in fact, the fundamental source
of all benefits and good fortune. We possess tremendous good fortune to be able to believe
in the Dai-Gohonzon.

We must deeply appreciate our great fortune to be able to have encountered the Dai-
Gohonzon, which leads all people to true happiness. We should not keep this happiness all

to ourselves. We must tell many people, and exert our utmost efforts together with them to
uphold the Dai-Gohonzon and share our happiness.