In a Land of Spirits

The Thai brand of Buddhism, Theravada, is closely intertwined with animism and spirit worship. Luck and karma seem to be connected and I've been reminded of that twice this past week. The Thais believe that you will have good luck if you often go to the temple, "tam boon" (which means to give daily food offerings to monks) and if you have any male relatives who are monks. You can do these things to sort of save up your luck. However, if you don't usually go to the temple or tam boon, you could be struck by bad luck.

One thing happened this week to the girl that I tutor. Her father had some sort of accident involving his eyes at work. I couldn't fully understand what had happened but I did catch that it was pretty serious and that the father wasn't eating and couldn't see very well. I guess he was in the hospital for a couple of days. The mother told me that now there are many bad things happening in her house and she very solemnly stated, "Nowadays, I can talk with spirits." She told me that she had stopped going to the temple and that she would start again as well as swearing to eat a vegetarian diet for the rest of her life if her husband is okay.

The other thing that surprised me this week was a story about my friend Chanika's mom. Her mom has been sick for awhile and she is pretty old. Apparently she suddenly started having problems with one of her legs. It was really swollen and painful but the doctors couldn't figure out what was causing it. They couldn't find any fluid or infections and one doctor said to her, "You probably don't go to the temple much." It turns out that this is true. Chan said that ever since she was a child, the mother had always given offerings to the monks but that she never wanted to go to the temple. In one day, the mother went to 9 temples and made merit by praying with incense and candles, offering oil and walking around the chedi. The next day, her leg was fine. As Chan was telling me this, she kept saying that she would never believe anything like this until she saw it.

I just keep thinking that what we call coincidence and luck are really just intentions and actualization. Can we will things to happen just by believing in them? I think so. What does that mean for our work as human beings? I'm not sure, but I hope it can help us to come up with some solutions for the future.