@ZawNyunt
Also sir I have one more favour to ask…I am asking about changing lifespan which is forecast in lines of palm which is 10 years from this year…that I want to change…if you can tell me from your knowledge and experience regarding changing future forecasted by palm lines…I will appreciate the help sir …thank you!
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Oh! palm lines are always changing. What I understand is that they just first represent the past; then depending on your present deeds, it will change.
I will give myself as an example. I had a mole on saturn mount in my right palm. Some palmists interpreted it as early accidental death.
But one palmist told me not to worry after correlating wit other signs.
When I was 20+ years old, that mole gradually disappeared.
Now I am over 50 and that die-young forecast was wrong.
Because palm lines are always changing depending on your present deeds.
Thanks and regards,
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@NgXinZhao
Sorry sir if I am sounding incorrect! I don’t actually believe in palmistry’s inevitability, I see it as science which can be used to prevent certain problems by creating different causes. But I am preparing beforehand if in case that stupid thing I heard occurs! And yes I have already admonished her to follow 5 precepts… And she is doing it! And sir you are right meditating on loving kindness generates greater merit but not everyone can do it perfectly/effectively sir…it requires mind defilements to be greatly suppressed which occurs through meditation only and after that only it works or benefits us… Merely saying ‘may everybody happy and released from suffering’ doesn’t have any effects. So yes I have already started teaching her all these things… And yes sir I am educating her and by ‘make her’…I meant educating her kindly only which I am doing. Its just that I am open to suggestions and help…that possibility I want to keep open!
Sir collective virtue of humanity on earth increases beauty, lifespan, happiness, pleasures and every kind of craving is satisfied in more intense manner…(I don’t mean to value craving but I am talking about possibility)I just dont want to be a failure(in case untimely disaster occurs in my family and in front of me) while I am being aware of these so many things! So essentially if we can’t change this world we can change atleast our world(world around us) so that is the reason I am obsessed with influencing others kamma…because I see every person dying including me, my relatives and everyone …I can’t help feeling sad. My closed ones are the first ones I see dying and it hurts like hell sir. That’s why I will influence every persons karma who comes in contact with me…starting from my family…because I love them more than me sir.
Thank you venerable sir…I hope I could convey what I wanted to say. With due respect.
Funnily enough, when I was younger, a palm reader told me I would die in my late twenties! 
I’m now 31, but I did go forth and ordain as a monk in my late twenties, so perhaps they foresaw that?
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Lol sir…or it could also mean that your getting ordained as monk increased merits or perhaps it prevented any problems. But I want to go with what you think haha!
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As I understand, this is entertainment, not science.
Some (if not all) of these people lie and deceive others for money.
Sylvia Brown is one example of such con-artistry… she made millions of dollars as a psychic, but made some famously false predictions:
- In 2002, Browne informed the parents of 11-year-old Shawn Hornbeck, who had disappeared earlier that year, that he had been kidnapped by a dark-skinned Hispanic man with dreadlocks and was now deceased. Hornbeck was found alive in 2007; his kidnapper was Caucasian and short-haired. In June 2008, the UK television network ITV2 was sanctioned by Ofcom for re-airing the episode of The Montel Williams Show featuring Browne’s original prediction.
- In November 2004, Browne told the mother of kidnapping victim Amanda Berry, who had disappeared nineteen months earlier: “She’s not alive, honey.” Browne also claimed that Berry was “in water”, and that she had had a vision of Berry’s jacket in the garbage with “DNA on it”. Berry’s mother died two years later believing her daughter had been killed. Berry was found alive in May 2013.
- On Larry King Live in 2003, Browne predicted she would die at age 88. She died in 2013, at age 77.
James Randi offered $1,000,000 for decades to anyone who could show they had paranormal powers under scientific conditions… many people were tested, but not a single person could show they had psychic powers. Some of the videos are quite amusing.
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Haha yes it can also mean entertainment who knows. But if it has any real meaning it should be science if not entertainment. Blindfaith is what causes people to believe in such con-artistry!
Yes, exactly… the key word here is “IF”
If there was any science to it, scientists would be doing the science… there would be legitimate scientific double-blind studies using control groups, etc., but this is not the case. There is no scientific evidence of such things. Psychic predictions are constantly proven false (like Sylvia Brown). No scientific experiment has ever concluded, “a ghost did it”.
You could say I’m making a “no black swan fallacy”… just because I’ve never seen a ghost does not mean that ghosts don’t exist, but I cannot believe in something without reliable evidence… I don’t believe in psychics, palm readers, ghosts, zombies, vampires, leprechauns, giants, unicorns, dragons, faeries, gremlins, etc. Human have vivid imaginations, and love telling stories, but that doesn’t make any of it true.
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The thing is, this attitude can tend to lead to secularisation of Buddhism, throwing out the supernatural, psychic powers, rebirth, kamma (across lifetimes). The suttas are quite peppered with these concepts above.
See SN29, on Nagas.
One advice I usually give is to google up Dean Radin’s books on evidences of the supernormal powers.
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None of these things have been shown to be true. These are just stories, not facts or science. Could they be true? Maybe (but so could anything, right?)… Should I believe in something without justifiable evidence? No, absolutely not.
I believe in the truth, and science is our best (only) method to discover truth… if it cannot be shown to be true, then it probably is not true. I have seen hundreds of claims of psychic powers, but they are all either con-artists, or have actually managed to convince themselves that they have such powers (delusion).
I remember 20 years ago these “crop circles” kept popping in fields… many people claimed this was evidence for aliens, but the facts show it was just a con-artist ruining a farmer’s field.
The strongest evidence I have seen is for rebirth. On the many rebirth researchers who wrote so many books on it. Francis Story Rebirth As Doctrine and Experience is quite good.
I have these books on my to read list:
30 Most Convincing Cases Of Reincarnation by Trutz Hardo
Children Past Lives by Carol Bowman
Old Souls: Compelling Evidence From Children Who Remember Past Lives by Thomas Shroder
Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot by Andrea Leininger & Bruce Leininger
Five Lives Remembered by Dolores Cannon
Youtube contains good selection if you search for “reincarnation evidences”.
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Only in India can one get an official, government recognized degree in Palmistry ! Also available in Feng shui, numerology, crystal healing … 
What to say? We are like this only. And predictions are often correct! But that doesn’t make it true.
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Sir I can understand it’s hard or impossible to find evidence for such supernatural phenomenon. But just think …in our imagination we can do anything. Do this concept of science and all applies to what we can imagine? We can see whatever, hear whatever, smell whatever, taste whatever and feel whatever, we can even creater anything…in simpler words why does this logic of science not apply to our imagination?
The world we experience externally is one and other world is in our mind.
We live in this world where science rules ok…but there is world inside us or in our mind which is different…so supernatural is something when these 2 worlds meet each other. I think there is nothing supernatural, it’s just that we haven’t explored this world completely yet because our experience is restricted to our 6 senses only. We don’t know what is beyond this universe, nor do we know what is beyond subatomic particles. We live and experience in certain spectrum only.
This applies to all our senses…take for example our vision… we can see only visible spectrum of light…which is very small compared to all the wavelengths of light which is not visible to naked eye. Does that mean what we see in infrared light simply does not exist? It’s just that we can’t see that.
One last thing don’t you see for example the least developed living being for ex. Bacteria?? As we go above…insects, rats, cats, dogs, monkeys, then us humans…complexity increases range of experience of that living being increases…so it looks like we are very advanced and our range of experiencing things is very high…but it would be foolish to say that there is nothing beyond humans!!! As we are highly advanced beings but a fool would say we are highest developed beings…because if we were highly developed beings…then there would be not a single problem there and we would be completely satisfied in everything there is!..even death would be absent…but logically speaking it is not the case. We have problems…not getting what we want, separation from our loved ones, meeting unwanted people, diseases, old age…biggest of them is suffering of death.
Simply I mean what is supernatural is something not in our experience. So we should not say it’s false…it’s like closing our eyes and saying there is nothing to see…how can that be…it’s just that we can’t see because our eyes are closed!
Lastly I think we are deviating from the thread…I would suggest creating another thread for discussion on this topic would be better than discussing here.
From what I understand, monastics were told by the Buddha not to read the marks of men and women, including palmistry. These were considered “low arts”, even during their time, practiced by brahmins and non-Buddhist ascetics. See DN 11: The Large Section on Moral Discipline, for more details:
Whereas some recluses and brahmins, while living on the food offered by the faithful, earn their living by a wrong means of livelihood, by such debased arts as:
- prophesying long life, prosperity etc., or the reverse, from the marks on a person’s limbs, hands, feet, etc.;
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About Pam reading, it reminds me of two of Ajahn Chah’s stories.
The first is the famous general who wants to know about his life and destiny and ask Ajahn Chah to read his palm. After a long waiting, The monk inspected the hand with greatly concerned expressions and then smiled following the general’s palm’s lines. He said to him, “your palm says ….it is all uncertain!” Restating the power of anicca.
The second is less known:
“ One day, this fellow who was a palm reader came to visit the monastery. He knew that Ajahn Chah was really against this kind of thing, but he was desperately trying to sneak a look at the lines on Ajahn Chah’s hands. Eventually he couldn’t resist any longer, and he went up to Ajahn Chah and said, “Luang Por, I know you’re probably going to be very upset with me, or critical. I admire you and respect you a lot, but I’m a palmist and I can’t resist asking you—can I have a look at your hands, please? And you can send me away if you like but I had to ask. I’ve come all this way…” Ajahn Chah gave him a good working-over for a few minutes, telling him this was totally pointless and stupid, and wasn’t going to end his suffering for him. But eventually Ajahn Chah showed him his hands and asked, “So what is going to happen to me? Am I going to find a nice wife? Maybe I’m going to win the lottery.” The fellow looked at his hands and said, “Oh! Luang Por, you have to forgive me for saying this, but this line here says you have a lot of anger.” Luang Por answered, “Yes, but I don’t use it.”
So if everything is uncertain clearly the palm of your hand cannot have any real meaning other than the uncertainty of skin changes.
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Yes sir thats what I am trying to say…these are considered low arts actually! I know some monks who know palmistry, astrology but they never give predictions or claim that these sciences are worth because there are higher doctrines, higher teachings…these low sciences are just comforting for someone’s failure to do or achieve something. Atleast that’s what I think. We can use them just as instruments that also if they work at all.
Probably because those things don’t exist.
Are you familiar with Bertrand Russell’s Teapot Analogy?
Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense…
…nobody can prove that there is not between the Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely.
It is up to the person making the claim (psychic abilities, etc) to provide evidence for such a claim… extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The time to believe in something is when their is sufficient evidence to show that it is a real phenomenon. The burden of proof has not been met for any supernatural claim, so I do not believe in them.
If I believe in psychics without sufficient evidence, shouldn’t I also believe in vampires, gremlins, faeries, skinwalkers, ghosts, aliens, giants, dragons and leprechauns too?
According to People Magazine 57% of Americans believe in ghosts and 35% believe there is paranormal activity in their own house… this doesn’t make it true… if 35% of houses were haunted, there would be evidence of such paranormal activity everywhere… everyone has a video camera in their pocket… this is all just nonsense… sorry, not sorry
Thank you for the discussion.
What you say about metta is correct, but in teaching a student there should be a place for metta from the start better called ‘goodwill,’ and developed as an internal attitude, realizing people can only be released from suffering by their own efforts. Later in the practice goodwill is necessary to replace anger (and desire which is its near enemy), as the process of eradicating defilements requires they be countered by a positive quality.
The Buddha describes the hindrances as ‘overgrowths’ in other words goodwill is a quality of the mind which must be revealed through work. From that position of insight others can be truly helped.
"Sensual desire is an impediment and hindrance, an overgrowth of the mind that stultifies insight. Ill-will… Sloth and torpor… Restlessness and remorse… Sceptical doubt are impediments and hindrances, overgrowths of the mind that stultify insight.
“Without having overcome these five, it is impossible for a monk whose insight thus lacks strength and power, to know his own true good, the good of others, and the good of both; nor will he be capable of realizing that superhuman state of distinctive achievement, the knowledge and vision enabling the attainment of sanctity.”—AN 5.51
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Roadmaps you never know where your heading until you get there 
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When young the practitioner has more energy available to develop qualities than when older.
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