An Auspicious Day of Blessings

Today is Friday the 13th, and by tradition some people believe that it’s an unlucky day.

Many people have different ideas of why Friday the 13th became known as an unlucky day. In the Thai tradition and the Asian tradition in general, there are lucky days, unlucky days, auspicious and inauspicious times.

Ajahn Chah used to say that whatever day we are doing something wholesome, that is an auspicious day. He also said there is no such thing as a day in and of itself that is inauspicious or unlucky.

We are completely dependent on gathering our own resources into doing something that is skillful, beneficial, and wholesome. So the opportunity for doing that which is wholesome is in itself what makes it a blessing in the world.

The Pāli word mahāmaṅgala means the highest blessings. The Mahāmaṅgala Sutta encourages the cultivation of that which is skillful: association with good people and developing inner virtues that are beneficial to both ourselves and others (Sn 2.4). When we cultivate these virtues, we create the blessings of a skillful life, sharing those blessings with the people we’re living with and the people we come into contact with.

That is how we bring great blessings into the world.

This reflection by Luang Por Pasanno is from the book Beginning Our Day, Volume 1, p. 44.