How to Win the Lottery

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How to win the lottery

(WQ Opinion) Long before you set out to win, be sure to prepare for it. Everything is dependent on a cause. So even if you were able to win a lottery (say by cheating), you would not be able to hold onto the winnings if there were no good karmic basis for having money. Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw, a remarkable scholar-practitioner has an insightful interpretation of the Dharma. He points out that unless one has the supportive karma for business success, a fraudulent or criminal business person will not be able to succeed. Therefore, even a bad individual needs "good" karma to support one's success.

Don't gamble. Gambling is certain loss. Take a gambit with something behind it. But the habit of trying to win by the odds is gambling, and it is a miserable addiction that feeds the obscenely lucrative gaming industry. Gambling is losing.

Karma

What is suitable karma for winning? Giving gold/money/support (particularly to the point where one has developed a generous disposition) is suitable karma. The question is where to give it to produce the most profitable results. With the recipient in mind, the most important thing is virtue. A virtuous recipient produces the best (most exponential) results. Virtue may take the form of the Five Precepts, Eight or Ten Precepts, the monastic rules (Vinaya), or simply living by any code that reduces or at least suppresses the roots of bad karma:

• greed
• hatred
• delusion

How to give? Equally important is the giver: states of mind before, during, and after are crucial. Happy to give, happy while giving, and happy to have given produces superior results. The purity of the intention of the giver is enough to purify the gift. Superior results are gained from superior goals. The best reason to give is simply because it adorns and ennobles the mind and because it serves as the basis for reaching nirvana. Long before one reaches that "complete end of suffering," one enjoys the five strands of sensuality, great riches, beauty, long life, and influence.

Inspiration

Finally, having established a basis for a monetary windfall (without being reborn into a vast inheritance), purchase a lottery ticket. Either depend on the universe to provide a winning ticket (without even trying to discern the winning numbers), or simply choose numbers based on inspiration. Choosing numbers as most do (based on a child's birth date or other good luck charms) has a predictable result: most people don't win. Most people are not tapping into intuition and inspiration.

Two Cautionary Tales

Prize divides two elderly sisters
HARTFORD, Connecticut - Two once-inseparable octogenarian sisters are divided over lottery winnings. The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that one can sue the other for a share of a winning $500,000 ticket. The court said 83-year-old Theresa Sokaitis, of Middletown, can try to enforce a written contract she signed with her 87-year-old sister, Rose Bakaysa, of Plainville. More>>

Following a Hungry Hunch

A story is told of a man who awoke while dreaming of the number five. He smelled a warm and wonderful aroma from his kitchen. His wife had arisen before him and unexpectedly prepared him a pile of five syrup drenched pancakes. He gobbled them up, she offered him five more, and announced she was pregnant with their fifth child. His jaw dropped. He grabbed the paper, turned to the horserace listings, and noticed that at 5:00 pm that day, a Number Five, a horse named Cinco was running. He raced to the bank, pulled out $5,000, and greedily placed his bet. Sure enough, his horse came in fifth place. (Moral: inspiration is an intuitive, inner-knowing, not a hungry hunch or a simple set of coincidences).

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