I just haven’t come across anything that seemed to definitively clarify this point one way or the other. However, I am open to the possibility that he might have. To the best of my knowledge, he doesn’t seem to refute, reject, or criticize astrology/numerology directly. It seems unlikely that the Buddha claimed that becoming an accountant, statistician, physician, or surgeon are wrong livelihoods, even for laypeople to engage in - perhaps he meant that these are wrong livelihoods for monastics specifically to engage in. Or they earn their living by accounting, computation, calculation,Īdministering emetics, purgatives, expectorants and phlegmagogues administering medicine through the ear and through the nose administering ointments and counter-ointments practising fine surgery on the eyes and ears practising general surgery on the body practising as a children’s doctor the application of medicinal roots the binding on of medicinal herbs This same discourse also lists the following too: However, it seems that the list in this discourse is specifically for monastics, not for laypeople. "Or he might say: ‘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 predicting: there will be an eclipse of the moon, an eclipse of the sun, an eclipse of a constellation the sun and the moon will go on their proper courses there will be an aberration of the sun and moon the constellations will go on their proper courses there will be an aberration of a constellation there will be a fall of meteors there will be a skyblaze there will be an earthquake there will be an earth-roar there will be a rising and setting, a darkening and brightening, of the moon, sun, and constellations such will be the result of the moon’s eclipse, such the result of the sun’s eclipse, (and so on down to) such will be the result of the rising and setting, darkening and brightening of the moon, sun, and constellations - the recluse Gotama abstains from such wrong means of livelihood, from such debased arts.’ The following seems to be referring to astronomy, not astrology: "Or he might say: ‘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: arranging auspicious dates for marriages, both those in which the bride is brought in (from another family) and those in which she is sent out (to another family) arranging auspicious dates for betrothals and divorces arranging auspicious dates for the accumulation or expenditure of money - the recluse Gotama abstains from such wrong means of livelihood, from such debased arts.’ĭN 1 Brahmajāla Sutta: The All-embracing Net of Views Making on the basis of thunderbolts and celestial portents Thus, depending on the source, it might be a relatively reliable predictor, but a relatively unreliable relatively reliable guide. One possibility: one’s own kamma determines when and where one is reborn next - an astrological/numerological analysis made in one’s “birth chart” on the basis of time and place of birth (and by extension, the relative locations of the planets in the sky) does not determine ( kamma does) what one experiences in that life, but merely predicts what one may experience in a given lifetime based on birth information (perhaps in a similar way that some Brahmins predicted that Siddhartha would have two professional options open to him). Some sources of astrology ( sln.me) and numerology ( Numerology - A Free Chaldean Numerology Program based on Linda Goodman) that I have come across and examined seem like they are not 100% random, vague enough to fit everyone, nor based on confirmation bias alone - rather, I find those who reflexively dismiss it without careful consideration to be similar to those who blindly believe something without careful consideration - two sides of the same coin.
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