Chapter 52 The authenticity of the soul is the evidence of the real existence of human beings

Does the soul exist?This is a problem. In my memory, the biggest fear is the fear of death, and the biggest question I have thought about may also be a question of life and death.Today's children don't want to think about life and death. They are innocent and very happy. But when I was young, I often saw death happening around me.When I was in the second grade of elementary school, there were more than 30 students in my class. When I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, there were only 13 students in the class.Of those classmates who disappeared, half of them were girls, and their families were not allowed to go to school, and the other half died of starvation, malnutrition or illness.

At that time, when I was very young, I tried to think about life and death, but I was unable to think clearly. I just thought about a question caused by fear of death: How can I not die?Later, when I grew up a bit, I stopped thinking about immortality, and started thinking: How can I not be afraid of death?Finally one day, I think that people have souls, because after believing in souls, they are not afraid of death.A person's understanding of death is a part of his world view, just as our views on ideals affect our practices in real life, different people's understanding of death determines his way of life when he is alive, and determines his world view .The soul is our interpretation of eternal life.If we think that we have no soul, but only a physical life, die when we die, and become weathered after a while, and have nothing left, such a concept will easily create people who enjoy themselves in time, do not care about future generations, and have no sense of historical responsibility.I still prefer to believe that there is a soul after death, so that I will not be afraid of death during my lifetime, and I will live more cautiously.

What is a soul?I would like to explain it with a story from a Buddhist scripture.I remember 15 years ago, I recited Buddhist scriptures together with my friend Yi Xiaodi.When I recited the Shurangama Sutra, I found such a description: The Buddha's disciple Ananda was restless, so he asked the Buddha to reassure him.The Buddha said, take out your heart, and I will comfort you.Ananda said, the heart is in my body and I cannot get it out.The Buddha asked again, since the heart is in your body, why can you see the bamboo in the yard?Ananda immediately replied, then my heart is in the courtyard.The Buddha asked again, why can you see me in the house when your heart is in the yard?Ananda replied, My heart is in the room.The Buddha kept asking six questions, and Ananda finally understood.But I didn't understand what Ananda understood, so I asked Yi Xiaodi for advice, and he said he didn't understand either.Neither of us knew what Ananda understood.Many years later, I suddenly realized that the "heart" in the dialogue between the Buddha and Ananda is what we often call the soul.The soul is something in the spiritual world, which cannot be accurately described in the language of the material world.

The existence of the soul is questioned by some people, but also because the current scientific methods cannot obtain credible evidence.If we are superstitious about the current science and regard the results of the current science as the only truth, we will certainly think that there is no soul.But science itself has not yet reached the end, and the greater the scientist, the greater the unknown field.Einstein, the greatest physicist, also believed in God.To maintain one's awe in the unknown, this awe may be the best way to seek the truth. In fact, everyone, from the bottom of their hearts, vaguely believes that people have a soul after death. Even if they are a thorough Marxist, they still say that they went to see Marx after death. Doesn’t this still have a soul?This vague belief is actually very powerful.There are intuitions and instincts in the human heart, which transcend knowledge and wealth, and control the human mind in a very secret place, and will emerge at the moment of life and death.Like Mrs. Xianglin in Lu Xun's novels, she was begging for food on crutches, and was about to die the next day. Before she died, her major problems emerged.So, she asked Lu Xun: "You have seen the world, so I will ask a question, is there a soul after death?" Lu Xun saw that Mrs. Xianglin's face was not right, and thought for a long time and said, "Maybe there is no soul." After thinking about it, he thought it was wrong, but he didn't think it through, so he said, "Yes, maybe." This question was not raised by Mrs. Xianglin alone.Since the existence of human beings, for thousands of years and tens of thousands of years, human beings have been asking questions.After questioning, I would rather believe it.Judging from the funeral culture of different nationalities, everyone thinks that there is a soul.Some funeral ceremonies show that people believe that the soul is in the body, the soul leaves the body, and still has memory of the body, so the body should be kept for a period of time after death, because the soul will continue to visit back and forth with the memory.Sometimes I feel that people often say to preserve memory and nostalgia, old furniture and ancient courtyard houses should be preserved, but Haolai is also a cultural relic after death, why is it immediately burned?Looking at it from another perspective, the reason why people tirelessly discuss and argue about the soul also shows that it has a value that cannot be ignored in our spiritual world.Philosopher Wittgenstein believed that: for human beings, language is the world, and what can be said is existence.There are two kinds of truth, one is the truth of the objective world, which is based on scientific observation; the other is the truth of the spiritual world, which is established by the power of faith and art.The reality of the soul belongs to the latter category, it is very important to human beings, without it, human beings are equal to animals.

I think, no matter what, people need souls.Because the soul can reduce people's fear of death, and give people a strong reason to improve morality and determine historical missions when they are alive. The soul is the crystallization of human culture, we cannot simply and rudely use a certain stage of scientific thesis and discard it easily.