Chapter 26 Chapter 24 Reasons to Believe in Reincarnation

All sentient beings in the world turn according to their karma; their karma is their kin, and their karma is their companion; they are reborn according to their karma, which is not fixed like a wheel; they may live among heaven and man, or they may live in the four evil realms. ——"The Book of Instincts" How do we believe in reincarnation? On the issue of reincarnation, the Buddha is our highest authority.In the first moments of the night of primordial enlightenment, the Buddha developed the wisdom of remembering the past, which enabled him to see past events with a single glance.

The Buddha said: "This is how I recall the fate of the previous life, the first life, the second life, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the ten, the twenty and even the fifty, but one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, so inferred." At the second moment, the Buddha recognized sentient beings not in one realm but in another realm with his celestial eyesight.He sees those "the humble and the noble, the beautiful and the ugly, the happy and the miserable, each passing away according to his work."(1) This is the Buddha's first exposition of reincarnation.The records in the scriptures clearly confirm that the Buddha did not borrow the theory of reincarnation from other pre-existing theories, but based on his own personal experience, other sentient beings can also realize this supreme wisdom. (2)

In his first verse of joy, the Buddha said: After many reincarnations, I searched for the builder of the house (but did not see him), and reincarnation is really painful. (3) In the first sutra - "Zhuan Falun Sutra".When explaining the second truth, the Buddha said: "It is this greed that causes samsara." At the end of this sutra, the Buddha said: "This is the last life, and there is no more samsara." The "Middle Part" narrates that out of compassion for all living beings, before deciding to spread his teachings, the Buddha looked at the world with the Buddha's eyes and realized that all sentient beings were anxiously looking at the evil and the future world. (4)

In some scriptures, the Buddha clearly stated that all living beings who do evil will fall into evil realms after death, and all living beings who do good will be reborn happily. Interesting Jataka stories about Buddha's past lives are of great ethical value.In addition, the "Middle Part" and "Amplification Branch" also talked about some deeds of the Buddha's previous life. In the Sutra of Sutra (5), the Buddha told Venerable Ananda that during the time of Kasyapa Buddha, his name was Chedibala. "Sutra of Sutras Asked by Suda" (6) describes the story of a lonely person who was reborn as a heavenly man after death, and immediately came to visit the Buddha at night.In the Augutavatara (7), the Buddha alludes to his past life as Prashandana, a cart repairer.In the Nyādatta, the Buddha cites the names of the Buddhas who came before him.

An unusually direct description of the deceased appears in the Nirvana Sutra (8).Venerable Ananda asked the Buddha to explain the future fate of the people who had just died in a nearby village, and the Buddha took the trouble to explain their destination. Such examples are numerous in the Tripitaka.This fully demonstrates that the Buddha really expounded the truth of reincarnation, which can be experienced personally. (9) Following the Buddha's example, his disciples also developed the wisdom of remembering the past, able to see their limited but vast past lives.In this respect, the Buddha's power is boundless.

Before the birth of the Buddha, some Indian Brahmans possessed celestial eyes, celestial ears, other minds, and telepathy, etc., and were famous for their supernatural powers. Although science has not recognized these surreal functions, according to Buddhism, those who practice meditation deeply possess these spiritual powers, and look at their past lives as if recalling what happened in their present life.With their help, it is possible for them to exchange ideas and visualize other worlds independently of the five views. According to the law of correlation, some extraordinary people, especially in their childhood, can naturally remember past lives, and bits and pieces of their past lives. "Potgolas can vividly remember a shield from the ancient temple of Higa.(11) He had used it in a previous life when Troy was besieged." Inexplicable loss of this memory occurs frequently among child prodigies.

Reliable modern psychological research, a series of experiments such as weird phenomena, spiritual communication, strange transformations and various human natures have brought some dawn to the solution of the problem of reincarnation. There is an interesting episode in Theragatha.A Brahmin teacher named Wangheng Sang could tell where the dead were reborn by flicking the skeleton with his fingers. Some people have different personalities at times in their particular lives.In his article "Principles of Psychology", Professor James gives some extraordinary examples (see Myra's "Human Nature and its Subsistence after the Death of the Body"). "Pure Path" records an interesting event, one day a person once plunged into the belly of an ordinary person.

The author himself has met people who have been used by invisible beings as a vehicle to convey their thoughts.Some people are indeed possessed by evil spirits.In the hypnotic state, their words and deeds are completely abnormal, and then it is impossible to recall everything that happened. In a hypnotic state, some people can tell about their previous life experiences, and some people, such as Edgar Cassie in the United States, can not only understand people's past lives, but also heal people's diseases. (12) The existence of two personalities in one person can only be explained as a sedimentation of past personal experiences, or the possession of invisible spirits.The first explanation seems more reasonable, but the second cannot be completely ruled out.

We often meet strangers for the first time, but we instinctively feel how familiar they are.When we visit a place, we can't help but feel how familiar we are with its surroundings. It was this experience that made Wormit Scotland aware of the rebirth of the soul. In A Life in Scotland, the biographer Loggett quotes the foreword of Scotland's diary dated February 17, 1828. "I'm sure I can't tell if it's worth writing about. Last night at supper I was strangely entangled in a sense of pre-existence, and then I had confused concepts, none of which I heard for the first time, The same subject is discussed, and the same arguments are made about it. I feel so strongly, like phantoms in the desert, and fevers in ships."

"Bull Worriton described these mystical experiences as a strange inner spiritual memory. It reminds us of people and places we have never seen before. Annihilation consciousness." (HM. Kechener, "Theory of Soul Regeneration", p. 7) The author also meets people who remember the everyday details of their previous lives.Among them was a famous doctor in Australia who put people into a hypnotic state and asked them to describe their previous lives. "Dharmagram Sutra Commentary" tells a story. When a husband and wife saw the Buddha, they fell down in front of him and saluted, and murmured: "Dear son, when parents are old, don't sons have the obligation to support them?" ? Why haven't you come to see us for so long? This is our meeting again."

The Buddha gave the reason for this sudden outburst of parental love.This is because, in his past lives, they had been his parents many times.Then the Buddha said: "The relationship in the previous life, the good fate in this life, The love of the past leaps up again, like a lotus flower out of the water. "(13) A saint with noble cultivation and perfect personality like Buddha appeared in the world.Were they achieved all at once? Could these be lifetime fortunes? How do we explain great men like Confucius, Pani, Jueyin, Homer, Plato, geniuses like Garidaza, Shakespeare, child prodigies like Romanaga, Pascal, Mozart, Bitfen? If they hadn't lived a life of high holy deeds and gained the same experience in the past, then they would have been so outstanding? Was it purely accidental that they were born into such a special family and lived in such a superior environment? The child prodigy problem also appears to be a problem for scientists.Some people in the medical profession believe that child prodigies are the product of supernormal glands, especially the hypocerebral, pineal, and adrenal glands.The glands of special people are particularly large, perhaps due to past karma.But, just because of extra-large adenoids, how could Christ Heineker be able to talk a few hours after birth, recite the Bible at the age of one, answer all geography questions at the age of two, and speak French at the age of three , Latin, and became a scholar of philosophy at the age of four; how Jovius Stoldamir could read Greek at the age of three; how Culler could write the history of the world at the age of six; How the strange child in America could read and write at the age of two, and speak French, Russian, English, German, and some Latin and Greek by the age of eight; Can speak several languages.All these miraculous instances are incomprehensible to non-scientists (14).Science also doesn't explain why only a few people have large glands, but not all humans.The real problem remains unresolved. Heredity alone cannot explain the mysteries of child prodigies, nor can their ancestors, nor can their ancestors, even the ancestors of their ancestors. In order to satisfactorily answer these puzzling questions, the theory of heredity should be supplemented by the theory of karmic reincarnation. Should we believe that the present period of life is nothing but a medium of eternal pleasure and pain? The number of years we have spent here.A maximum of a hundred years is certainly not sufficient preparation for eternity. If one believes in the present and the future, then it is logical to believe in the past. If it is reasonable to believe that we used to live in the past.Then there must be no reason not to believe that we will continue to exist when life apparently ceases now. "We see the present as a child of the past and a parent of the future," Hicks said. Addison said: "In this world, good people are often miserable, and evil people are often prosperous." This is just conducive to explaining the ontology of the past and the future. We are born into a world of our own making.If we say, no matter how virtuous we are.But we still have to live a miserable life because of our past bad karma.If we say, no matter how full of evil we are.We are still prosperous and rich because of our good karma in the past.However, good and bad karma now, will bear fruit at the earliest opportunity. A Western writer wrote: "Whether we believe in the existence of the past or not, it constitutes a rational hypothesis that bridges certain gaps in knowledge about everyday human life. Our intellect tells us that the perspective of past lives and karma can explain what exists in twins. Different points. Explain how people with only a little experience like Shakespeare can describe the various characters and environments of human beings vividly, but they themselves know nothing about them. They answer why geniuses The fruits of human labor always transcend one's own experience, the precocity of infants, and the great differences between human minds and morals, intellects and bodies, conditions, environments and the world around them. And these are observed everywhere in the world." What does karma and reincarnation illustrate? 1.Explains that we must take responsibility for our own suffering. 2.explains human inequality. 3.Explains the causes of geniuses and child prodigies; 4.Explains why twins who have the same material basis and enjoy the same conditions show completely different characteristics spiritually, morally, temperamentally and intellectually. 5.Explains many differences in children in the same family, and heredity can only explain the same points. 6.Explains the reason for the extraordinary potential of some people. 7.Illustrate the moral and intellectual differences between parents and children. 8.Explains how babies spontaneously develop emotions such as greed, hatred, and jealousy. 9.Explains the reasons for the instinctive delight and dislike upon first meeting. 10.Explains how to find evil trash and good treasures in us. 11.It explains why a highly civilized person suddenly loses his temper, and why an evil person suddenly becomes a saint. 12.Explains why dandies are born to holy parents and why holy children are born to licentious parents. 13.In one sense, it explains that our present is the result of our past, and our future will be the result of my present; in another sense, our present is not absolutely our past, we Our future is not necessarily our present. 14.Explains the reasons for untimely death and unexpected changes of fate. 15.Most importantly, it explains why there are omniscient and perfect spiritual teachers, such as Buddha.They have incomparable majesty in appearance, spiritual and intellectual qualities. [Note] (1) "Central Part", Chapter 1, Sutra 36, ​​"Mahasazha Sutra", p. 248. (2) It cannot be concluded that the Buddha created the theory of reincarnation, which was apparently widespread at the time, though not yet universally accepted.This can be seen in the Upanishads. (Editor's note) (3) "Dharma Sentence Sutra", verse 153. (4) "The Middle Part", the first volume, the twenty-sixth classic, p. 161. (5) "Central Part", the second volume, the eighty-first classic, p. 45. (6) Ibid., Chapter 3, Sutra 143, p. 258. (7) First Product, p. 111. (8) "Changbu", Part Two, the Sixteenth Classic, p. 91. (9) JG Jones, The Vedic Buddhism of the Buddha. (10) The Indian goddess Satie is a very vivid example.See The Bosat, Vol. XIII, II, p. 27. (11) WW Atkinson and ED Walter, Reincarnation and the Law of Karma. (12) G. Seminaro, "many buildings and the world in them". (13) "Buddhist Legends", Volume III, p. 108. (14) "Ceylon Observation", November 21, 1948.