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　　At the end of the speeches, the organizer pronounced: “If anyone is unhappy with what the three doctors have said or would like to object, please come to the podium and speak up.” There was a long silence before anyone responded.

　　Just as the assembly was to close with a victorious note, an old granny from the countryside walked to the platform and said to the organizer “May I ask a few questions

　　” The organizer answered: “Of course, you are most welcome.”

　　The granny first asked the astrologist: “In your 20 years of using telescope, have you seen the wind with it

　　 And what is the shape of the wind

　　” The doctor replied: “The wind cannot be seen by a telescope, no way.” The granny asked, “But there is wind on the earth, isn”t there

　　 Now that you”ve failed to see the wind with your telescope, how do you expect to see God with the same instrument

　　 When you find no God with your telescope, can you thus conclude that there is none

　　” The astrologist was dumbfounded.

　　The granny turned to the second doctor, the physician, and asked: “Do you love you wife

　　” The doctor replied: “Sure I do.” The granny followed: “Please lend me your scalpel then. I would use it to dissect your tummy and find out where does this “love” of yours for your wife reside—is it in your liver, your stomach, or your intestine

　　” The crowd roared with laughter.

　　Lastly the granny addressed the lady doctor: “When you were in your mother”s womb, suppose you were told, “you are to be born on the Earth, a place with hills, water, the sun, and the moon, and you will need food and clothing.” Would you believe it then

　　 Now that you are actually living on this Earth, doesn”t it go beyond just believing it

　　 Therefore please do not rashly negate all things out of your own ignorance.

　　In this rather short story, the “scientific” viewpoints alluded to by the three doctors represent the perceptual blind spot of the general public. This is like the Buddhist who goes to a temple to pray for longevity and good luck, and his non-Buddhist father admonishes him: “You can”t go to the temple, you must trust science instead!” In fact the father hardly knows what science is about. Even science cannot be a stagnant discipline: it must continue to explore unknown territory. To deny the existence of certain phenomenon which science has yet to explain would be an act most unscientific.

　　Please be advised that what we can perceive through our senses—the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind—is quite limited. The Buddha says in The King of Concentration Sutra that if we rely on our sense faculties and accept their perceptions as the only truth, then what is the use of the holy doctrines anyway

　　 To reject something outright because one has no knowledge of it borders on absurdity. But that”s the stance some people choose to adopt these days. For example, someone snubbed the book Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr. Weiss, saying, “How is it possible to go back to 1863 B.C. by hypnosis

　　 Wouldn”t it take a long time

　　” To suspect and deny bluntly all things about which you have limited knowledge puts you outside of the league of rational beings.

　　Many people these days hold that consciousness is a product of the physical body and that when the body dies, so does the consciousness. This is an awful assertion. Frankly, if the body were capable of producing consciousness, why couldn”t the corpse—an otherwise completely intact body—produce a consciousness

　　 If you argue that some other factors are still needed, then what are these factors anyway

　　 In the final analysis, the body is composed by the four elements—earth, water, fire, and wind. If the body, which is nothing but the four elements, could produce consciousness, then it goes without saying that the outer environment, which is also composed of…

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