..续本文上一页us in our behavior, precisely in a way as the Buddha described in the sutra: “Not knowing that there will be a next life, you will create negative karma recklessly.”
Many people these days are able to expound the Buddhist theories quite eloquently, but in fact they just cling to superficial matters while completely overlooking the most pressing personal issues. You know, our future life is extremely protracted. It”s not a matter of 100, 200, 1,000, or 10,000 years before it ends; rather, its length is absolutely beyond enumeration. If there isa long future ahead, how can anyone be unconcerned about making preparations
Hence, let”s devote the following hour to investigate seriously whether a future life really exists.
Today”s discussion of course is an open forum. In this modern auditorium, you as the audience are all sitting elevated and have a full view of me seated low at the podium. Perhaps in this setting, you won”t feel I am in a superior position so that you must accept whatever I have to say, right or wrong.
What”s more, now it is the 21st century, and whether one is a Han Buddhist, a Tibetan Buddhist, or an academic, one must analyze things with a fair and open mind. Therefore, should you find any flaw in my talk or viewpoints, please feel free to point it out in the discussion session later.
On the existence of future life, there are documents in Han China, but more are found in Tibet and the West. Tibetans on the whole believe in the existence of past and future lives; anyone who proclaims otherwise is suspected of having some mental problem. However, in Han China the situation is reversed, a believer in past and future lives is instead regarded as abnormal and will be subject to public ridicule and much criticism.
Regarding the attitude on the existence of past and future life, I think there could be three types of people among you: the firm believers, the half-believers, and the absolute nonbelievers. Which one of these groups do you belong to
Check it out. Usually monastics like us with years of Buddhist study and sound reasoning are firm believers. Those who have some knowledge but lack in-depth analysis are usually not quite convinced. Those who hold an atheistic or materialistic view will never acknowledge its existence.
If you are the first kind of person, my talk may serve you merely as a reminder to strengthen your conviction. If you are of the second type, your lingering doubt could be dispelled right away while you are listening; or conversely, you may become even more perplexed. If you are the third kind of person, I hope after listening to my talk, you will be prompted to reconsider: “Are the arguments that support the nonexistence of past and future lives indeed infallible
“
Now I would like to explore this issue together with you objectively, without taking sides as a Buddhist or as a non-Buddhist. Through our discussion and open communication, let”s see if we can reach a new level of understanding in the end.
II. How to Prove the Existence of Future Life
Most people have never thought about a future life. Molded by education and upbringing, the majority just blindly take it for granted that this life is the only one to have, and that a human arrives in and departs from this world with no specific reason. When one dies, everything about oneself will cease to be, leaving no trace behind. Moreover, the emergence of mechanistic materialism in the 17th century followed by the mundane materialism in the 19th century has done a great disservice to the human race. In terms of destructive power,the atomic or hydrogen bomb ishorrendous; it kills living beings by the tens of thousands, or millions. But that”s all they do—to end the present life of a fraction of humans. Yet should a perverted propaganda …
《Future Life and Pure Land Rebirth》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…