..续本文上一页spread all over the world and make people follow it like crazy to commit hideous crimes, then the harm done is on the scale of numerous rounds of lives of humans.

　　Indeed, if there were no future life, why must we Buddhists insist there is one anyway

　　 But through many years of Dharma study, inquiry, contemplation, and debating, I, for one, am thoroughly convinced that there is past and future life. I challenge anyone who disagrees to refute with good evidence. However, among the many nonbelievers of future life in the world, so far none has been able to come up with a valid reasoning to back up their point.

　　My inquisition into past and future life does not start just today; rather, it has been going on for more than 20 years. Again, the existence of future life is really a very critical issue for humans. If I try to validate it by stories found in the Buddhist scriptures, intellectuals like you may not buy it as you”ll regard them as fables. Thus I”ll try a different approach today—don”t you all have a great deal of trust in scientists

　　 So let us find out what the scientists have to say on this subject.

　　I am going to give you a few case reports; of course, you can object all you want. But I do hope you”ll at least reflect upon them. If you are absolutely unwilling to think it over—insisting that “I don”t care what other people have to say, I just don”t agree”—and all the while you have no sound reason to rebut, aren”t you kind of irrational

　　Nowadays there is too little research on past and future life. Granted, academic circles frequently hold meetings and forums on Buddhist studies, but if the most fundamental issue—the existence of past and future life—is not probed thoroughly, they are chasing the wrong goose. In fact, not acknowledging future life is the same as not acknowledging tomorrow. If the world flatly rejects something that truly exists, we can only feel sorry for the human race. Of course, humans have made many impressive strides in the 21st century, yet if something undeniable is denied, do we call this state of affairs moving forward or regressing backward

　　 I am afraid we all have to ponder this issue deeply.

　　1. Dr. Stevenson”s Study on Reincarnation

　　In past decades scientists abroad have begun the study of reincarnation, Ian Stevenson, M.D. (1918–2007) being the foremost among them. A psychiatrist and biochemist by training, he was a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia and is an internationally renowned investigator of reincarnation. His studies are scrupulously objective and methodologically impeccable. Even though you may choose to dismiss his lifelong case studies on reincarnation, his scientific rigor and strict integrity deserve your recognition.

　　How did he do his research

　　 Over a period of 40 years, he traveled extensively—from India to Sri Lanka, Brazil, Lebanon, and European countries—to personally document thousands of childhood cases and investigate closely the possibility of past lives.

　　In 1966, he selected from his many case studies the most convincing ones and collected them into a book, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, which was released to resounding interestin the U.S.

　　Dr. Stevenson sort of stumbled onto this field through his curiosity. In the beginning, he traveled with a grant to India to study childhood cases of reincarnation with the idea of vacationing on the side. Before his trip, he had never imagined that spontaneous memory of a past life in children was quite common in India. Soon after his arrival, the number of such cases jumped to 30 in no time. He stayed on in India for six weeks to interview direct witnesses, including the child in question and relatives. He methodically documented and investigated huge volumes of data, and from then on he never tur…

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