Distinguished nobles, venerables, and practitioners, Happy New Year, everyone!
I am very grateful that President Wu gave me such an introduction. I do not deserve it. I feel very honored to be able to visit this “treasure island” (Formosa/Taiwan) today. This is the first time I have stepped foot on this island. And this is my first speech — The Scientific Proof of Causal Reincarnation — right here in Liuhe Pure Land Society. It shows that we have a deep affinity. So I am very grateful to all of you for making time today to come and listen to my report on the topic of causal reincarnation. It is indeed a very important sage education.
A Compassionate Order
I just returned from Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, I gave our mentor, Master Chin Kung, New Year's greetings and celebrated his eightieth birthday. He told me that causality education is the most important education to save the world.
In the past, Great Master Yin Guang emphasized causality education above even Buddhist scriptures. So Master Chin Kung gave me a compassionate order: to travel around the world, using the scientific perspective to report facts of causal reincarnation to all. Thus, I greatly appreciate you all for coming here to support me.
Over the past years, I have been compiling and studying scientific research from Western scientists, scholars, and professors in the area of causal reincarnation. I have reviewed a great number of cases. I summarized and concluded these cases in order to give this report. It is also a report of my personal learning experience. I cordially hope that you can kindly give me critiques and corrections.
Cases Of Reincarnation Recorded Throughout History
Humans are born, and thus they must die. Ever since humans have known of birth and death, they have started to explore some more profound issues. For example,
Why do people experience birth and death?
Can we escape from birth and death?
These questions actually have been explored for thousands of years throughout human history. Many religious and traditional cultures offer an abundance of answers. For example, more than two thousand years ago, the Chinese sage Confucius had an annotation in The Book of Changes (I Ching):
Refined energy turns into matter, and
a drifting soul is changed by conditions.
“Refined energy turns into matter” refers to the situation after birth, while the drifting soul indicates the condition before birth.
Throughout his lifelong teaching, Confucius never accentuated his teaching on death but encouraged us to focus on current life cultivation. He said, “Without knowing birth, how can one know death?” However, in his annotation above, he had essentially revealed to us the truth of birth and death.
In the same era as Confucius, there was a Western sage, Plato. Among his works, there is one book titled The Republic where he also mentioned the experiences of a soul leaving a body. In addition, the sage of Buddhism, Shakyamuni Buddha, gave very detailed explanations about the six realms of reincarnation as well.
In fact, there is a lot of recorded information regarding birth and death — reincarnation — within both Eastern and Western history, including quite a few examples in the official history. Let me cite some examples as our introduction here. These are recorded in Chinese “official history,” which means these stories are recognized by the nation.
Of Poets, Emperors, and Monks
A poet in the Tang Dynasty, Li Bai — also known as the “Immortal Poet”— was reincarnated in the Song Dynasty as Guo Xiangzheng. This is recorded in the 10th post, 3rd volume, 444th chapter of The History of the Song Dynasty.
The former life of Emperor Yuan of Liang, in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, was as a monk named Miaomu Seng. Observing from history, we can see that emperors and people with great fortune and power were usually practitioners in the past. This record is an excerpt from the 1st post, 3rd volume, 8th chapter, in Liang's Annals of Southern History.
The record also includes instances of the reincarnation of heavenly beings. For instance, in the history of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Daizong was reincarnated from a deity. This is recorded in the 3rd post, 7th volume, 27th chapter, in The Book of Tang.
Struck by Lightning
Life after Life as an Animal
Of course, animals are also mentioned; that is, people have reincarnated as animals. The most famous example is from the Spring-Autumn and Warring States periods. A general of the Qin state, Bai Qi, led his army to fight against the Zhao state.
General Zhao Kuo of the Zhao state only understood military tactics on paper and didn't understand how to use military force, so he lost. As a result, four hundred thousand soldiers of the Zhao Army were captured by the Qin general Bai Qi, and Bai Qi had the four hundred thousand prisoners buried alive. In doing so, he committed a deep sin. This history was recorded in a famous history book, The Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms. Its original words were this:
At the end of the Tang Dynasty,
an ox was struck dead by lightning.
On the belly of this ox was written the words “Bai Qi.”
The critics said that Bai Qi had killed too many people, therefore he received the retribution of being reborn as an animal and struck by lightning for hundreds of years. According to the legend, many people, when slaughtering pigs, saw the words “Bai Qi” after the pig hair was removed. This implies that Bai Qi was reincarnated life after life to receive his retribution.
We can only mention a few of the many records in ancient history because our focus today is on scientific cases. Due to so many records in “official history,” the ancients had no doubts at all about the truth of causal reincarnation.
The Grievance
Between Science And Religion
Today, science has progressed, and people have begun to believe in science with blind faith. Many think that science offers facts and evidence, so they no longer believe in causal reincarnation. They consider reincarnation a religious concept. Some use science to criticize religion and claim that reincarnation in religion is anti-science. Why would this be?
It's likely because science and religion have had grievances for hundreds of years. In the 17th century, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei proposed that the Earth was not the center of the universe. At that time, the religious believers, who were Catholics, embraced the idea that the Earth was the center of the universe and had been created by God. As a result, Galileo was persecuted by the clergy. They rebuked his scientific discoveries as heresy and imprisoned him for life. Many scientists were also persecuted at the time, including Italian monk and philosopher Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake.
The grievances between science and religion have caused people to use science to discredit religion today. In the past, people used religion against science. This is called “an eye for an eye” or causal retribution.
related post: Chapter Two: Modern Scientific Studies On Reincarnation
Source Of Information:
《The Scientific Proof Of Causal Reincarnation》, by Dr. Zhong Maosen (Venerable Ding Hong), translated by Mahayana Pureland Team, published by Mahayana Pureland Organization, distributed by: Persatuan Penganut Agama Buddha Amitabha Malaysia, 90 & 92, Jalan Pahang, Gombak, 53000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.)
*** The information provided above does not contain personal opinion of this blog.
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