The majority of people falls into two main categories of beliefs (or mental attachments):
1) the belief that there is an eternal soul:
the soul still exists after death of the physical body; it either would
be banished down to hell for everlasting punishment, or enter heaven
for perpetual rewarding happiness. In this case the people indirectly
and unintentionally accept the notion of an afterlife.
2) the belief that death is the end: nothing is left behind, finished, gone forever.
It is extremely difficult to explain the re-incarnation theory to these
two categories of believers. Their mind’s already set, there is no
possible persuasion. It is like an upside down cup, no effort whatsoever
is likely to fill it full with water.
We – the mundane beings –
do not possess the heavenly eye and divine knowledge, so we have to use
our meager understanding to realize and believe. For example, how would
you know that there are bacteria and viruses? Your own eyes cannot see
these micro-organisms. But you believe that they exist, don’t you? Most
of us, even the young children, believe that there are bacteria that
make us sick. We cannot see them ourselves, but the physicians and the
scientists visualize them clearly under their microscope. So to them,
micro-organisms are the real things, not just a belief. When we are
sick, we come to the doctor, and he told us that these bacteria or that
virus infects us, we believe right away. Why? We don’t see them on our
body. But why believe it? Because we figure we can trust the doctor. He
makes sense, he has gone through ten or more years of strenuous training
and learning, he’s knowledgeable. Besides, why would he lie to us? It
does not matter what virus he said infects us, it’s important only that
he gives us the right medicine to get rid of our pain and our illness.
So, again, why do we believe that we are infected with bacteria and
viruses when we cannot see them? Why do we believe that the medicine
will cure us when we don’t even know what ingredients are in them? If we
really want to see those creatures that make us sick, then we need to
stick our eyes on the microscope and spend years learning. If we want to
know the stuff in the pill we swallow, then we’d better become the
doctor or pharmacist to know its ingredients, its use, its effectiveness
and its treating ability…
Then, it is the same thing with
re-incarnation. If we want to know our previous life, or see into our
future life, then we’d better start to cultivate, practice, meditate in
order to acquire the divine eye and the transcendent knowledge for this
task. The Buddha, after enlightenment, has realized the celestial sight,
and the superpowerful knowledge to view indefinitely into innumerable
lives of the past and the future, those of his own and of others… just
like a person with a video camcorder who records pictures, voices of
everything and everyone around. And then many of his great disciples
also realized enlightenment that allowed them to see their previous and
future lives as well. The Buddha is an Enlightened One, his disciples
are also saintly Arahats, with no more sufferings, pain, and affliction;
they have gotten their heavenly knowledge and power.
So,
here we are, as mere Buddhists with plenty of ignorance and affliction
that veil over our humanly eyes; we cannot see, but we should believe in
their words and their teachings: that there is absolutely a previous
life and a future life… the same way we believe the doctor saying that
bacteria exist.
Another example: we cannot see “yesterday”, yet
we believe that yesterday exists. We know that yesterday did happen
because of our memory. After one good night sleep, it isn’t long enough
to erase our ability to remember, so we know by remembrance. But how
would we remember exactly and correctly what we did, where we went, and
what we said 10 or 20 years ago? Well if you cannot even remember all
the old things in this very life we’re living now, how would you
remember anything from a previous life after going through a death, a
re-birth, and assuming a brand new body (that now acts like a thick fog
covering over the mind, the memory); how could you remember anything at
all? What about a certain person going through anesthesia for a heart or
brain operation; it often takes hours or even days after coming out of
surgery to remember who and where he is. Or consider the ones suffering
from Alzheimer disease where their memory is wiped clean; to them
yesterday or even a moment ago is not even existing, let alone the
previous year or previous life. With today’s advanced technology, of
course, we could use a camera or a video recorder to memorize everything
in our lives ten years ago. Now, eventhough we don’t “see” those events
anymore, we might not even remember them, but we can be reminded of
them if we watch the video and look at the pictures. Just like that,
everything that we do, all lives we have lived are recorded in our
mind-consciousness. This internal conscious mind is like a huge storage
shed that stocks up everything that takes places in all of our lives –
past, present, and future. In the Doctrine of Consciousness (aka
Mind-Only Study), it is called Alaya-Vijnana or Storehouse
Consciousness. Whomever, who is able to “enter” this deepest region of
his mind-consciousness (the storehouse), will “see” all of his numerous
past lives. And to attain this ability, one ought to diligently practice
meditation. Nowadays, it is also possible to enter this Alaya
consciousness through Hypnotism, but one can only see into the recent
past, or at the most some events of one or two previous lives, as in the
example of hypnotic expect Edgar Cayce. The Tibetan people obviously
believe in re-incarnation theory, because many of the high Tibetan lamas
can specifically remember previous life after they die and re-born.
Even as young children, they can specify their previous home, family
members, disciples, and recognize their previous personal items, and who
they were, etc…
The reason why we cannot see or know about our
past lives is because our mind-consciousness has not been educated,
cultivated, and developed. Science indicates that human only uses about
ten percent of his mind’s potentiality, the rest (about 90%) is not yet
explored and recognized. Therefore, smart and erudite people should
always keep an open mind for learning and discovering new things,
instead of being obstinate and persistent in just believing things that
they can actually see, hear or touch with their senses.
Viên Minh (The Buddhist Translation Group)