PureInsight | January 30, 2003
[PureInsight.net] "A man's life is painful and short." Throughout history, many writers had repeated this saying and written on this topic.
King Cao Cao from the Three Kingdom period once said, "As I drink liquor and recite a poem, I ask myself how long one's life would be; just like the dew in the morning; all those passing days, most of which were found to be painful memories."
Li Bai from the Tang Dynasty, who was referred to as an "immortal poet" said, " Don't you see the water of the Yellow River is from the heaven, roaming to the sea and never looking back. Don't you see those high ranking people in the great palaces also felt sorrow about their gray hair - in the morning it is still dark, then turns gray by the evening."
Li Yu, the late lord from the Southern Tang Dynasty said sadly, "Everything in the world floats on water, finally everything in life is like a dream."
Su Dongpo, a literary giant in the Northern Song Dynasty sighed with emotion, "Leaving a mayfly between the heaven and earth, seeing a grain of rice in the sea. I feel sorrow about my life, which is as short as the blink of an eye. I admire the water of the Changjiang River, which is eternal."
Comparing the quickly passing human life and endless time-spaces, how should we choose to lead our lives? Should we sigh in sadness? Or should we forget all of this and try to find pleasure? Or should we admit that this question is beyond our ability and wisdom to answer, and put it aside so we can focus on something more tangible during our lifetime and leave behind a legacy? None of these are necessary! Each of our lives has its eternal side, the spirit or soul.
Many people have heard of near death experiences (NDE), which means a patient can recall his/her experience after he or she recovers from near death due to a heart attack or brain stoppage. This phenomena has been documented since ancient times. Plato, a Greek philosopher, recorded a Greek soldier's observations, what he related after recovery about the scenes he saw during his near death experience.
Since the publication of Raymond A. Moody, Jr.'s book Life After Life [1], the phenomena of NDE started to catch the attention of mainstream medicine.
Michael Talbot's The Holographic Universe was published in 1991, which cited some cases collected by Dr. Moody. In one case, a woman left her body during surgery. She floated to the reception room and saw her little daughter, whose shawl was crooked. In fact, the female servant in their home was in a hurry when she dressed the little girl and neglected to fix the crooked shawl. The servant was very surprised when she heard the woman talking about this after she woke up, because she hadn't seen her daughter that day. In another case, a woman left her body and entered the hallway of the hospital, and heard her brother-in-law speak to one of his friend about canceling his business trip for the funeral of his sister-in-law. Later on the woman recovered and told her brother-in-law that he shouldn't have talked about such a thing when she was not dead yet. Her brother-in-law was very surprised to hear that.
Kenneth Ring, professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, published a NDE research book in 1980 called Life At Death. Professor Ring found that people with NDE experiences often describe themselves entering a world on the other side that is filled with colorful lights. Worldly time and space concepts no long exist there. They often met beings radiating with the light of wisdom. The Holographic Universe cited some discoveries of other researchers, many of whose experiences of ND described that the self that left the body was in a form of a ball of light. It can also turn into the image of people, according to one's thoughts. After leaving the body one can look back on one's life in a holographic manner. Every detail, every feeling can be recalled all at once, clear and vividly.
Not only one's past has been fully recorded, but also the future has been arranged. Many people with NDE experiences were told that it is not their time yet, and thus were sent back to the human world. Professor Ring pointed out that it is obvious that people's lives are predestined. Sometimes, when on the other side, one is allowed to take a look at his future for the present lifetime. The Holographic Universe cited a case collected by Professor Ring. A child was allowed to see some detail for his future, including that he will be married at the age of 28, with two children later on. He even saw himself as an adult, sitting together with his future children in a room. He saw a strange object that he did not recognize hanging against the wall. He returned to the human world and grew up. Everything he saw during his childhood became reality. When he was an adult, one day it suddenly occurred to him that the scene in front of him was exactly the same as what he saw as a child. The strange thing against the wall was actually a heating radiator, which was not invented yet when he was a child.
In another case, a woman was shown the picture and name of Dr. Moody when she had a NDE. She was told when the time is ready she will tell Dr. Moody her experience. It was 1971 and Dr. Moody's book was not yet published. At that time the name and picture of Dr. Moody were meaningless for this women, but four years later Dr. Moody's family moved to the street where the woman lived. On Halloween eve that year, Dr. Moody's son went to the woman's home for trick or treating. When she learned the name of child, she told the child that she wanted to talk to his father.
In addition to NDE, The Holographic Universe also described some out of body experiences (OBE). Some people's spirits can even leave their bodies and go to places thousands of miles away, entering other space. These OBE phenomena were also recorded by Chinese Buddhism and Taoism cultivation practitioners.
In fact, OBE is only a corner of an even larger picture, and this picture is reincarnation. In recent years, the world of Western medicine has done many studies dealing with reincarnation. A very commonly used method is to hypnotize the patient in a condition similar to that of sitting in trance in Buddhism and Taoism. In this condition, the patients retrospect their past lives, even the world of the other side between two separate lifetimes. Investigators found that people often reincarnate in groups. People from the same group are often together, life after life. Through various conflicts they can clear their debts of gratitude and resentment. This is what the Chinese people called "Yuan" (predestined relationship). Before a particular reincarnation, one's future life had already been largely arranged, including some seemingly accidental but critical details. This is what is known as fatalism.
Many people do not believe their lives have immortal sides. They believe everything becomes empty after death. "In fact, one's flesh body is like one's clothes." If the clothes are taken off, the spirit is still there. Of course people living in the secular world do not believe in the existence of a soul or one's immortal spirit, because people do not believe what they can not see. Probably even this is also prearranged. Because people can only temper their spirit and experience the true meaning of life through living in the mist and suffering of the secular world.
"Modern physics can not detect the existence of spirit and other space, but it does not deny them either." Today's string theory and membrane theory already pointed out the possibility of the existence of other dimensions. Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, mentioned this issue in his works, expressing it in terms of today's physics: "The community of cultivators holds that one's Primordial Spirit does not become extinct." (Zhuan Falun)
"If you can enter the space between cells and molecules or the spaces among molecules, you will experience being in another dimension. What does that body's form of existence resemble? Of course, you cannot use the concepts of this dimension to understand it, and your body must meet the requirement of that dimension's form of existence. The body is another dimension can become big or small to begin with. At that time, you will find it also a boundless dimension." (Zhuan Falun)
" I have said that human beings don't die following the death of the human life. I've already talked about this matter in the Fa and have explained it very clearly. When a person dies, only the layer of the largest molecules—the human shell or this layer of molecules on the surface—dies and falls away from this dimension. How could your real body that's composed of microscopic matter die?" (Falun Buddha Fa - Lecture at the Assistants' Fa Conference in Changchun)
In the textbook depiction of the structure of a molecule, atoms are drawn as small balls, which are connected and make up the molecule. In fact, the microscopic world is much more complicated than this simple mechanical model. For example, an electron can penetrate two spaces at the same time. The movements of particles at the microscopic level can synchronize and form a water wave. It is far more profound and complicated than we imagine. Reading Mr. Li's lectures, we understand that the spirit is immortal, learn about other dimensions and also about reincarnation. We see a picture even broader than the issue of reincarnation.
Reference:
[1] Raymond A. Moody, Life after Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon; Survival of Bodily Death. Harper San Francisco, February 2001
[2] Michael Talbot, The Holographic Universe; Harper Collins Publishers, 1991.
[3] Kenneth Ring, Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near Death Experience; Putnam Publishing Group, August 1980
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/1/13/20025.html
