PureInsight | November 23, 2009
[PureInsight.org] Atheists believe, “A man dies just like the way a lamp goes out.” This view, I think, is wrong. One’s true life will not vanish when one’s body dies. Our forefathers believed that reincarnation and retribution really exist. One gets retribution if one does an evil deed. I want to tell you a true story, according to a book written in the Qing Dynasty about a person who went through many reincarnations. In the Qing Dynasty, there was an official in Shanxi named Gu who remembered several of his reincarnations. He recalled he was a poor teacher living in a temple in the first life he remembered. Once, he happened to see the monks storing money they received from begging under ashes from a stove. Like the old saying goes, “Hunger and cold induce stealing.” He thus stole the money from the monks. He died several days later before he was able to spend the money. His sprit came out of his body when he died. An old woman came to get him. As they passed by a fire pit, the old woman suddenly pushed him into the fire pit.
When he woke up, he found he was in a donkey shack. When he looked at himself he found that he had become a new-born donkey, and he was in the temple from where he had once stolen the money. He knew he was receiving due retribution for stealing the money. When the donkey grew up a little, it started to do laborious work in the temple. It was very tiring and arduous work. Several times he thought of committing suicide by jumping into a ravine to end his suffering, but he knew that evil had to meet with retribution. If he didn't pay back his debt and died, he would continue to suffer in his next life and the suffering would continue. On top of that, god might punish him for committing suicide and he would suffer even greater pain. He thus continued to work in the temple and hoped one day he would pay back his debt. After eight years, the donkey died from the tiring work. His spirit came out of the donkey. He again met the same old woman.
This time, the old woman took him to the side of a large pond and pushed him into the pond. He felt refreshed all over his body this time. He then realized he had become a baby. Out of excitement, he started to talk, “I have finally become a human again.” People were so dumbfounded to hear the new-born baby talking and thought he was a demon and drowned him.
He was again reborn to be a human and born into the Gu family. He was afraid he might be drowned again, so he did not talk. People thus thought he was a dumb baby. When he was several years old, he saw a child from the same village coming back from a private school. He took a book from the child to read, as he was a teacher in his first life. He told the child, “You are too old to read this elementary book.” The child was so surprised and thus told others that the mute kid from the Gu family could read and talk. His parents began to ask him many detailed questions. He told them about all of his previous lives. His parents thus hired a tutor to teach him. He succeeded in the imperial civil service exam in his youth and became an official.
From this historical record, I thought, in the end, good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil. As with officer Gu who was made to suffer retribution for stealing the money by becoming a donkey, people should not do bad things. This reminds me of our current historical period, as Falun Dafa is spread around the world by Dafa disciples to save people, and the Chinese Communist Party is persecuting these innocent people. Many of them have been persecuted to death. Those who participated in the persecution have already committed an enormous crime. If they don't stop the persecution, their fate will be worse than being a donkey.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2009/8/28/61326.html
