by Dharma Master Cheng Yen - TaiwanWe must live in harmony with the motion of the universe. Human beings go through the stages of birth, aging, illness and death, just like the seasonal changes of spring, summer, autumn and winter in nature. There is a close connection between the two. Birth, aging, illness and death are what all of us have to experience, but do we know what exactly "death" is? Actually, it is simply the termination of life, not the soul. Our consciousness will drift with our karma and change its form after we breathe our last breath. Our innate nature remains alive and, like the seasonal changes, goes on in an endless cycle.
Buddhists believe in reincarnation. Someone once asked me, "When we die, that's the end of us. How do we know we will be reborn?" Let's try to find the answer. Not only do Buddhist scriptures contain the concept of reincarnation, but many Buddhist masters in the past also put a great deal of emphasis on this idea. Besides Buddhism, other religions also talk about the concept of the soul.
There is a belief in Catholicism, for instance, that those who believe in God will ascend to heaven. Catholics believe that when the body perishes the soul will ascend to heaven or descend to hell, while Buddhists hold that those who do good deeds will be happier in the next life and those who do bad deeds will suffer. What we do every day will become our karma. There is a saying: "Nothing but our karma follows us when we die." If we vow to do good things for the world, we will return to the earth as good human beings; if we die with evil thoughts, we will be bogged down by bad karma after we are reborn.
There are those who wonder if people really return to this world after they die. From my past experiences, I think the answer is yes. I have seen many babies who cannot yet talk, but are so happy to hear the words "Tzu Chi" and are so respectful towards me. Since one's behavior arises from one's subconscious, they must have been Tzu Chi people before and the seeds of goodness must be deeply rooted in their nature.
Once when I went to Taipei, an elderly commissioner brought her daughter-in-law and her little granddaughter to see me. The child was around two years old. She bounced into the room carrying a heavy object, which she had to put on the floor because of its weight.
Standing in front of me, she folded her hands together and then prostrated herself like Buddhists do when seeing their dharma master. "One prostration is enough," I told her. But she prostrated herself two more times [which is the proper greeting to dharma masters]. Then with all her strength she lifted up the heavy piggy bank and staggered towards me. I asked her, "What is this for?" She replied, "I'd like to give you this to build hospitals." I took the piggy bank from her, and it certainly was heavy!
After all the coins were taken out of the piggy bank, she took it back and then asked for five dollars from her mother. Her mother asked her, "What do you want the money for?" She replied, "For the Master to build hospitals." Her mother fished out some coins from her pocket and handed them to her.
Just as the little girl was about to put all the coins into the piggy bank, a commissioner held her hand and took the coins away. "Let's go buy some candy," she said. The little girl immediately took back the money, dropped it all into the piggy bank, and said, "These are for the Master to build hospitals!" Someone took away the piggy bank and teased her, "The money is for you to buy candy!" She snatched it back, pouted, and said, "This is for the Master to build hospitals!" She stared angrily at the adults.
"My granddaughter is very special," her grandmother said. "She often asks for five dollars from me and says that she wants to help the Master build a hospital." Every morning when she came home from grocery shopping, her grand-daughter, hearing her opening the door, would run to the door and ask her for five dollars.
After hearing this story, I took a look at the girl. She never forgot about saving money for me to construct hospitals! It reminded me how Tzu Chi started with fifty cents—our commissioners saved fifty cents in their bamboo "piggy banks" every day to be used for charity. The hardships these early commissioners endured when they were raising money for the construction of the Tzu Chi Hospital in Hualien was imprinted on their minds. Maybe this little girl was the rein-carnation of one of those early commissioners.
When the girl was only one year old, she saw a photograph of me in the living room. She pointed at it, and her grandmother told her, "That's Master Cheng Yen." There upon the girl put her palms together and prostrated herself before the photo. Since then, whenever she saw the photo, she would fold her hands and say, "Master," and then prostrate herself before the photo. This toddler must be spiritually connected to me. Otherwise, why would a one-year-old girl show so much respect for me? And why would she always think of building hospitals when she heard the clink of coins?
It is evident from the above example that our innate nature is everlasting and that it comes and goes through the cycle of reincarnation, driven by our karma. Therefore, if we want to be happy in our next life, we must vow to do good deeds and create good karma. Only by continually doing good deeds can we keep ourselves from creating bad karma and suffering in our next life.
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