seventh world of chan buddhism - Zen Buddhist Order of Hsu Yun

We must note that the Buddha did not offer platitudinous anodynes or placebos. He
held out no hope of happy playgrounds in the sky nor of another child's body waiting in the
wings to receive the departed spirit. He asked only that she understand that death comes to
all and is a fact which the living must accept.
Naturally, it is difficult to criticize such believers. Prudence demands that we be
circumspect in our zeal to instruct others. Dispensing wisdom to the grief-stricken is best left
to the wise who, by definition, know when to beat the Dharma Drum and when to muffle it.
The people who should not believe in reincarnation are those whose lives are
governed by greed and pride and who employ the theory to further or to defend their vain
ambitions.
Confirmed in their ignorant surmise that present agony is divine retribution for past
iniquity, these people regard the poor not only as deserving of poverty but as being fortunate
to have been reborn as human beings. (After all, they could have been reborn as animals.)
These believers then preen about their own good fortunes, offering themselves as models of
virtue to all who desire to be reborn so splendiferously. Such beliefs seldom lend themselves
to correction unless, of course, providence intervenes with an appropriate disaster.
Perhaps the largest group of believers who should discard their views on reincarnation
are those gullible folks who attach themselves to spirit channels or mediums.
Under hypnosis or even trance that is self-induced, some people have the marvelous
ability to pool whatever technical or historical information they have about a person, culture,
place or subject of any kind and create from all the bits of data a specific personality or
intuitive but folksy `expertise.' This exercise in constructive imagination requires an
extraordinary degree of suggestibility, nevertheless every once in a while someone emerges
with the necessary talent.
The ability to recall a past life under hypnosis or self-induced trance is related to
glossolalia, the `speaking in tongues' frequently associated with Christianity. People in the
midst of a profoundly emotional religious experience may burst out singing or speaking in
strange syllables. Occasionally, a person so entranced may record messages in the unknown
idiom. But despite the most enthusiastic attempts at translation, these writings have always
proven to be nonsensical.
Because of the potential for mischief these spirit channelings present, let us examine
some of the concocted ghosts who lurk in the human mind and are manifested in the spooky
world of showroom religion.
In the last hundred years there have been two particularly well documented cases of
past life regression which deserve notice.
CHAPTER 11 RIGHT UNDERSTANDING
S EVENTH W ORLD O F C HAN B UDDHISM
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