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Teaching You Zazen 9: Karmic Retribution and the Six Realms of Reincarnation

2007/9/22 12:17:01

Although this ID said last time that "reincarnation has never needed your belief — like sunrise and sunset, believe it or not as you please," we can still explore this question from different angles. And discussing the six realms of reincarnation naturally cannot be separated from karmic retribution of good and evil.

First, we can explore this question from a purely game-theoretic perspective. Whether karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation exist or not — there are only two possible answers: they exist, or they don't. If they don't exist, then believing or not believing in their existence cannot change the fact of their non-existence. That is to say, because of believing in "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" and therefore "practicing all good deeds and abstaining from all evil deeds," there would be no ultimate loss of benefit — because all benefits are annihilated in the final extinction. So if death means annihilation, then anything goes, and from the ultimate perspective everything is annihilation. Therefore, believing in "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" and "practicing all good deeds and abstaining from all evil deeds" is one of two absolute value orientations to choose from.

And if karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation do exist, then anyone who, due to not believing in "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation," fails to "practice all good deeds and abstain from all evil deeds" will be 100% subject to the most severe ultimate punishment. Therefore, combining the above, from a purely game-theoretic perspective, not believing in "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" is clearly a bad choice with only a 25% favorable outcome, while believing in "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" is a good choice with 75% favorable outcomes.

Moreover, the above discussion actually overlooks this situation: those who believe in human annihilation naturally won't try to change anything through any particular behavior, while those who don't believe in human annihilation will choose certain behaviors to change the ultimate outcome. Therefore, the possible outcomes of humanity's ultimate fate, in terms of probability, have two possibilities: annihilation is unchangeable, or annihilation is changeable. Adding this factor, the favorable probability for not believing in "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" drops well below 25%.

Second, from a scientific standpoint. Whether reincarnation exists can be personally experimented upon. Those who, without any personal experimentation, proclaim that "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" are false obviously do not hold a scientific attitude. Just like any scientific experiment, there must be certain procedures and standards, and the experiment on "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" likewise has its standards and procedures. This standard and procedure is zazen. Because, just as to have someone look at the sun requires first having a pair of eyes that can see, and to have someone observe bacteria requires at least having a microscope — the sun and bacteria objectively exist right there, but for the sun relative to a blind person and bacteria relative to an ordinary person without a microscope, the existence of the sun and bacteria becomes a pointless debate. Similarly, whether "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" are right or wrong requires absolutely no debate — just go experiment and you'll know. And zazen is what gives the blind person eyes and the ordinary person a microscope. Once you reach a certain level in zazen, the existence or non-existence of "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" becomes, like the existence or non-existence of the sun and bacteria, completely beyond the need for debate. This experiment can be done by anyone, even including the blind and those in vegetative states. But this experiment must be done by oneself — why? Just as no one can look at the sun or bacteria on your behalf to determine their existence, the existence of reincarnation works the same way.

Some might argue: why can't we use scientific instruments to verify this? This is a laughable question. May I ask: can you caress the sun with your hand? Can you listen to the world's clamor with your tongue? Can you measure the size of the Earth with a balance scale? That which can observe must match what is observable. Observation of whether "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" exist can only begin through zazen — just as measuring weight requires an instrument capable of measuring weight.

Why can't current scientific instruments examine whether "karmic retribution and the six realms of reincarnation" exist? The reasoning is extremely simple: because the world we inhabit is created by our shared karma, including our science and everything that can be made scientific. And to penetrate through this web of shared karma, it's impossible to use anything from within this web of shared karma. What is this similar to? It's similar to the concept of closure under operations in mathematics — no matter how you manipulate addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, you can never produce an irrational number. Within a group, no matter how you apply the group's operations, the result is still an element of the group. This is closure under operations. Similarly, no matter how you combine or jumble together anything within the web of shared karma, you cannot escape this web of shared karma.

But shared karma is empty yet not empty, not empty yet empty. Through zazen, one penetrates the web of human shared karma to glimpse the activities of the other five realms. Otherwise, the shared karma of humanity seals off all your observations. This is just like in mathematics, where we can use the limits of rational number sequences to break through the closure of the rational number web and reach irrational numbers. And zazen is the true extreme sport of breaking through the web of human shared karma to see a vaster world.

Humanity's greatest foolishness lies in assuming that one's own world is the world. The world is vastly wider than this. The human world is nothing more than an ant nest on a small mound of dirt, upon which there is ceaseless warfare — laughable and pitiable.

Furthermore, all those who demand proof that reincarnation exists seem to have forgotten their own obligation to first prove that reincarnation does not exist. May I ask: what scientific experiment has ever proven the non-existence of reincarnation? Science prides itself on rigor and reproducibility, does it not? May I ask: what experiment currently exists that can rigorously and reproducibly prove the non-existence of reincarnation? Has anyone ever proposed such an experiment? Has anyone ever conducted such an experiment? Can it be repeated by everyone?

The experiment proving the existence of reincarnation has been proposed across countless kalpas. The universe has gone from non-existence to existence countless times, and this experiment still persists. In that occurrence of the universe countless billions of iterations ago, this experiment had already been repeated countless times, right up to now, and this experiment can still be repeated and verified countless times by all people. This experiment's name, within the shared karma of our current humanity, has a name bearing human shared karma — part of which is the shared karma of the Chinese language: zazen.

When those hiding behind the banner of science engage in their hoodwinking, let them first approach this matter with a scientific attitude. Please first publicly announce your reproducible experiment that allows every person to test it. Or, simply adopt a scientific attitude and engage in the experiment reproducible by anyone: zazen.

Finally, there is no "finally." All people float and sink in infinite cycles of reincarnation — where is there any "finally"? How to break this chain of birth and death? That is the key question.