一失人身,萬劫不復
Once We Lose our Human Form,
We won't Gain it Back in Ten Thousand Eons
◎宣化上人
A Talk Given by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua
墮胎就是失去人身,現在單是因墮胎而死亡的人,就比活著的人多啦!
When fetuses are aborted, they lose their human bodies. Nowadays, people who died
because they were aborted exceed the number of people who are alive!
問:佛教說「人身難得」,又說「一失人身,萬劫不復」,那為何現今世界人口劇增呢?顯然出生的人比死亡的人多,佛教做何解釋?
Question: According to Buddhism, “a human body is difficult to attain,” and “once we lose our human form, we won't gain it back in ten thousand eons.” Then why is the current world population increasing rapidly? Apparently, people being born outnumber those have died. How does Buddhism explain this?
上人:現在人口繁殖率雖高,但你怎知死去的眾生不比生存的人多?這數目的總數無法準確計算出來,也不能以科學證明,只能以譬喻言之。佛在世時,有一次從地上抓了一把土,說:「得人身者,如掌上土;失人身者,如大地土。」世上生存的人口似乎無量無邊,但你怎知失去人身的,不比這數目更超出無數倍呢?
The Venerable Master: Although the current birth rate is high, how do you know that living beings that are dead doesn’t outnumber people who are alive? This number can’t be accurately calculated or proven by science; it can only be expressed with an analogy. When the Buddha was in the world, one time he grabbed a handful of sand and said: “Those who have gained their human bodies are like the amount of sand in my palm, while those who have lost their human bodies are like the amount of sand on earth.” The number of people living in the world seems measureless and limitless. However, how do you know that the number of people who have lost their human form is not countless times more than that?
從前死亡的人沒有現在那麼多,現在死於風災、火災、汽車、飛機失事、戰爭、核子爆炸的人也無法統計。而且這些死亡的人,失了人身後,很可能不再做人,或者投生去做螞蟻、蚊子、猛獸--這個數目又怎麼能拿出科學證據呢?
The number of people who died in the past is less than that of the present. Nowadays, it is hard to estimate the number of people who died due to tornados, fire, car accidents, plane crashes, wars, and nuclear explosions. In addition, it is most likely that once these people lost their human form, they won’t be reborn as human. They could be reborn as ants, mosquitoes, or wild beasts. How can we prove this number scientifically?
父母生育孩子,怎麼忽然就有知覺呢?這些問題都是最根本的問題,但一般人卻忽略而不去研究。雖然現在人口暴增,但失人身的眾生比從前多,從前沒有那麼多螞蟻、蚊蟲及其他害蟲,你怎知濕生、化生、卵生的眾生不是人變的呢?
After a baby is born, how can he or she suddenly have consciousness and feelings? These are fundamental questions that ordinary people ignore and fail to research for the answers. Although there is a great increase in human population now, living beings that have lost their human form are more than before. In the past, there were not so many ants, mosquitoes, bugs and other pests. How do you know that these living beings born from moisture, by transformation or from eggs are not human beings in their prior lives?
人失去人身後,性化靈殘,一個人的靈魂,能化成好幾種動物,甚至化成八萬四千蚊蟲。因為智慧分薄了,所以變成冥頑不靈。若想再恢復人身,就要在「化學工廠」裏重新化煉,可能需要一段漫長的時間。
After a person loses his human body, his nature will change and his spirit will be divided. For example, the spirit of one human being can be transformed into many kinds of animal, even eighty-four thousand mosquitoes. Because his wisdom is being divided into many bodies, the resulting beings are dull and stubborn. If he wants to regain his human body, he would need to be “transformed and re-smelted” as if in a chemical factory, the process of which probably would take a long time.
還有一點,人結婚多一次,死後他的靈魂就要被分割多一截。譬如,一個女人曾跟多少男人結婚,死後便有電鋸把她的靈魂割成多少段,分給這些男人;男人若跟很多女人結婚,果報也是如此。另一個大問題是墮胎,墮胎就是失去人身,現在單是因墮胎而死亡的人,就比活著的人多啦!
Another point is, every time a person gets married, his spirits will be divided into one more piece after his death. For instance, depending on how many times a woman marries during her life, after death, her spirit will be divided into as many pieces as if by an electric saw and shared among her ex-husbands. The retribution is the same if a man has married many times. Another big problem is abortion. When fetuses are aborted, they lose their human bodies. Nowadays, people who died because they were aborted exceed the number of people who are alive!
至於無情的眾生,能不能恢復靈性呢?可以的,若遇著適當的人對它說法,如「生公說法,頑石點頭。」也可以恢復靈性,但要遇著聖人、羅漢,才有這個機緣。
Regarding insentient beings, are they able to recover their spirits? Yes, if they meet an appropriate person who speaks the Dharma to them. Such was the case “when Master Dao Sheng spoke the Dharma, the stone nodded in agreement.” However, only when the insentient beings encounter sages or Arhats, can they have such an opportunity.