During the 1930s and 40s, the publishing of Buddhist texts by the Suzhou Propagation Society and the Shanghai Buddhist Bookstore reached a peak. Among books written for beginners and aimed at the average layman, Upasaka Yuanjing Li's were the best. His profound erudition and elegant style truly enthralled his reader. It was because I read Upasaka Yuanjing Li's Introduction to Buddhism and Upasaka Yuntai Nie's Guide to Life as a child one summer that I became a Buddhist.

Upasaka Yuanjing Li's name was Rongxiang. He was a native of Guangdong. He was older than me by over ten years, so he was both a teacher and a friend to me. His father had been a wealthy businessman who managed a Shanghai-Guangdong trading center. He grew up in Shanghai, graduated from the Literature Department of Fudan University, and was a "dandy" all his life. Yet he was given to studying the Sutras and investigating the Buddhadharma. His life was devoted to the writing of Buddhist books, and his works were extremely numerous. As soon as he finished a manuscript, he would send it to the Propagation Society and the Buddhist Bookstore for publication without taking any payment. The books he wrote for beginners, such as Walking a Bright Path, Words of a Traveler, and Bright Lamp on a Dark Road, are profoundly moving and enthralling. "Poem for Awakening the World" was another of his compositions. More profound works such as Explanation of the Brahma Net Bodhisattva Precept Manual and Explanation of the Shurangama Sutra convey deep principles in a simple and clear way, propagating the Mahayana teaching. Later on he participated in the work of editing the Revised Great Treasury Canon of the Republic (initially entitled the Universal Wisdom Treasury) at Fazang Monastery. In times of financial difficulty, he generously donated his own money and also raised funds. Actually, since the inflation rate had reached astronomical figures after the Sino-Japanese War, he was in financial difficulty himself. There is one unforgettable matter. In 1950, before he passed away, he went to the notary public at the local court and transferred the ownership of a piece of land on Baoxing Road in Zabei, Shanghai, and a villa on Moganshan to two friends, Zifan Fang and Songying Zheng, with the wish that the money from their sale be used to edit and print a Sanskrit-English-Chinese Buddhist Dictionary. Unfortunately at that time, all privately leased property had to be turned over to the city real estate bureau and the Moganshan villa was also used by the government. We had no way to carry out his wish and instructions. However, the editing and printing the Sanskrit-English-Chinese Dictionary is truly a project of great importance for the translation of Buddhist texts worldwide. It can be done only by scholars who are experts on Buddhism and fluent in those three languages, and with a substantial budget. I hope international Buddhist organizations and greatly virtuous ones will contribute their efforts and cooperate to accomplish this great task of Buddhism.

Cause and effect in the three periods of time and rebirth in the six paths are basic teachings in Buddhism. They are part of the Buddhist view of life and the cosmos. If reincarnation were not true, Buddhism would merely be superstition. One of the reasons Buddhism has gained popularity worldwide and has won the admiration of intellectuals is that there have been more and more instances of undeniable evidence of reincarnation in various parts of the world. The factual accounts and photographs in the book Cases of Reincarnation in the Scientific Age, printed abroad ten years ago, have been printed in quite a few foreign newspapers. There have also been investigative teams sent to verify the evidence. The Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore will be publishing a thick volume of contemporary foreign accounts of reincarnation, which have been translated into Chinese by Upasaka Weiquan Ni (a high-level engineer in the Shanghai Electricity Bureau). And there were two distinguished scholars who excitedly exclaimed, "I was a monk in my last life!" Mr. Suming Liang, a political activist who recently passed away in Beijing at the advanced age of 95, tearfully uttered those words in his old age. From the time I was fifteen until my thirties, I often went to Upasaka Yuntai Ni's place to study. The Elder Ni presented me with the magazine Cunzhi (Village Government) edited by Mr. Liang, introducing him as a devout Buddhist whose involvement in government was due to his wish to help the people and the nation. Later I found out that Mr. Liang had been a vegetarian since the age of twenty-two. There is also Elder Upasaka Yuzhong Gu, an 85-year-old economist who was a standing committee member of the Shanghai Buddhist Association. He also said tearfully, "I was a monk in my last life!"

In the past as well as the present, there have been many people, both Chinese and other nationalities, who are able to know about their past lives (this is a small manifestation of the penetration of past lives); however, the clarity of their knowledge varies. There are some who can perceive many past lives. From the reality of reincarnation, we can know that the law of cause and effect, wherein one receives the consequences for one's own actions, is not false. From the incidents and principles mentioned above, we can draw two conclusions:

1. The two intellectuals who knew that they had been monks in their past lives, although they were able to plant some good roots in the Buddhadharma, still grew old and passed away in the mundane world. They were unable to continue their cultivation of pure conduct as left-home people. They had been walking the path toward Buddhahood and liberation. In one life they cultivated; in the next life they squandered their merit; when will they be able to resolve the great matter of their birth and death? Therefore, living beings of the the present should use the Pure Land Dharma-door, replete with faith, vows, and practice, to liberate themselves from birth and death in this very life. As it's said:

One who cannot save those in the world is not a Bodhisattva;
One who has not escaped the wheel of rebirth is not a hero.

2. If one can thoroughly understand the facts and principle of cause and effect and reincarnation and establish a correct view of life and the universe, one will certainly have self-awareness and self-respect, bring benefit to the people and the country, and be a virtuous and productive member of society. Then the difficult problems of crime and suicide that plague advanced nations will be greatly reduced or even eliminated. This is the best education of the spirit; it is the greatest contribution that Buddhism can make to the spiritual aspect of our civilization.