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Why do I have faith in Buddha?

Many things described inBuddhist sutras can be proven consistent with the contributions of the progressof science and advanced technology. On the other hand, nothing can provethousands of volumes of Buddhist sutras wrong so far. The sutras were writtenby Buddha’s disciples 2500 years ago, and at that time human beings’ knowledgewas very limited.

Take the concept of the universe as anexample. In Buddha’s era, the Hubble Telescope had not been invented yet, andpeople’s knowledge of the universe was virtually none. However, the Buddhataught His disciples the concept of the universe in Dīrgha Āgama Sutra, Volume18 (長阿含經卷第十八), as follows: “Like a sun and a mooncircle around and illuminate four worlds, one thousand of this kind of worldsare referred to as a Small Thousand World. A Small Thousand World has onethousand suns and one thousand moons, four thousand seas…….; One thousand SmallThousand Worlds are referred to as a Middle Thousand World; one thousand MiddleThousand Worlds are referred to as a Three Thousand Great Thousand World. Such worlds rise and fall, all the livingbeings reside within, are referred to as A Buddha land.” (如一日月周行四天下，光明所照，如是千世界，千世界中

有千日月、、、、、四千大海、、、，是為小千世界。如一小千世界，爾所小千千世界，是為中千世界。如一中千世界，爾所中千千世界，是為三千大千世界。如是世界周匝成敗，眾生所居名一佛剎。) According to Wikipedia: “a galaxy is a gravitationally bound system ofstars, stellar remnants, interstellar dust, and dark matter…. Galaxies range insize from dwarfs with just a few billion (109) stars to giants withone hundred trillion (1014) stars…. Approximately 200 billion (2.0 × 1011) or, morerecently, at least 2 trillion galaxies exist in the observable universe.”

The observable universe is only partial of the universe. Theoretically,the universe is borderless, and the number of galaxies should be countless aswell. The universe discovered by the scientists matches with the concept of theuniverse described in the Buddhist sutra. This is clear evidence that Buddha’sprofound wisdom and knowledge are way beyond ordinary men’s imagination.

Another example is the stagesof human prenatal development. The Buddhist teaching has detailed descriptionsof prenatal development from the first week to the thirty-eighth week, whichare very close to the discoveries by the modern technologies. The descriptionsof the development are recorded in Mahāratnakūta Sūtra Volume 55 (大寶積經卷第五十五), and some ofthe stages are cited as follows: “On the seventh week in maternal fetus, … four

formsappear—two palms and two feet- they are as soft as condensed foams. On theeighth week in maternal fetus, twenty forms appear—ten fingers and tentoes. On the ninth week in maternalfetus, ……nine forms appear, what are those nine forms? two eyes, two ears, twonose holes, a mouth, a genital, and an anus.” (第七七日處母胎時，復感業風名為旋轉。由此風力四相出現，所謂手足掌縵之相，其相柔軟猶如聚沫。第八七日處母胎時，復感業風名為翻轉，由此風力二十相現，所謂手足二十指相而便出生.第九七日處母胎時，復感業風名為分散。由此風力現九種相。云何為九？所謂眼耳鼻口、大小便處名為九相。)

About two thousand years later, modern technologies havediscovered similar stages (cited from Wikipedia) of human pregnancy: “week 7,location of the elbows and toes are visible; weeks 8-10, the fetuscan make a fist with its fingers. Facial features continue to develop. Genitalsappear well differentiated.” This is further evidence in support of Buddhistteachings being worthy of believing and learning; most importantly, they are inline with scientific findings.

I have encounteredmany different religions in my life in the past, such as: Catholicism,Christianity, Daoism, Falung Gong, etc. Each time I got introduced to areligion, I would study it with the hope that I could find the truth of life;however, none of them had enough convincing proof to support the idea that mylife

would become better and better if I believed in it or practiced it.Then in 2013, I had the opportunity to learn about Buddhism and studied somesutras. Although I was very much interested in those sutras, I had lots of questionsfor which no one could provide me with satisfactory answers. A year later, Istumbled upon a book written by Venerable Xiao Pingshi and found the contents extremelyvaluable and easy to understand. Thus, immediately I joined the class held inDiamond Bar by The Cultivation Centers of the True Enlightenment PractitionersAssociation established by Venerable Pingshi. Since my education background wasscientifically oriented — master’s degree in mechanical engineering, I cannever accept anything on blind faith, but can only believe in things that canbe scientifically proven true. I have learned from the lessons that Buddhistteachings should be personally proven, realized, and attained. Ever since I joined the Association, my lifehas become meaningful, my health condition has much improved, and I’ve gainedunshakable faith in Buddha, and that is the reason why I would like to share mypersonal experience with you all!