问：佛教说“人身难得”，又说“一失人身，万劫不复”，那为何现今世界人口剧增呢？显然出生的人比死亡的人多，佛教做何解释？

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：现在人口繁殖率虽高，但你怎知死去的众生不比生存的人多？这数目的总数无法准确计算出来，也不能以科学证明，只能以譬喻言之。佛在世时，有一次从地上抓了一把土，说：“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无量无边，但你怎知失去人身的，不比这数目更超出无数倍呢？

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?

从前死亡的人没有现在那么多，现在死于风灾、火灾、汽车、飞机失事、战争、核子爆炸的人也无法统计。而且这些死亡的人，失了人身后，很可能不再做人，或者投生去做蚂蚁、蚊子、猛兽－－这个数目又怎么能拿出科学证据呢？

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，怎么忽然就有知觉呢？这些问题都是最根本的问题，但一般人却忽略而不去研究。虽然现在人口暴增，但失人身的众生比从前多，从前没有那么多蚂蚁、蚊虫及其他害虫，你怎知湿生、化生、卵生的众生不是人变的呢？

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?

人失去人身后，性化灵残，一个人的灵魂，能化成好几种动物，甚至化成八万四千蚊虫。因为智慧分薄了，所以变成冥顽不灵。若想再恢复人身，就要在“化学工厂”里重新化炼，可能需要一段漫长的时间。

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. 

还有一点，人结婚多一次，死后他的灵魂就要被分割多一截。譬如，一个女人曾跟多少男人结婚，死后便有电锯把她的灵魂割成多少段，分给这些男人；男人若跟很多女人结婚，果报也是如此。另一个大问题是堕胎，堕胎就是失去人身，现在单是因堕胎而死亡的人，就比活着的人多啦！

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! 

至于无情的众生，能不能恢复灵性呢？可以的，若遇着适当的人对它说法，如“生公说法，顽石点头。”也可以恢复灵性，但要遇着圣人、罗汉，才有这个机缘。

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.