The following extract is trying to prove to us that life after death exists.
Surangama Sutra
Inverted Men-The heretics' inverted view of annihilation
Translated by Lu Kuan Yu
King Prasenajit then rose and said to the Buddha:
'Before I received the Buddha's instruction, I met (Kakuda)
Katyayana and (Sanjaya) Vairatiputra who both said that
when the body died, its annihilation was called Nirvana.
Although I have now met the Buddha, I am still not clear
about this. All those here who are still in the stream of transmigration
wish to know how to realize that mind and prove
that it is beyond birth and death.'
The Buddha said to King Prasenajit: 'Great King, I
now ask you about your body of flesh and blood: is it permanent and indestructible like a diamond, or does it change
and decay?'
(The king replied):'My body will decay and finally be
destroyed.'
The Buddha asked: 'Great King, you have not yet died,
how do you know that your body will be destroyed?'
The king replied: 'World Honoured One, though my
impermanent, changing and decaying body is not yet dead,
I observe that it changes and decays without a moment's
pause and is bound to "go out" like a fire that gradually burns
out and will be reduced to naught.'
The Buddha asked: 'Yes, Great King, you are old now
but how do you look compared to when you were a child?'
The king replied: 'World Honoured One, when I was a
child, my skin glowed and when I grew up, I was full of vigour,
but now I age and weaken, I grow thin and my spirits are
dull, my hair is white and my face wrinkled so that I know I
shall not live much longer; there is no comparison between
now and when I was full of vitality.'
The Buddha said: 'Great King, your appearance should
not decline.'
The king replied: 'World Honoured One, it has been
changing all the time too imperceptibly for me to notice it.
With the constant change of seasons, I have become what I
am now. Why? Because when I was twenty, though still
young, I already looked older than when I was ten, while at
thirty I was older still. As I am now sixty-two, I am older than
at fifty when I was stronger. World Honoured One, I notice
this imperceptible change in every decade, but when I look
into it closely, (I see that) it has occurred not only yearly,
monthly and daily, but in each moment of thought. That is
why I know that my body is destined to final destruction.'
The Buddha said: 'Great King, you observe this ceaseless
change and know that you will die, but do you know that
when you do, there is that which is in your body and does
not die?'
The king brought his two palms together and said: 'I
really do not know.'
The Buddha continued: 'I will now show you the (self-)
nature which is beyond birth and death. Great King, how old
were you when you first saw the Ganges?'
The King replied: 'When I was three my mother took
me to worship the deva Jiva. As we crossed the river, I knew
it was the Ganges.'
The Buddha asked: 'Great King, as you just said, you
were older at twenty than at ten, and until you were sixty, as
days, months and years succeeded one another, your (body)
changed in every moment of thought. When you saw the
Ganges at three, was its water (the same as it was) when you
were thirteen?'
The king replied: 'It was the same when I was three and
thirteen, and still is now that I am sixty-two.'
The Buddha said: 'As you now notice your white hair and
wrinkled face, there must be many more wrinkles than when
you were a child. Today when you see the Ganges, do you
notice that your seeing is "old" now while it was "young" then?'
The king replied: 'It has always been the same, World
Honoured One.'
The Buddha said: 'Great King, though your face is
wrinkled, the nature of this essence of your seeing is not.
Therefore, that which is wrinkled changes and that which is
free from wrinkles is unchanging. The changing is subject to
destruction whereas the unchanging fundamentally is
beyond birth and death; how can it be subject to your birth
and death? Why do you bring out Maskari Gosaliputra's
(wrong) teaching on total annihilation at the end of this life?'
Upon hearing this, the king realized that after death,
there will be (no annihilation but) life again in other transmigrations.
He and the whole assembly were happy and enthusiastic
at the Teaching which they had never heard before.
How about you?
"