Summary of Dhamma Talk by Venerable K. Rathanasara on 2nd September 2018
DO HUNGRY GHOSTS EXIST?
According to Tao religious belief, the gates of hell are opened during the seventh lunar month, and hungry ghosts will be wondering on the earth. Various practices during this ‘hungry ghost festival’ stem from this belief.
In Taiwan and Hong Kong, people send decorated paper boats with lotus lanterns to the sea with the intention of helping the wondering ghosts see in the dark. In Singapore and Malaysia, ‘wayang’ shows (a form of traditional theatrical performance) are held at night in the neighbourhoods to entertain these hungry ghosts. Joss papers, paper houses, and luxurious items made from paper such as televisions, cars, radios, or cell phones, are burnt with the view that these ghosts can benefit from them in their realm. Some believe that it is dangerous to swim during this month, for fear of drowning caused by ghosts whom one might have offended. Children are advised to come home early to avoid being possessed. People avoid scheduling auspicious events such as moving house or wedding in this period. These are some of the common beliefs that are inherited in the Chinese culture and originated mainly from the Tao religion.
Buddhism spread into China during an era when Taoism was the dominant religion, together with Confucianism.
Buddhism, being a peaceful teaching, co-existed harmoniously with these existing teachings in China.
Eventually when the people embraced Buddhism, they combined Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, and created Chinese Buddhism, which is a blend of these three. So Taoist friends and Buddhist friends have co-existed peacefully together for many years without any issue.
So what is the Buddhist concept of hungry ghosts?
Buddhists recognise the hungry ghost realm (or peta realm) as one of the four unhappy realms of existence, but Buddhists do not believe that the gates of hell are opened during any particular period of time. Peta is a Pali word that means spirit-like or shadow-like beings who do not have gross level physical bodies but subtle level astral bodies.
In Buddhist arts in monasteries, these beings are depicted as having tiny mouths but very big bellies, this clearly explains who exactly is the hungry ghost – its belly is so big with the desire to eat a lot but the tiny mouth will never be able to eat sufficient food to satisfy the big tummy. What does this mean? These are beings who are suffering from excessive greed for food, drinks, sense pleasures, power, wealth, popularity – for everything.
Their greed can never be satisfied as there is no saturation point. These beings are tormented with so much greed, desire, and attachment that they are in a suffering state.
But beings who are in this suffering realm will not be there forever. Once their negative karmic energy is over, they can be born somewhere else, even as divine beings, or as human beings, or in any other realm. Just like human beings who will have to move on depending on our own karmic energy when we die, these hungry ghosts are fellow sentient beings who are in this long journey of birth-death cycle together with us.
A question may arise – what could lead someone to be born as a hungry ghost?
According to Buddhist teaching, if one develops the mind-set of a hungry ghost now as a human being, here and now one will be a hungry ghost. There are people who are never satisfied in life, these people have wealth, power, popularity, in fact they have everything except one thing – happiness. They are always hungry and wanting more and more. These people have so much wealth but they do not spend on themselves nor others. Governed by their own greed and self-centred blind desire, they are so greedy that they live such a miserable life here on the earth. Developing such a mind-set which is suitable to be born in such a realm will definitely lead one to be born as a hungry ghost after death.
So the dominant defilement here is greed. When coupled with self-centred blind desire, the intense greed can result in the loss of common sense, causing one to behave in such a way that other defilements will also arise. Out of greed, one might go to the extent of doing evil, wicked, immoral actions to achieve more, in the process producing hatred, ill will, jealousy, anger, cruelty. It is because of delusion that all these come into existence. So the causes that lead someone to be born in the hungry ghost realm are none other than greed, hatred, and delusion, with the dominant defilement being excessive greed.
We are so blessed and fortunate to be born as human beings, as the human life is so difficult to achieve.
Having achieved this human life, strive to behave and cultivate in such a way that after death, we will be born again either as a human being or as a divine being, so that we can have favourable conditions to develop and cultivate further.
So why is it that we cannot see these hungry ghost beings? Buddhism recognises that realms related to the earth include human beings, animals, earth bound deities and various other spirits, and hungry ghosts. So from the Buddhist point of view, the hungry ghost realm is not recognised as another planet, but is associated with the earth atmosphere. So if we can see animals and humans, why do we not see earth bound deities, hungry ghosts, or such other “invisible” beings?
Buddhism teaches that in fact we can see them if we develop a special ability. The human mind have so much latent power that if this power and knowledge is greatly enhanced, it is possible to produce two types of supernormal powers:
(i) Dibba-Chakku (divine eye) – the ability to see beyond the ordinary capacity of the physical eyes to include seeing subtle beings; and
(ii) Dibba-Sota (divine ear) – the ability to go beyond the ordinary hearing capacity to hear these sounds.
These two types of supernormal powers are accessible by human beings if they dedicate themselves to train for it through meditation and attainment of at least the fourth stage of jhanas.
The Buddha Himself and some of His ordained disciples who have developed these supernormal powers have encountered these beings, and there were even some dialogues between them.
These stories were compiled into one book known as the Petavatthu – the collection of the stories of these unhappy beings and their encounter with these enlightened ones who have supernormal powers.
So it is possible for us to see these beings if we develop such special knowledge and powers. Perhaps in time to come, it is possible that scientists might invent some instruments that would enable us to see these beings. Just as a long time ago we did not know much about micro-organisms, viruses and germs, and when human beings became sick with diseases, people thought that these were the works of evil beings, but science and technology have advanced and we now know that such sicknesses are due to viruses and germs.
Do we think that what we see and what we hear is the only world that exists? What we see, what we hear, what we sense, and what we recognise through the ordinary mind is only a fraction of the world.
Like a child who peeps through a window and sees the garden only from that perspective, so too do we perceive the universe based on our limited capacity. That is why the Buddha says that ordinary human beings are sleeping, while He is awakened. It is easy to understand through our common sense that what we recognise through our five sense faculties is not the only world, because scientists have discovered and invented many things that have expanded our five sense faculties. Telescopes for example, have expanded our vision by allowing us to see clearly at a far greater distance. There have been a fair amount of good works in the field of science but the work is still not complete and hence there are still limitations.
From the Buddhist point of view, the world that we see is a distorted one based on our own distorted view as we do not see things as they really are. So what we are lacking that the enlightened beings have is Dhamma-Chakku – the eye of the Truth. We ordinary human beings perceive the world with delusion, while the enlightened ones who have the knowledge and vision to see things as they really are (yathā bhūta ñānadassana) perceive the world with realisation.
According to scientists, the visual capacity of our eyes ranges from 400 to 700 nanometers (this visible spectrum is essentially the seven colours of the rainbow), any wavelengths below or above this range will not be visible to us. But the world is much bigger than what we can visibly observe. Scientists postulate that the universe might have either 10 or 11 dimensions, but human beings are living only in the third dimension calculated by length, width, and depth, so if there are beings in the other dimensions, we may not see them. Likewise, the hearing capacity of our ears is limited to frequencies between 20 and 20,000 hertz. We cannot hear sounds below 20 hertz (known as infrasound), and it is said that elephants can hear them.
Likewise, we are unable to hear sounds above 20,000 hertz (known as ultrasound), and it is said that bats and dolphins can detect them.
Hence, we should not believe that what we see and what we hear is the only world that exists. There is much more to this world than what we experience through our limited five sense faculties.
Lastly, we should recognise that even though the concept of hungry ghost in Buddhism and Taoism are different, both Buddhists and Taoists believe that hungry ghosts exist. In Buddhism, we do meritorious actions in the name of the departed ones and share the merits with them, because we believe that it is only the merits that will come forward for the well-being and happiness of the deceased.
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