Buddhist Cosmology (4): Ghost Realm

So one of the most interesting and riveting realms for most people, because it involves the personal possibility, is the Peta realm. And we could translate Peta possibly into ghost. That is the nearest western equivalent. It's a little more nuanced than that, but it's of great interest. And I know in Asia, it's a particular preoccupation, concern with the realm of the departed, human departed. And so let's talk a little bit about this Peta realm. As you say, Peta is pretty close to the idea of ghost. It's classed as one of the realms of suffering. It's not as bad as being in hell, but it's an after death state. I think one way of thinking of it is it's kind of an aborted death. It's people who die with still a lot of attachment. And they're no longer able to experience their full human corporeal existence, but they kind of hang around in a attenuated form. There's one story, for example, of about a ghost who is in a sugarcane field. And he was unable to, he was starving. This is another, this is a general characteristic of Petas, that they're always hungry, which is a generalized sense of unfulfilled desire, but it's often experienced as hunger and thirst. It was in a sugarcane field, but he could not take the sugarcane. And there was a Arhat monk that he encountered who, with his psychic power, he was able to see what the problem was. And this Peta didn't realize that he was a Peta. He said, I feel like myself is cut, attenuated or partial or imperfect. And he didn't know what was wrong with him. Incomplete. Yes, yeah. The Pali was literally translated as cut, cut self. And the story was that when he was a human being, he was walking down a road eating sugarcane. And a beggar asked him for a piece and he refused. And the beggar kept bothering him. So he reached behind his back contemptuously with a piece of sugarcane to give to the beggar. So now the only way he could eat sugarcane now as a ghost was if he grabbed it from behind his back, but he didn't know that until it was explained to him. So these are very connected to types of behavior that are less than noble. Yes. They don't seem to have to be extremely unethical or harsh, but they are of lesser quality. They're not fully human. You're not fully expressing your compassionate human dimension. So this comes back. Yeah, so these realms are described. Where do you come across descriptions of the beings in the Peta realm? The most extensive source is the Petawatu, which is the Tales of the Departed. It's a collection of verses dealing with the Peta beings and the stories. The commentary expands the verses into stories. So that generally it's Mogolana or in a few cases, another monk who encounters one of the Petas and then tells a story of why this particular being is suffering in a particular way that he or she is and linking it to their karma that they made as a human. And so Mogolana is interviewing these beings. Yes. And they seem to be aware of the cause of their situation. In some cases. Yes. In some cases as the sugarcane fellow is quite confused. Yeah. But in some cases, they know exactly why they're experiencing what they experience. Yeah. So this is very pertinent to the consciousness of humans as well. So many humans feel unfulfilled. And I think it's, there was a recent book by Gabor Mate called In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts. And he works on the downtown east side with addicts. And he says that every single one of them just is feels absolutely incomplete. And then the drug taking is an attempt to relieve that feeling of incompletion. It is so it's so it is a form of hunger. Yes. Yeah. So the some of the artwork around these hungry ghosts is shows them as having a very thin neck. Yeah. And then a large belly. Yeah. Very distorted. They're rather ugly figures. They're not beautiful. And this very thin neck doesn't allow any nutriment to go to fill that empty belly. Yeah. And I think a lot of people will resonate with that image. No matter what they do, what they how they try to fulfill themselves, they still feel this emptiness. In some cases, for example, they try to drink water, and it turns into ash in their mouth. Yes, things like that. They're unable to fulfill their their desires. So in the, are they all sort of ugly and twisted? Or is there some that are more calmly? Yeah, well, there is, there is something that we find in in the sources is that the categories of beings are not as cut and dried when you get down to case details, that there's an overlap between the lower classes of they was and then pay does. There's one story where a single individual being is identified in the course of the story as a as a pate, a day one, a yaka in different places. So these categories are not hard and fast. And some of the pate does are really indistinguishable from the lower echelons of earthly day was they can live in in quite comfortable circumstances, you know, in mansions, the there's still classed as pate does because they have this incompletion. The like in this particular story, the in the, the pate in the story is living in comfortable circumstances because his his daughter made merit for him. But he realizes when his time as a pate is his suffering is psychological because he knows when his time as a pate is finished, he's going he's going to go to hell. Up, down. And, and this is something else with the pate realm is that in many cases, it's a transitional state of being as either on his way to hell or coming up from hell. Yes. So they're, they're kind of work camps or waiting camps or something like that. You've been deported from your human life. And you're just waiting for a new destination. You and this is, I imagine the nature of most human consciousness is that you're just not ready to suddenly lose your family and your house and all of that makes meaning in your life and be deported. Yeah. And to this refugee camp, you're a refugee, and you are not able to move on. And I guess it's a matter of how long it takes for the person to adjust to a new sense of identity. Take rebirth. Yeah, there's a common belief in Buddhist countries in Asia that almost everybody spends at least a short time as a pate after death. And the lifespan in the pate realm is not fixed. It might be very short, it might be many hundreds of years. As in the human realm, that's a non fixed, they have these realms of the animal realm, the human realm, the pate realm are not determined lifespans. And the heaven it is, because there's no illness or accidents. It's a kind of determined lifespan. Yes, it's a very regular kind of situation. Yeah. So yeah, one can move on from loss and sense of incompletion. One comes out of the ghost realm and moves on. And sometimes, what is it a few days, sometimes it's unfathomably long. Yes. Experiences. Yes, sometimes there's stories where they're in the ghost realm for eons of time. Yes. In between Buddha periods. You know, in the in the West, one of the types of ghosts that is repeat is called a repeating ghost. And they they're found at the place of a murder or someplace like that. And they seem to be going through the trauma, again and again, they even see them over a period of centuries, where a murder has taken place or a betrayal. And they are playing it out again and again. And this is similar to the traumatized mind where the the shocking traumatic event is played out in repetition with what we call these days post traumatic stress disorder. It's triggered. So are they any of the descriptions of kind of replaying and repeating a set of a fixed idea or a fixed situation? Sort of it, but it's more rather than a trauma. It's like some bad karma that they've made as a human. They end up replaying over and over. Like a woman who had had who had committed an abortion and is reborn as a ghost. And every night she gives birth. And in the morning, she feels compelled from hunger to eat her baby. And she has to go over this every day over and over and over. Well, there's a repetition structure. Yes. Where the single theme is repeated again and again. In fact, it's just unresolved. And they won't leave that realm until resolution takes place. But when they do depart, they could go to other destinations. They could return. They could take a better rebirth, become human. Yeah. Or lower, depending on what is remaining in their storehouse of merit. Yes. Now, is it the case that they're always in this sort of tormented condition? Or are they sometimes in a positive state? Yeah. Well, there's a class of peita that's very interesting. It's called womana peitas. That are like part-time peitas. They'll spend some of their time enjoying dewa-like pleasures. Often it's like for the bright half of the moon. They will enjoy dewa-like pleasure, and then in the dark of the moon, they will suffer as a peita. One of the stories regarding a womana peita, and it's usually people who have made mixed karma, like they've done very good and very bad things. There's a woman who, she was a member of a group of women who traveled around going from monastery to monastery making offerings. And on one of these trips, she was seduced by some scoundrel in a tavern or an inn where she was staying. And she was married, so this was an act of adultery. And her husband later got wind of this and asked her about it. And she lied and said, if I have done such an evil thing, may I be torn apart by dogs? And all her friends backed her up and said, no, if I'm lying, may I be reborn as a slave? And so when she died, because of the merit she made in making offerings to monasteries, she was born in a heavenly palace on the earth, a womana up in the Himalaya. And her friends all came back as her slave girls, her waiting servants. And every night she would enjoy pleasures and comfort all day. But at night, she felt compelled to go outside where she would be torn apart by a big black dog. And her bones would then reassemble themselves before night, and she'd go back into her palace. It's interesting that the British have an expression for depression, or a phrase that they use is the black dog. So Winston Churchill was referring to his depression as that black dog. Yeah. And of course, we have also the word lunatic. And that is the person's mind is affected by the moon. The moon in Buddhism represents the represents the mind free from defilements. And then the eclipses and then in the dark, the clouded moon is the defilements and extreme fear and the defilements in full bloom. And this is a little bit so we see a little bit of bipolar experience here in consciousness that it can swing back and forth. And this is because we do both good and evil and they don't seem to cancel each other out the the good has good results and the negative has negative results. You see this in people's lives in their internal emotional lives and you see them in their in the fortune and and ill fortune of people's lives. They're they spend time in poverty and then suddenly they're wealthy they win the lottery and then they blow it and then poverty and they have a good marriage for a while and then that something goes wrong and they have a terrible marriage terrible relationship back and forth extremes. They don't seem to and this is the kind of the Buddhist ideas that these things are. They're black and white and they don't become gray. They don't find the middle. This is really illustrated in a very strong way in this patriarch. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, they get the direct results of their karma good and bad. You know, as you say, they don't cancel each other out. They get the experience both. So one of the things that brings people to monasteries in in Asia is the offering of food or other things to the monks and the the transference what they call the transference of merit. Yes. To the realm of the departed the Pater realm. Yeah. And the what we the monks chant and say that the experience of generosity is so powerful like it overruns the bounds of this realm even unto the realm of the departed. Yeah. But quite often it's interpreted as that the material food goes to the to the realm of the departed. But so are there some stories of of this relationship between the living who's who care have care and concern and do do acts of of charity on the behalf of the department and the salubrious experience? Yes, around the departed? Yes, there there are a few stories. And there's a developed theory about how it works. Because really, you can't, strictly speaking, you can't transfer merit, you make your own karma and experience the results of karma. But what happens is if you do a meritorious deed, an act of generosity and wish that the benefit goes to your departed relatives, then if they're in the Pater realm, they know about that. And they rejoice in the good deed and rejoicing in the good is itself an act of good. Yeah. And it's experienced as a kind of relief of the hunger. Yes. And there's a kind of a multiplier effect. And the origin story of this whole, whole field is the story of King making offerings, that he invited the Buddha to and his monks to a meal, and offered the meal, then that following night, the whole palace was filled with groans and moans and horrible sounds. And he asked, and it kept it frightened everyone here stood on the end. The next day, he asked the Buddha about it. And the Buddha said, That's because you have so many relatives in from not only from this life, but from previous lives that are in the ghost realm that were hanging around, knowing that you were making an offering to the Buddha and the Sangha and a very potent offering to the Buddha. So they were hoping that you were going to offer the merit to them and they could feel relief. And you didn't you neglected to do that. So he made another another dana and invited the Buddha and the monks again, and this time he made the earnest resolution with his benefit, my departed relatives. And the Buddha used his psychic power to make the petas visible. And when King Bimbisara poured water over the Buddha's hands to wash them, in the Peta realms was experienced as fountains of water. And, you know, when he gave a morsel of food, this in the Peta realm was experienced as tables rolling, laden with dainties, and everything was multiplied many times. Yeah. And we even to this day, we have this water pouring ceremony while we're chanting the distribution or transference of merit. Yes, the lay people are pouring this water, which also refers to this as water overflows its banks and runs to the ocean. This generosity overflows the boundaries. It's powerful enough. It's like a radio signal that can reach another planet. It has enough power to reach into the ghost realm. Now, there's an interesting bit of business about can we send merit to who can we send merit to in the Buddha is quite the Bimbisara, I guess, asked him, what if my relatives are not there? And the Buddha says, well, you'll get the merit. And what if they're in heaven? Well, they can't receive it. So we, we the transfer, you can't transfer the merit to heaven. He also said that in samsara, being without beginning, it's quite impossible that you don't have some. Yeah. And this doesn't need to be relatives, particularly or close friends, or, you know, I think that it can be even, even a stranger. And because there's stories about, for example, there was there was one of the servants of King, King Pasanadi, who saw a ghost and felt compassion for the ghost. So the next time he had his and he was someone, you know, just saw a random ghost. And next time he had his beard shaved, he and any tip the barber, he made their wish, you know, this made this act of generosity, benefit that ghost. And there's a case where I think it's Sariputta decides that he would like to transfer merit to the departed relatives. But of course, as a monk, you can't, you don't have food, you don't have these things. But somebody does it on behalf of Sariputta. And so that even the monks are not afraid to concern themselves with merit. And the Buddha does say, monks, do not be afraid of merit, or merit is another word for happiness. Yes. So you also mention a lot, but we're not always just focused on nirvana without any, any concern for the function of karma. The Buddha is still encouraging us to do acts of generosity and the repercussions of those. Also, when you transfer merit in that way, you don't, it's not like you lose the merit yourself, right? You know, you use it's an extra, you're still making if you do a good deed, you still make good karma. But you also can have the extra benefit of helping beings in the ghost realm. Right? It's a little bit like sending a care package off to a refugee camp. If your relatives are there. It's wonderful. Maybe it'll get there. But if not, whoever gets it, at least we gave it a shot. So yeah, it's a and I think it's also a beautiful way to stay in touch with your departed relatives. In the, in the West with the collapse of metaphysical ideas and religion, and we, we have a very, we don't know what to do when somebody vanishes forever. And we don't know how to treat it. And our psychological experience is very unsatisfactory. Buddhist ideas that just stay in touch and send us send the care packages here. It's like your kid has gone off to college and you're sending the cookies, you know, it's a great little connection there, you abruptly stop anything, it's incredibly unresolved for the psyche. Yeah. And so this is a very nice thing. And some of the Westerners, but first they come to just meditate. After a while, they see the Asians coming for these other things. And they start to think, Can I transform? I'd like to give it a shot. They may not even be, they may be skeptical of the whole thing. But there is a gratification. It is emotionally skillful. In the end, this ability to manifest generosity for people who you've had a long relationship with. So it's very important. The thing is that, of course, in what you find in our culture is endless charities and buildings dedicated in the name of departed relatives. Yes, yes, such and such building. And so a large scholarship, Stanford University was for the son of the Stanford's who had gone to Harvard. And he died there. And they were very upset. They went to visit the dean at Harvard and asked if they could donate something. And he said, Well, we have enough statues and so forth. He said, Well, how about a building? He said, Oh, do you know how much a building cost? And they said, No, how much? And he said something in those days, something like $50,000, which was a lot of money. And there were multi multi millionaires. Yeah. And they said, it's only $50,000. We should we could build a whole university. So they built Stanford University, which is Leland standards. Stanford was their son. So that whole university is in the name of their son. Very moving. Yeah, beautiful thing. And of course, all over the world, whether they have this idea or not, they, there's an intuition about this generosity connection to the departed that you can do things in their name. So any other tidbits of information about the realm of the departed? There is a series of short suttas in the Samyutta of Moggallana seeing various kinds of pithas. Yes. And the, they follow a kind of formula. He sees a skeleton flying through the air pursued by birds. Yes. And then he mentions this to the, to the Buddha and the Buddha says I too saw this and then tells the story about what, what, what karma that being made to become, become in that state. And one of the curiosities of that series of suttas is every time Moggallana sees this, and he has a companion, he's walking there with a junior monk. And Moggallana sees this pitha spirit and he smiles. And the other monk says, what are you smiling about? And he says, I see the skeleton flying through the air. Yes. And this, this idea of him smiling becomes, it's a curiosity. It's not explained in the sutta. And the commentarial explanation, it's not, I think to most, to the modern mind, it's not very satisfying. It's like, it says that he smiles because he realizes he's beyond such miserable states. And this becomes, and then in the Abhidhamma, when they classify the different kinds of consciousness, this doesn't fit into any of the other, the consciousness of the Arahant who smiles at seeing something unlovely. So they, it's added in as like an extra special, unique, unique, generous smiling consciousness of the Arahant, where they classify all the possibility of consciousness. Yeah. So that's a fantastic realm. And it is pertinent and as close as we can get to the, to the regular human experience. And it's also highly motivating is that as we see this deprivation that many, many, I think, especially in modern society, where there's just a lack, it's fundamental lack. And one of the ways, and you notice this is a connection, I think other religions teach it as well, is that one of the ways out of lack is charity. Yes. Is to go out and give something to others, get out of your diminished and very reduced condition and expand your mind. And you will feel that you, that you're, the throat expands and the belly shrinks, and you start to feel nourished and complete. So there's so many lessons and psychological skills that the understanding of the Pater realm helps with. And of course, these kinds of talks that we're having about the Pater realm and the other realms is quite often absent from Western ideas of Buddhism. It's often is a secular experience. It's a psychological, it's an attempt to, for therapy and a definite taboo to talk about these other dimensions, but there really are very therapeutic as well. And it opens it up. And I, from, because we're in a monastery and Westerners and Asians come here and they see this, the function of a monastery to an Asian family is something broader than, than meditation. So the Westerners who are meditators, they quite often will pick up some of these things and they find it enriching and helpful in a very curious way without having to defend this with a scientific explanation. And another thing about the ghost realm, I think is of all of the various other realms, it's, it's somewhat close to the human realm. And I, I think universally in all cultures, there's many people who have seen ghosts or experienced ghosts, whereas there's very few who have seen or experienced dewas, they're more difficult to perceive. You know, especially the idea of the, the ghost coming in your dreams. Yes. And that would often be a departed relatives. And I've given this advice to people before they, they have dreams of their mother or their brother who committed suicide or something like this, you know, appearing in their dreams, standing at the end of their bed in the room with them. And they asked me about this course, they're hesitant, you know, but they say, you come to the right place. This is common knowledge. You know, what you're going to do, you're going to, they're, they're asking for merit, they're asking for you to do something generous for them. And when people do this, then those dreams cease. Yeah, that's, that's a very great insight, which I don't know, they can't offer that, you know, they can't deal with that realm. So yeah, it's a wonderful, rich, and very practical knowledge. People think it's a bygone era, it's a different way of thinking, but actually, it's, it's with us now.