The 19th Dharma Session of MWBA (Oct 18, 2008): The Buddhist View on Ghosts

The notion of ghosts has always been around in most cultures. While ghosts may be scary to kids, and make for excellent cautionary tales for the young, they are the subject of celebration too. For example, Halloween is a popular day of festivity in US while the Chinese have their own version of the Ghost Festival. In some religions, ghosts are not sacrilegious, but may have a different moniker when referenced. Such is the case in Buddhism, and to make the nexus between the Chinese society, particularly the Buddhist worldview, and the West, using Halloween as a proxy, as regards the ambivalence that ghosts are regarded in each was Venerable Chueh Fan from Guang Ming Temple, Orlando during the 19th Dharma Session of Middle Way Buddhist Association on October, 15, 2008 at its Pinellas Park venue.

While Halloween, a largely secular celebration started as a Celtic tradition and brought into US by Irish immigrants, falls on October 31, the Chinese Ghost Festival occurs on the 15th day of the lunar month of July. In Buddhism, it's referred to as the Festival of Ullambana as cited in the Ullambana Sutra, a Mahayana sutra consisting of a brief discourse given by Gautama Buddha principally to his disciple, Maudgalyāyana, on the practice of filial piety. In a nutshell, the Buddha instructed “Mahāmaudgalyāyana on how to obtain liberation for his mother, who had been reborn into a lower realm, by making food offerings to the sangha on the fifteenth day of the seventh month”. On this day, the Sangha community would emerge from the forest after three months of Summer retreat coinciding with the Monsoon season to celebrate the completion of their meditation and report their progress to the Buddha. Thus, the day is viewed as Buddha's Joyful Day as the incidence of attaining enlightenment among the Sangha community during the retreat was high.

While originated in India, the Ullambana Festival inevitably assumes an overtone of Chinese culture as practiced by Chinese.

In Buddhist cosmology, there are six realms into which rebirth can take place: the three higher realms of Devas/Heavenly Beings, Human and Asura, and the three lower realms of Animal, Hungry Ghost, and Hell, an occurrence dictated by karma.

Venerable Chueh Fan regaled the attendees with ghost stories gleaned from the Buddhist sutras.

Through a slide presentation, Venerable Chueh Fan elaborated on the traits of each realm as follows:

Devas/Heavenly Beings
Populated by godlike beings who enjoy great power, wealth and long life, and live in splendor and happiness. These privileges and their exalted status blind them to the suffering of others. Thus, despite their longevity, they still grow old and die, and suffer from the lack of wisdom and compassion. Eventually, they will be reborn into another of the six realms.

Human
the only realm from which beings may escape from samsara, the cycle of rebirth. While enlightenment is within reach, only few open their eyes and recognize the potential. Rebirth into this realm is conditioned by passion, doubt, and desire.

Asura
These are strong and powerful beings, marked by their fierce envy, and are sometimes depicted as the enemies of the Devas. Hatred and jealousy would jettison a being into this realm.

Animal
Typified by prejudice, complacency, and lack of wisdom. They live sheltered lives, and avoid discomfort of anything unfamiliar. Rebirth into this realm is conditioned by ignorance.

Hungry Ghosts
Characterized by having huge, empty stomach, pinhole mouth, and thin and fragile throat. They always look outside themselves for the new thing that will satisfy the craving within. The realm is associated with insatiable hunger, addiction, obsession, and compulsion.

Hell
This is the most terrible of the six realms where inhabitants have a short fuse, easily angered. They drive away anyone who shows them love and kindness, and seek out the company of fellow hell beings. Unchecked anger and aggression can cause rebirth into the hell realm.

Venerable Chueh Fan then posed three questions for us to ponder, and briefly answered them as well:

Does everyone turn into ghost after death?
This is not taught by the Buddha, even though it is recognized as one of the realms. In short, karma is that which causes people to be ghosts.

Are our acts (karma) related to which realm we are reborn?
Yes, and the traits that preferentially condition rebirth into a particular realm are laid out above. As detailed in the Buddhist Karmic Rewards Sutra, these undesirable traits include:

The body has committed evil (Act Evil)
The mouth has committed evil (Speak Evil)
The mind has committed evil (Think Evil)
Greed
Covetousness
Fawning and Jealousy
Perverse ideas
Attachment and not letting go
Dying of starvation
Dying of thirst

How scary is a ghost?
There are good, and there are bad, ghosts, just like in the human world. While there are evil ghosts, the good ghosts number in the majority. More importantly, their “evilness” pale in comparison to the human atrocities that recur in the annals of our civilization. And ghosts are powerless against a kind human being of high morals as eloquently encapsulated in the Chinese saying: if we do no evil in the day, we need not worry about evil ghosts knocking on our door at night. On reflection, the ghosts outside of us are not nearly as frightening as the ghosts inside of us.

The anecdotes on the encounter and conversations between Maudgalyayana and the ghosts in the hell, as contained in the Maudgalyayana Sutra, enable us to glean the operation of the law of cause and effect (causality). For example, if we hit with a stick, we will have headaches. And if we do not help others when we are wealthy, we will sleep outdoors in the cold and rain.

A distinct feature of Halloween is the many different costumes. It is as if people already know what ghosts look like, extending their human perception and experience into the ghostly realm. By association, there are then as many different ghosts as there are different human characters. However, according to Abhidharma-nyayanusara, there are three kinds of ghosts: wealthy, not so wealthy, and poor. Then in Abhidharmamahavibhasa-sastra, ghosts are categorized into those with dignity and prominence, and those who are lacking in them. Then there are large and small ghosts, beautiful and ugly ghosts, and noble wealthy and lowly impoverished ghosts.

When concluding her Dharma session on the Buddhist view on Ghosts, Venerable Chueh Fan admonished us not to think about ghosts, but about Buddha, and about turning the human realm into Pureland. And this can be achieved by honestly and diligently working toward meaningful goals in life, rather than battling over superficial glory and illusory fame and ending up with a heap of old bones and a handful of dirt.