Hungry Ghosts [Archive] - David Icke's Official Forums

zetetic0void

08-01-2010, 01:43 PM

This from wikipedia (I know, sometimes not a credible source on certain modern touchy subjects but on other subjects , probably reasonable)

In Tibetan Buddhism Hungry Ghosts (Sanskrit: pretas) have their own realm depicted on the Bhavacakra and are represented as teardrop or paisley-shaped with bloated stomachs and necks too thin to pass food such that attempting to eat is also incredibly painful. Some are described as having "mouths the size of a needle's eye and a stomach the size of a mountain". This is a metaphor for people futilely attempting to fulfill their illusory physical desires.

According to the History of Buddhism, as elements of Chinese Buddhism entered a dialogue with Indian Buddhism in the Tibetan Plateau, this synthesis is evident in the compassion rendered in the form of blessed remains of food, etc., offered to the pretas in rites such as Ganachakra.

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So at the very least they can be seen as symbols representing a state of experience where your desires are so huge that they can;'t be satisfied which results in continual psychological discomfort and desperation

Preta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Anybody know if Hungry Ghosts get horny?

I would imagine that the concept of the 'hungry ghosts' (in general ... not speaking of any particular cultural tradition) probably refers to a state of huge desires of all kinds but will no means to appease those desires. I think the idea that they have continual thirst and hunger for food is more of a symbol for continual clinging and longing for manifestations within the Earthly realm (or even any other realm). But I'm just reading my own ideas into it (I've only heard the 'hungry ghosts' mentioned once before in a lecture by the great philosopher Alan Watts - no NOT the modern Alan Watt without an 's').

So theoretically, within your human life, it would seem that people with extremely unbalanced cravings for Earthly forms (objects, fame, wealth, power, control, etc) may have an extremely difficult time during the process of death and after death in that they would not wish to break their connection to Earthly manifestations. And so possibly, after death their spirit mind would self-project upon itself a continual experience of longing and clinging but no appeasement of that state.

I am starting to wonder if so-called "spirit realms" are all in fact 'mental states of projections into one's own mind'. Even within so-called 'physical reality', we can philosophize (and experience directly) how so-called separate objects like 'tree', 'sky', 'hand' or apparent qualities like 'time' or 'colour' are actually just 'perceptions' or projections and so are relative reality and not Absolute Reality. And so if things such as out of body experience are accurate - where people claim to go elsewhere away from their body and later be able to tell details in another room or details of a conversation between people down the hall - then that could indicate the 'mind' or 'spirit' can be separate from the body. Free foaming 'mind beings' after death could possibly become stuck into some self-induced mindscape loop of experience and be incredibly difficult to break free of (so the idea of entering some realm is just a convenient was for cultures' languages to imagine states of mind-being after death?). Perhaps eons of experience of continual desire without appeasement will finally cause them to clue in that those desires are illusions and the mind-loop will be broken (since they were self-inducing it to begin with). I'm just guessing or inventing ideas here but it's something to wonder about.

I'm just going from what I know of Tibetan Book of the Dead which appears to give the idea that the disembodied mind or 'spirit' after death can create a seemingly "real" reality which in actuality is a 'mental projection'. So the 'clinging' to manifestations (all manifestations or seemingly separate 'forms' in Earthly 'reality' are in fact illusionary in that we invent those forms in our minds anyway) creates the whole reality of continual desire but no ability to appease it.

Theoretically, that is why it is important to think (philosophy, investigating how language invents objects out of reality which are really socially agreed-upon things) and experience ways in Earthly life to diminish your belief in and attachment to manifestations in Earthly reality. Theoretically (perhaps) one can still 'enjoy' Earthly "things" once one realizes they are temporary illusions and you have little or no clinging to them. So there is a difference between someone always fighting against desires and worldly things (in an attempt to overcome them) and a person who really deep down has realized these are all merely temporary creations of their own mind. I figure that if your mind when you are within this Earthly existence has realized this, then during and after death the mind/spirit (hypothetically) will not cling to worldly forms as "having to be real or you will become desperately upset".

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I don't know if these are real or seen as useful symbolic images to contemplate for one's own sake but assuming there really are spirits trapped for some duration of time in some realm where they have enormous desires (perhaps still a huge clinging to Earthly things) but would not be able to appease them, it would be a dreadful continual situation.

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Here is a site showing the realm of he hungry ghosts as one realm within the Japanese concepts.

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/six-states.shtml