Hungry Ghost Realm

We have been learning about the different realms within Samsara and in the last podcast we learned about the dangers of the animal realm and why we don't want to take rebirth there. Today we are going to learn about the hungry ghost realm. This realm is considered to be even lower than the animal realm because it is fraught with even more suffering. The hungry ghost realm is seen as the second lowest floor within the prison of Samsara.

You are probably wondering what a hungry ghost is. They are spirit entities that are starving and thirsty. They have families, like we do. They can have husbands and wives and children, but all of them are starving and unable to quench their thirst. It is extremely difficult for them to find any food or water at all. They have long lives filled with suffering. Their stomachs are bloated from hunger and they have very long, thin necks which make it very troublesome to swallow even the tiniest amount of food or water if they are lucky enough to find any. The parents spend all their time trying to find food and water for their children and themselves, but it is next to impossible. They usually return home empty handed, unable to provide for their children.

If they are fortunate to see any food in the distance, by the time they reach it, it has become putrid and rancid and is inedible. It is extremely difficult for them to find any food that they can actually eat. They have no time for any thoughts of any kind of spirituality, because they are preoccupied with finding food and water to ease the pain of their bellies. They have no other thoughts really other than that. They live in a harsh, barren, dry world where they cannot grow food. Their entire lives from birth to death are filled with suffering.

You may be wondering what kind of negative karma you would have to build up for yourself in order take this terrible rebirth. Well, anytime you don't share something when you could goes towards this. Miserly, miserable people that hoard money, possessions, and food all to themselves will end up in this realm in the future. Think of Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge from a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens if you want a prime example of candidates to be hungry ghosts. Those people that hoarded medicine, toilet paper and other items during this Covid pandemic will also take rebirth there. The rich people in the world will end up there because they want as much money as they can get for themselves to be a millionaire or billionaire. They have more than their fair share of funds and cause poverty to others due to their greed.

Anyone that causes others to have any kind of lack in life will cause themselves to have to experience this in the hungry ghost realm in the future. They will suffer a long time unable to find the food they need. Food and water will elude them and be extremely scarce, as they caused this type of suffering to others. Anytime our actions cause pollution or destruction to the environment, especially the water can cause this type of rebirth. Anytime we walk past a beggar and refuse to give them some spare change or something that could help them, we are creating the cause to take rebirth in this realm. If we are cruel or rude to them on top of not helping them, we are making it even worse for ourselves. If a person walks by a beggar and spits on them and yells at them to get a job, they create the karma of having the next to impossible job of trying to find food and water when they take rebirth as a hungry ghost. They may see water in the distance and when they get to it, it could turn out to be a glob of spit. You get what you give. Of course wisdom is needed here. If a person with addictions is asking for money we don't want to give them money, so they can buy a fix. We can perhaps try to get them something to eat if we have the time or try to help in some other way if we are able. We can always pray for them. Things can be very challenging in these degenerate times we find ourselves in.

When we live in a society that values greed and ignores the poor, the homeless and those in need we are in danger of the collective karma that creates. The more people that buy into this way of living, the more people that will take rebirth in the hungry ghost realm. When society won't help the people in their own towns or cities or country, they certainly won't help those in other places or other countries. This creates mountains of negative karma for everyone. The problem is that most people are brought up to take care of themselves and their nearest and dearest. They are not taught to care for everyone or the benefits of doing that. Most people don't care what happens to strangers or their perceived enemies. This lack of caring for others causes serious amounts of negative karma and the worse we behave in these ways the greater chance we create to take rebirth as a hungry ghost.

If we could all work towards making sure everyone had everything they need in life, then we would all be taken care of. No one would lack for anything needed and we would live in harmony and create positive karma for our spiritual progress. I am emphasizing needs here, not wants, there are people with endless desires for unnecessary things in life. People want those things because they are ignorant of the truth of life and think they need those things in order to be happy. Sadly, no matter how many of those things they get they will still be unhappy, because none of those things create happiness. When people spend all their time trying to fulfill all their wasteful desires, they are creating the negative karma for rebirth in the hungry ghost realm, unable to fulfill their needs.

How can we know this hungry ghost realm exists? Due to it being degenerate times, we can see this type of existence here in our world. I'm sure most of us are aware of the people and children starving in third world countries, unable to get proper food or clean, drinkable water. This shows us that it is possible to take rebirth into this type of existence. The sad thing is this world has the means to help these people, to provide them with food and clean, drinkable water. Yet, the richer countries are too busy trying to get even richer and see no value in helping the less fortunate. The richer countries could work together to make sure every human on this planet had their basic needs in life looked after. These rich countries often complain if they have to give bread crumbs out to the people in their own country that are in need of help, never mind looking after people in a foreign country.

The billionaires in this world could work together to rid our world of a great deal of suffering, but they are foolishly wasting their time and karma on the pursuit of getting richer, famous and fulfilling all of their very selfish desires, like building a rocket to take them to space. Therefore they are causing themselves a great deal of negative karma and guaranteeing themselves a place in the hungry ghost realm. They are trapped in the pursuit of happiness not knowing how to really achieve it, when if they took the time to help those people in need in the world, they would find they would be happier in their own life. They are trapped in the endless pursuit of fulfilling their own selfish desires, when if they could see past this one, brief lifetime they would realize this is nothing compared to all the countless future uncontrolled rebirths they will take. Because they aren't pursuing the only goal worth going after in this life, namely trying to make enough spiritual progress by developing our minds to the point that we can go beyond uncontrolled rebirth and escape all the suffering that we endure in life after life.

To avoid taking rebirth in the hungry ghost realm, we need to be careful that we are not grasping at desires and wants that will not be of help to us on our spiritual path. We need to try to help anyone that we can by giving whatever we can comfortably give. We can share food or drinks when we are eating and drinking with those around us. We can give spare change to someone in need. We can donate the clothes and household items we no longer need to help others. We can give our time to volunteer to help others. We can share spiritual teachings we have learned to those that are seeking it. We can donate money towards a good cause to help others. We need to be mindful that we are not acting in greedy, selfish ways to avoid this very unpleasant rebirth.

We can also help the hungry ghosts themselves. We can give any left over food we may have. We can bless the food and place it in a high location outside, like in a tree. If we bless the food with the intention that we want to help those in the hungry ghost realm, they will be able to find and eat this food. This will definitely help us to avoid taking rebirth there. To do this we can hold the food in front of us and say this mantra three times over the food. The mantra is OM AH HUM. Once we have said this three times with the thought that we want hungry ghosts to be able to enjoy this offering of food, we can then place it up in a tree branch or other high place, so they can reach it. Those hungry ghosts that have purified some of their negative karma will be able to find our offering to them.

The place in Samsara that we will be looking at in the next podcast is the hell realm. There are different locations within this realm and we be looking at a number of them. 

Find the full podcast here: https://youtu.be/bGgZDMCfHfA