At
the end of this presentation on pretas, I would like to add another special
category of hungry ghosts - the powerful
pretas who wish to dominate other beings through religion.
As I explained above, there are various types
of pretas, and not all of them are weak or tortured by mere hunger or thirst.
Some pretas have great powers due to previous good karma and merits, as
Vasubandhu said: "the pretas differ
much one from another; certain of
them possess supernatural powers and enjoy a glory similar to that of the gods”[1],
but also great arrogance and pride.
Among the pretas, the category
called gyalpos in Tibetan are the most powerful. "Gyalpo"
means "king" or "royal" and it indicates the various
leaders of the preta plane of existence, so they are from the same category
Vasubandhu reffered to in the above passage. It is said that in their past
lives they were great practitioners who accumulated merit, but were not able to
overcome pride and arrogance, or they died with thoughts of hate, vengeance,
etc.
Generally speaking, all the pretas have the
tendency to influence others. They are all eager for attention, offerings, etc,
but the gyalpos have the best power to put this wish into action. They can be
masters of deceit[2],
disguise in various ways, even take the appearance of great teachers of the
past or Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and they like to impart various so called
"teachings". There are some stories of advanced Buddhist
practitioners who were tricked by gyalpos. This category of pretas can also
perform miracles and offer visions to make people entrust and obey to them.
Into my opinion, the abrahamic/monotheist
religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) were caused by such powerful pretas
with imperialist tendencies. All of these religions were founded arround
visions, miracles and a central authoritarian "divine" figure who
pretends total subsmission from his believers. The jealousy of the
"god" of Old Testament is clearly expressed in the first of the ten
comandments and in other passages of the same text. This is also accepted in
Christianity:
“I am
the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house
of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for
yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you
shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For
I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate
me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my
commandments.”[3]
Also in the Quran there are many passages like
that, but I quote here only a few:
„Follow,
[O Muhammad], what has been revealed to you from your Lord - there is no deity
except him - and turn away from those who associate others with Allah”.[4] (Qur’an 6:106)
„And
whoever has not believed in Allah and his Messenger - then indeed, We have
prepared for the disbelievers a Blaze.[5]
And to
Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. He forgives whom he
wills and punishes whom he wills[6].”[7](Qur’an
48:13-14)
„Indeed,
the worst of living creatures in the
sight of Allah are those who have disbelieved, and they will not [ever]
believe.”[8] (Qur’an 8:55)
„Muhammad
is the Messenger of Allah ; and those with him are forceful (ruthless) against the disbelievers, merciful among
themselves.”[9]
(Qur'an 48:29)
„I will
cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every
fingertip."[10] (Qur’an 8:12)
„Fight
those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not
consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do
not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture -
[fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.”[11] (Qur’an 9:29)
As we can see here, such a "god" is clearly NOT an Enlightened being, but a
person dominated by jealousy, frustration and anger, who shares his so
called "love" only with those who love him or follow his
instructions, and punishes the lack of obedience of fathers to the third and
fourth generations. Also, in the case of the Quran, he encourages his
worshippers to be ruthless with non-believers, whom he himself regards as
"the worst of living creatures" and does his best to terrorize them!
Surely a being like that will sink even more in the lower realms, even in the
hells, after his life as a gyalpo or powerful preta is over.
We can see clearly the difference between such
angry spirits dominated by the need for attention and a Buddha who has
undiscriminative Compassion for all beings, no matter they accept His teachings
or not! A Buddha does not need the attention and worship of others[12],
He is not affected if beings love Him or despise Him. Praise or critic do not
influence Him. All He does for unenlightened beings arises from His pure Wisdom
and Compassion:
"The
Buddhas of the ten quarters think compassionately on sentient beings just as a
mother thinks of her child."[13]
Also, how do all Buddhas try to convince us to
entrust to Amida Buddha? Clearly, not by force, nor terror, and not by
threatening to destroy us and our children to the third and fourth generations:
"Shakyamuni
and all the other Buddhas
Are truly our compassionate father and mother.
With various compassionate means they
lead us to awaken
Supreme shinjin (faith in Amida Buddha) that is true and real."[14]
Surely, no good can come from entrusting to
some worldly jealous and vengeful spirits, no matter if the teachings
associated with them do contain some good elements, too[15].
Powerful pretas (and their followers) can have their own spiritual evolution,
some may be better than others, but certainly, not one of them is enlightened
and none escaped from the slavery of the three poisons: ignorance,
greed/attachement and aversion. Contrary to this, taking refuge in a Buddha
will lead us, sooner or later, to Enlightenment. Thus, one must be extremely
careful to whom he is entrusting oneself to, as the effect is simmilar to the
cause. If we take refuge in samsaric spirits, no matter how powerful they are,
we will never escape samsara; if we take refuge in the Buddhas, and especially
in Amida Buddha, we will ourselves attain Buddhahood.
The
monotheistic religions believe in the existence of a creator god. However, this
runs contrary to the teaching of the Buddha, according to which unenlightened beings are the karmic cause for the existence of unenlightened samsaric realms. Their individual and collective karma actually manifested the realms,
worlds and universes in which they live[16].
Contrary to this, Enlightened beings or Buddhas, naturaly and karmically
manifest Pure Lands or Enlightened realms. If a so called "supreme
being" created a world like ours that means he is not enlightened, because
if he was enlightened this world would have been perfect and inhabitted by
perfectly enlightened beings. Amida Buddha (and any Buddha!) does not
pretend to be the creator of this samsaric world, but only of His enlightened
Pure Land, where He vowed to bring all samsaric beings for their final
liberation (attainment of Buddhahood/Nirvana).
Any person who pretends to be the creator and
owner of this world or any samsaric world is afflicted with arrogance and is
hungry for power - a feature which is often found in some gods and especially
in some powerful pretas (hungry spirits) who have connection with the human realms.
The attitude of such spirits or gods is an imperialist one, that is, to receive
the praise and submission of as many beings as possible. I often give the example of Baka Brahma (click here to read), the god who was mislead by Mara into believing that he
was "the Omniscient, the
Omnipotent, the Lord God, the Maker, the Creator, the Chief, the Ordainer, the
Almighty, the Father of all that are and that will be" and was
corrected by Shakyamuni Buddha[17].
However, those who have such an imperialist tendency are not only from the
realms of gods, but from the preta realms, too. My opinion is that most of the
gods who live way beyond our human realm are more busy with enjoying their
beautiful long lives, than dealing with the affairs of the humans. So, I think
that the pretas are more connected with us, and more involved with our plane of
existence, as they can even receive various substances from us in the form of
sacrifices[18]. Knowing
this we must be aware of the category of powerful pretas who want to dominate
others through religion, and do as Shinran advised us:
“Those
who take refuge truly and wholeheartedly, freeing themselves from all
delusional attachments and all concern with the propitious or unpropitious,
must never take refuge in spirits or non-Buddhist teachings.”[19]
[1] AbhidharmakoSabhasyam, English translation by Leo M.
Pruden; Berkeley, Calif, Asian Humanities Press, 1991; vol 2, p. 460
[2] However, not all gyalpo spirits manifest a negative and imperialist
attitude. There are also some gyalpo who show interest in the Dharma, but as
they have an inconstant character, and pride and anger are some of their main
features, they can be easily offended and manipulated by the Maras.
[6] This is against the law
of karma as according to Islam everything depends on the arbitrary wish of
their god.
[12] To worship the Buddha is
karmically beneficial for the unenlightened beings, not for a Buddha, as He
does not depend on anything.
[14] Shinran Shonin, Hymn of the
Two Gateways of Entrance and Emergence, The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series,
Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.629
[15] Although the object of
these religions is false and they are filled with wrong views, some of their
moral teachings can be useful to anybody.
[16] See the chapter
"Some Buddhist explanations of the origin and existence of the
universe" from my book, The True Teaching on Amida Buddha and His Pure Land, Dharma Lion
Publications, Craiova
[17] See chapter "There is no supreme god or creator in the Buddha
Dharma" from my book, The True
Teaching on Amida Buddha and His Pure Land, Dharma Lion Publications,
Craiova, 2015, p. 18
[18] Judaism and Islam are
religions who practiced and are still practicing blood sacrifice. Any “halal”
meat that a faithful Muslim should eat must come from animals that were killed
according to a certain ritual in which the name of Allah is invoked. Indeed,
only a preta can be interested in such a bloody ritual while a celestial god
would certainly feel disgusted. I also
mention that many sacrifices are described in the Old Testament which is a book
accepted by Christianity although this “new” religion gave up on such practices
but kept the same god who is also the father of Jesus and who used to accept
animal sacrifices. He is the same god who says he is a jealous god who punishes
the parents’ lack of faith through their children until the third of fourth
generation.
[19] Shinran quoted this passage in his Kyogyoshinsho, chapter VI, from the Sutra of the Ten Wheels of Ksitigarbha. Kyogyoshinsho - The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo
Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.273
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