Does the Buddha Explain Ghosts, as in Haunted Houses?

Amida

When I was about 10 years old we lived in a house where strange things would happen. This is the only time this has ever happened to me or my family. And recently, I read about a dozen, or so, reports of a haunting a block from where I lived.

Did the Buddha address ghosts, such as might haunt a certain location and move objects? Does Buddhism make sense of such claims? I know some may say, "Don't worry about it! That's not important." I hope I don't get a bunch of responses like that.

person

Tibetan Buddhism talks about spirits. That may be more about indigenous culture than Buddhism though.

searchingone

depends what you tribute as 'ghosts' I know there are spirits in a lower plain of existence that some buddhists believe in called a Preta. They were supposedly able to interact with our rebirth plain like how animals share the same space, but to a much lesser degree. Normally the Preta just caused trouble by bothering us or trying to hamper our attempts to aquire our desire through magic or illusions, though they could be much more harmful. They were people filled with greed in a past life and now suffer a life of unfullfilment for their previous karma. Sometimes if they wanted blood or death, they could harm humans.

Normally they couldnt be seen, although people in specific mental states were attributed to being Pretas, and since Preta is often translated to a name meaning 'starving ghost' as the closest translation, it's possibly the only thing Buddhist I can think of that even comes close to the concept of ghosts and wandering spirits.

Hope that helped somewhat.

CaliGuy819

The following link provides a lot of insight into the subject of ghosts and Buddhism:

http://www.blia.org/english/publications/booklet/pages/02.htm

Bhagavan

apasamāra is also one of a ghost or apparition that scares children. Generally, the fruition of requital for greed is ghost form. greed comes in many forms, greed for wealthy, greed for sages scripture, greed for jewelry, greed for clothing, greed for myths, greed for food, greed for charity. Its power varied according to its greed attributed to some greed that develop blessing comes with power as well.

CaliGuy819

People on this forum are too "smart" to believe in such things. Notice the lack of comments on this thread. :grumble:

Dakini

It's a new thread, CaliGuy, give it time. You're new, you haven't seen us cut loose on topics like this.

Amida, you should talk to Sagat, whose house was (is?) haunted. Really interesting stories. My theory is that the shut-in who died in the house before his family got it was still hanging around. He hasn't seen her for awhile, though. Maybe she finally moved on to where deceased spirits are supposed to go.

Could be that ghosts are people in the Bardo state who are attached to place, and can't let go. A friend of mine who didn't believe in such things was shocked to see her mother hanging around, after the mom had passed away. After 6 months of visitations, she finally called her siblings and asked them if they'd noticed anything unusual since mom passed away. All of them had seen her. They all live in different states.

person

I wonder if ghosts in someplace aren't actually just energetic impressions left by an intense experience. I don't know, just wondering.

Dakini

Good theory, person. Good wondering. All theories are good, until one gets proven definitively.

Sabre

I've heard say of a ghost in a Buddhist monastery in the West, who used to haunt the place. Of course, the inhabitants being peaceful monks, the ghost did not get the responses (s)he'd have liked

Yes, Buddhism teaches about the ghost realm, and also a heaven realm.

Quandarius

Raynor Johnson, who, many years ago, wrote "The Imprisoned Splendour" (still available) went into the subject of ghosts (and many other "spiritual" matters) in great detail and with a wealth of references. Although his main philosophical drift seems dead wrong to me, the book above is a great read, both as regards interest and also as regards intelligent comment about apparitions etc (also many other things). Pity that, though he was such a learned scientist, he did not have the gift of clear, grammatical exposition.

Bekenze

Don't worry about it, it's not important...

Until they start to haunt you.

caz

Tibetan Buddhism talks about spirits. That may be more about indigenous culture than Buddhism though.

No. Buddha taught about Rebirth in the 6 realms of Samsara which includes the lower state of the Preta's or Spirits you will find such throughout traditional Buddhism.

Dakini

@Quandarius Could you tell us more about this book, and the scientist author? What kind of scientist is he?

person

Tibetan Buddhism talks about spirits. That may be more about indigenous culture than Buddhism though.

No. Buddha taught about Rebirth in the 6 realms of Samsara which includes the lower state of the Preta's or Spirits you will find such throughout traditional Buddhism.

Are spirits or ghosts that we experience in our world considered pretas? There are things in TB like nature spirits, protector deities, spirits that oracles allow to posses them, where do they fit into the six realms?

These are the things that I was really refering to.

Dakini

Some of that comes from pre-Buddhist beliefs in Tibet, @person, though I think it's possible to explain some of those phenoms in Buddhist terms.

I looked up Q's book reference on Amazon. The full title: The Imprisoned Splendour: an approach to Reality, based upon the significance of data drawn from the fields of Natural Science, Psychical Research and Mystical Experience. According to one review, the author discusses all this data, then in the final section of the book, ties it all together to use it as an explanation of karma and reincarnation. No info on what his science background is, though.

caz

Tibetan Buddhism talks about spirits. That may be more about indigenous culture than Buddhism though.

No. Buddha taught about Rebirth in the 6 realms of Samsara which includes the lower state of the Preta's or Spirits you will find such throughout traditional Buddhism.

Are spirits or ghosts that we experience in our world considered pretas? There are things in TB like nature spirits, protector deities, spirits that oracles allow to posses them, where do they fit into the six realms?

These are the things that I was really refering to.

There are many different subdivisons within the Spirit realm just as there are many different kinds of Animal. Its complex and im not familiar with alot of the classification. Dont forget this all orginated in India and not actually Tibet.

Dakini

Author of Q's recommended book, Raynor Carey Johnson, was a physicist and mystic. Studied at Oxford under Sir Thomas Merton. Published several books on the confluence of science and mysticism, and lectured in India on that topic. Fascinating biography. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/johnson-raynor-carey-12700

B5C

Quandarius

@Quandarius Could you tell us more about this book, and the scientist author? What kind of scientist is he?

Sorry about the delay. The Englishman Raynor Johnson (now dead) was a very earnest searcher for truth on all levels, even though he was a scientist (a physicist, I think). He wanted to do an exposition of the whole of existence, and to explain, if he could, its purpose and meaning, also the eventual destiny (I mean, REALLY eventual) of beings — not just immediately after the end of human life. He does mention Buddhism and other kinds of Asian religion/philosophy, but seems to misunderstand many things. His general viewpoint stemmed from a strange mixture of earnest, well-informed research, and misunderstanding. He mixed Spiritualism in with Eastern spirituality, as he believed that rebirth as a human was not repeated many times, but that each "soul" developed in other planes of existence, and joined group-souls of higher and higher attainment. (This seems to be turning into a bit of a ramble — something that I wanted to avoid.)

He drew his basic understanding of existence from the writings of another British writer, the philosopher Douglas Fawcett, and elaborated upon them by means of his own studies.

Johnson's book contains references to things that since have been shown to be scientific errors (like the Piltdown Man, which was a hoax), as if they were factual. However, that hoax was exposed after his book was published, so he was not to blame for that. Also, later research has shown that the salient remarks that he made about the formation of snow crystals (for example) were mistaken. At the time that he wrote about this matter, he could not have known this, so he was not to blame for this error, either. From someone linked with Johnson, I have learned that the scientific chapters, in the book mentioned, need substantial revision (the march of science, I suppose).

Despite all this, the book contains such a wealth of information about psychic research, parapsychology, spiritualistic phenomena, particle physics etc., etc., that to miss reading it would be a shame. He also wrote Watcher On the Hills, Nurslings of Immortality, and at least one more, the title of which escapes me. If ever there was a man that deserved to meet a good Buddhist teacher, Johnson was he.

I hope that you find all this helpful.

Dakini

He sounds really interesting, Q. I looked him up. I'll put his main book on my "to read" list., thanks for calling this to our attention. And welcome to our forum.

You may enjoy the book "Entangled Minds", that discusses all the major psi research that's been done. Author's a physicist.

Quandarius

He sounds really interesting, Q. I looked him up. I'll put his main book on my "to read" list., thanks for calling this to our attention. And welcome to our forum.

You may enjoy the book "Entangled Minds", that discusses all the major psi research that's been done. Author's a physicist.

I appreciate your welcome note, Dakini, and will bear "Entangled Minds" in mind for future reading, maybe. However, neither that, nor those of Johnson, are Buddhist, and might lead the mind into blind (even if fascinating) alleys. If anyone strays outside Buddhism, Vedanta, Taoism (the mainstream teachings) and writings to do directly with them, they are likely to be led into byways that are remote from matters of the most pressing importance.

son_of_dhamma

Well spirits of the dead, as related to the deceased, hallow's eve, rites for the dead ancestors and so forth--that doesn't relate to the pretas or preta world (pettivisaya). However, sometimes people do see pretas. Pretas do not look like humans in nice clothes and so forth, they are terrible unfortunate looking creatures, very similar to a hellish existence (niraya world). In rarer cases, some people have perceived devas and mistaken them for ghosts. That being said, most of the peoples' experience of ghosts is simply derived from the magikal-spiritual energy of a person that is left behind, and has a lot more to do with the people who knew that person than the sentient being themselves.

None of this is guessing on my part, I've been studying this deeply for many years.
I hope I was helpful.

driedleaf

Here is a sutta related to this.

"When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of the passing away & reappearance of beings. I saw — by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human — beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their kamma:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.004.than.html

pegembara

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/pv/pv.1.05.than.html

http://www.palikanon.com/english/pali_names/t/tirokudda_s.htm