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Fear of ghosts
When I was seven, my favorite band died in plane crash. This was the first time a death really shooked me up. Right that very day, I developed a fear of ghosts. Since then, every time someone's death leaves an impression on me, I feel a presence behind me, like they're out to get me. My questions are:
1) In your opinion, do I have a sort of 'power' to sense spirits and then get afraid, or do I simply imagine they're there and my imagination makes me afraid?
2) Could it be that many people that die today are reborn as hungry ghosts (pretas or petas in pali)?
3) Could that bad experience create such an intense fear so rapidly?
4) How do I get rid of it?
1) In your opinion, do I have a sort of 'power' to sense spirits and then get afraid, or do I simply imagine they're there and my imagination makes me afraid?
2) Could it be that many people that die today are reborn as hungry ghosts (pretas or petas in pali)?
3) Could that bad experience create such an intense fear so rapidly?
4) How do I get rid of it?
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Comments
What you're experiencing is just fear, in and of itself.
Unless it's a mean spirit, in which case you have the right to demand that it leave you in the name of whichever savior you identify with (I assume Buddha). But that's not the same as a ghost.
And yes, fear itself driven by imagination can be as intense and terrifying as a real experience. It's just part of the way our brains are wired. Remembering or even imagining a stressful event makes our bodies behave as if we were actually experiencing it. Our bodies can't tell the difference.
Take your cue from your meditation practise.
(1) Pay simple attention to whatever is there. Remember that your meditation practise is safe because it is just the passive observation of whatever arises.
Active and directed meditations partake of a deliberateness which is a different class of practises that are better left to the student in a close master/student relationship.
(2) Hungry ghosts, like all arising phenomena, are just part of the classroom where we learn about compassion, love and wisdom. They are not really separate from us or anything else.
(3) Their impetus arose from delusive clinging before their death experience.
(4) If you can be still enough, without reaching out or pushing away anything,
you will find there will be nothing to get rid of.
Who you gonna call?
You know, it has been a while since I have read about how rebirth in the other realms happens but I think there is a period of "time" between when one dies and one is reborn ... Tibetans call it the bardo, there's a phase between death and birth..
So, Gods tend to live super duper long (but enjoy lots of sense pleasures and it's difficult for them to understand the value of Dharma practice, and then when all that karma is 'exhausted' they are born in another realm)...
But I think a "god" lifespan is really long, like probably thousands, or hundreds of thousands of earth years... earth/dirt is kinda like the focal point of the whole wheel of birth/death [not verified in the scriptures, just some thought that came to mind]
So, I don't know if one would immediately take on a life as a preta or hungry ghost or whatever... Maybe a rocker that is bound for a hell-realm isn't due there until 30,000 years from now, and a rocker who seemed to have a really crazy and immoral lifestyle actually has the karmic seeds from a prior life to go soaring through a heavenly realm for a long time...
...and as for hell, who knows how long that life lasts in comparison to earth-time. My guess is that although a life in a hell is very brief compared to life on dirt it probably feels like an eternity to whoever's suffering tremendously in it. Time is relative, you know? Put your hand on a stove and you'll know what forever is like [paraphrasing a famous scientist]
"Hungry Ghosts" aren't hungry for you, they're just really really hungry for satisfaction - maybe they are really thirsty or really hungry, or really lustful... desirous and unable to quench their thirst at all.
think of like a really really really thirsty person wandering through the desert, they would be way too preoccupied with trying to quench their thirst for an instant than to even consider whizzing through the human realm and pull bed sheets around and make spooky sounds at night..
But really, if there were such ghosts, you should grow your compassion for them, too. They're in a really shitty spot and could benefit from some soothing vibes ^.^
Effin SyFy :shake:
They cancel Firefly and play this crap? Geez...
It is the compassionate thing to do . . . Would you like me to send a vampire ghost to remove your Imagination? :thumbsup:
2) Could be.
3) An intense experience can catalyse an intense emotional response - the response may be as rapid as the experience
4) How do I get rid of it?
Fear is the flight/fight response working - sit with it - leave it be - you only have a certain amount of adrenalin - after a while your body runs out and peace returns - note the response and the stages - you can train your response to it.
metta
In general when it comes to fear and anything negative it is good to study and practice the heart sutra.
Be it ghosts, gods, demons, humans, shit, etc there is only one trump card, which is emptiness. They are all smoke and mirrors that totally depend upon perception/imputation or basically relationship.
Not sure what your tradition is or what your condition is so I am just speaking to give an opinion, so take it for what its worth.
When there is fear in my life, I cultivate space. Fear for myself is when thought of conceptually and lacking the sense of soma/embodiment/body is the typical fear we know of. When there is no conceptual thought and more soma/embodiment/body then fear is energy. This energy is fundamentally enlightened energy. So by cultivating space in ones body allows for the fear to arise and fall, then there is no chance for it to condition more fear through aversion or attachment.
So one can dive right into fear. One can give space to fear. One can also give space to the object of fear. One can also look very attentively at the object of fear. One can feel fear in the body, devoid of conceptual imputation.
Fear in that sense gives a great opportunity to explore ourselves and the sacred world.
This of course is a Vajrayana point of view.
If you want to get strictly dharma then fear is the result of clinging to an "I" sense. So the direct way to really understand and release fear is to completely feel it. In feeling fear, just fear. Just sensations of fear. Be it sharp, etc. No feeler inside, outside, behind or anywhere other than the conceptual assumption. Seeing that it has nothing to do with you directly allows for release.
You could also explore why there is fear of ghosts?
What is the underlying fear? What is ghost? What is there to be harmed or what is there to maintain? Etc. The inquiry is endless.
Hope this gives a range of investigations for you to explore.
Here's a nice explanation from khandro.net:
http://www.khandro.net/dakini_shaman.htm
Excerpt:
With a loving mind, cherish more than a child
The hostile gods and demons of apparent existence,
And tenderly surround yourself with them.
Nourish them always with warm flesh and blood.
With the hook of love and compassion,
Befriend them and never dismiss them.
If, with pure noble thought and enlightened resolve,
You connect them to the sacred Dharma
And they are freed and established in happiness,
Then you, child, whoever you are,
Will be my inseparable friend. ~ Machig Labdron (trans. Sarah Harding, 207.)
2. No
3. Yes
4. Just experience the feelings for what they are - your own fear of death arising in response to an external experience. You don't need to be afraid of fear