Do Ghosts,
Demons, and Divine Beings Exist?
An
genuinely interested friend asked regarding:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/23/living/crisis-apparitions/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
Question:
“I have difficulty in believing in ghosts & such
supernatural beings as divine devas...
I would appreciate your input on this and references to
"What the Buddha Said"
in the Suttas regarding this topic.”
Answer:
Consciousness & its
subtle
properties
are virtually unknown in the West hehehe...
;-)
Both neurologists and
so-called
scientist
seems to admit that, when calling it:
The hard problem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_hard_problem
Early
Noble
Buddhists however have no problem whatsoever
with the phenomenon
of Consciousness! Why not: They know all about it from
inside out hihihi
;-)
No need for “debunking” anything here except
one's own folly and clinging to
conventional, yet almost
childlike
naively
wrong
views...
Can a child validate, confirm or reject anything correctly in
all complex
cases...
Obviously not so...Especially
not about something he has never seen, heard or
experienced, yet
still not on that basis
can
ever conclude: “Such does not exist”...
Similar folly: It is like the man-blind-from-birth
absurdly & stubbornly postulating:
“The visible world, colours and forms do not exist...” which
obviously
is grotesque
and dogmatic false babble... Have you ever directly
experienced the radio-waves
from your mobile phone? If not, why don't you conclude:
"All wireless mobile
communication is impossible...!" Well, obviously, despite the
non-observability of
radio-waves, your mobile phone
DOES apparently indeed work
flawlessly fine...
So also do devas & ghost indeed exist despite their apparent
non-observability!
Video on Buddhist
Cosmology, Reality, and Genesis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyVijoNjrZo
Reg: Buddhist Canonical Corroboration:
A whole canonical Tipitaka book spoken by the Buddha,
Mahāmoggallāna & Sariputta
is
devoted to conversations with
ghosts and devas on what actions (kamma) brought
them to this respectively high and low level:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimanavatthu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petavatthu
Vimanavatthu
— Stories of the Celestial Divine Mansions
83 poems, each
explaining how wholesome deeds led to
a particular deity's rebirth
in one of the heavenly realms. Availability of English
translations:
Print:
Minor Anthologies IV: Vimanavatthu: Stories of the
Mansions, & Petavatthu,
I.B. Horner, trans. (Oxford:
Pali Text Society, 1974).
On-line:
Selected suttas.
At
night the Buddhas always advice divine
deva=male and devata=female beings:
A whole Samyutta Nikaya Section is devoted these interesting
poetic conversations:
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/ati_website/html/tipitaka/sn/index.html#sagatha
Regarding Classification of Devas (lit: shining ones)
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/b_f/deva.htm
Some divine devas and devatas look ~like this:
The Buddha shows
Sakka's divine nymphs to
Nanda to clear his amorous craving.
Petavatthu
— Stories of the Hungry Ghosts
51 poems, each explaining how
unwholesome deeds led to the rebirth of a being
into the miserable realm of the "Hungry Ghosts" (peta).
English translations:
Print:
Minor Anthologies (Vol IV) — Vimanavatthu: Stories of the
Mansions,
and
Petavatthu, I.B. Horner, trans. (Oxford:
Pali Text Society, 1974).
On-line:
Selected suttas.
Some realistic imagery of the diversity of
Petas =
Ghosts:
As
complete book here (Excellently translated):
Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon, Volume 4
Vimanavatthu (stories on the mansions) & Petavatthu (Stories
of The departed)
Translated by: I.B. Horner, H. S.
Gehman & N. A. Jayawickrama
http://www.pariyatti.org/Bookstore/productdetails.cfm?PC=982
Furthermore: On Buddhist Cosmology:
The 31 Planes of Existence:
https://what-buddha-said.net/library/ati_website/html/ptf/dhamma/sagga/loka.html
Video
of Hell, Ghost, Animal Human and Divine Samsara Levels:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QDBHCxvX-Q
Don't jump prematurely
into any conclusion here.
Do neither agree,
nor disagree but:
EXAMINE IT!
THOROUGHLY, REPEATEDLY, COMPLETELY!
That's what
Critical
Science
is all about Yes? ;-)
Check it out!
Does one mentally
"paint"=conceptualize what one "sees" or what one
"thinks/believes"?
Observation induces the Object!
