Hungry ghosts are creatures from one of the six realms of existence described in Buddhist teachings. They are creatures with enormous stomachs and tiny necks, always hungry or thirsty, but never able to satisfy themselves. When they finally reach food or water, it turns to something horrible, like pus or fire. Rev. Roberts suggests that we can understand the six realms as states of mind, and that we all have hungry ghosts within ourselves.
We often chase after things which we believe will make us happy, only to find that they don’t. Rev. Roberts gives the example of buying things on a credit card, expecting pleasure but finding that the purchases can bring suffering instead. Anger might seem like a way to push suffering away, or defensiveness a way to protect our self-esteem. Yet these reactions often bring more suffering, and we repeat them anyway. This is a form of delusion.
Many of these reactions begin in childhood, when we develop ways of coping with the world that make sense to us at the time, but don’t work very well later in life. Rev. Roberts calls this a “hidden matrix of habitual responses”. The habits become so automatic that we may not even notice them. Therapy (which is compatible with Buddhism) can help reveal these patterns, and Buddhist practice offers ways to work with them as well.
In Soto Zen, zazen, or “just sitting”, can help us recognize these habits. As we sit, we pay attention to thoughts as they arise, without trying to control them or judging ourselves for having them. Rev. Roberts describes discovering her own habitual defensiveness while sitting zazen at Tassajara. But zazen alone isn’t enough. We also need to notice how these patterns appear in our interactions with others, and ask whether our responses are workable, rather than labeling ourselves or our actions bad. Special experiences in meditation aren’t the measure of practice; learning to “play well with others” is more important.
Rev. Roberts illustrates this with Dōgen’s image of a blue lotus blooming “within fire, at the time of fire”. Realization doesn’t happen somewhere apart from our ordinary lives and their difficulties. It happens in the middle of our delusion and suffering. We can’t reject our hungry ghosts, because recognizing them is itself an opportunity for awakening. We must learn to make friends with them, meeting ourselves and others with compassion.
This also means continuing to engage with the larger problems of the world, without giving in to discouragement. As Rev. Roberts puts it, nothing is a lost cause. Our practice is to keep coming back, and to keep working for ourselves and others.
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From the Teacher: Practicing with our Hungry Ghosts
Dharma Talk: Hungry Ghosts
Hungry Ghosts — by Rev. Shinsu Roberts *To support Rev. Shinsu Roberts and her sangha at the Ocean Gate Zen Center, please visit: www.oceangatezen.org.
* Rev. Kokai Shinshu Roberts was ordained in 1988, completed her priest training Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and received Dharma transmission (full authorization as a Soto Zen teacher), in 2004 from Sojun Mel Weitzman, former abbot of San Francisco Zen Center and Berkeley Zen Center.
Shinshu was a resident at San Francisco Zen Center for 17 years. Upon completion of her training, she moved to Capitola, CA and opened Ocean Gate Zen in 2007 with Daijaku Kinst. In 2005 Shinshu was appointed Kokusaifukyoshi (International Teacher) by the Soto Zen School (Sotoshu) in Tokyo, Japan and holds the rank of Sei Kyoshi. As part of her training to become Kokusaifukyoshi she spent a month in Japan at the Japanese training monastery Jikoji on Shikoku. She is currently a board member of the Association of Soto Zen Buddhists, a Sotoshu organization of Kokusaifukyoshi in North America. She is also a full member of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and is a member of the American Zen Teacher’s Association.
Shinshu has studied, written, and taught extensively on the teachings of Eihei Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan. In her dharma talks and her books, she brings the teachings of Dogen into dialogue with our ordinary life, and makes possible a deep, yet accessible, understanding of his work as well as those of other Soto Zen teachers.
