Ghosts in Buddhism?

[Commander Tamson]

Never say you don't believe in ghosts... you will take back your word somehow some day. Have heard many incidents of such.

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I think I keep a pretty open mind about such things & the thought of seeing a ghost definitely doesn't scare me. Why should it? Unless you believe in Hollywood or Thai superstition, I've never heard of a ghost doing anyone any harm - except scaring. In fact I'd love to see one!

[glegolo]

To believe in ghosts is like believe in Santa Claus, grow up guys... This hysteria from a special continent is

remarkable to see actually..... A whole serie of titles from TV containing Ghost....

Ghost Stories

Ghost Hunters

My ghost story

The ghost inside my child

Ghost adventures

An American ghost story

And so on and on and on......You are being afraid and you make up ghosts, Big foot and all other stupid stuff

and offcourse media is there and want to "sell".....

Grow up for God sake...

Glegolo

[Choonpon]

What you have not seen does not mean it does't exist.

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[Choonpon]

Never say you don't believe in ghosts... you will take back your word somehow some day. Have heard many incidents of such.

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I think I keep a pretty open mind about such things & the thought of seeing a ghost definitely doesn't scare me. Why should it? Unless you believe in Hollywood or Thai superstition, I've never heard of a ghost doing anyone any harm - except scaring. In fact I'd love to see one!

Ghost are not scary, humans are.

They usually don't harm people without reason.

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[glegolo]

hahaha, what a life???? Ghost does not harm humans without a reason... I think we have to try to understand what we

are and where we live. Put the shit called religion aside plse, and start to sober up a bit!!!

We are animals, and we are called the human race.....We are being born and we die and that is all it is. We rot

in ground or goes up in flames and that´s that!!! Sure many of us likes to believe that life cant cheat us so much,

and it is nothing there after death....I say to you,,, there is NOTHING MORE...... There is no virgins, no camels, no

ghosts no holy spirits no St. Peter and no God, there is just NOTHING!!! Deal with it.....

Come on guys.... we dies and it is byebye.....

Glegolo

[99 Green Bottles]

Lots of Ghost in Thailand

[ChrisB87]

I am not a believer, but heard an interesting account from someone whom apparently would have no reason to lie.

He is British, used to live in Isaan and he never believed in ghosts. But then his mother-in-law died. A few night later he claims her saw her in his bedroom, he then went into the living room for a while and had a drink, then went back into the bedroom and she was still there, but she never spoke. Can't remember what happened after that.

This a work colleague of my dads who stayed in Thailand for like 20 years.

Apparently he told it like he believed it, but who knows (i'm not convinced)

Edited August 21, 2013 by ChrisB87

[dirtypierre]

Living in Vietnam with Vietnamese wife she informs me that they believe a dead person haunts the house for 49 days before moving on. They follow the path of Buddha that went through Tibet and China down into Vietnam but she says it's more a Vietnamese belief than a Buddhist one.

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[dirtypierre]

She also informed me that when the Vietnam govt dug up the cemeteries around HCMC nearly 20 years ago a lot of elderly Vietnamese refused to move into the new houses because they were afraid of ghosts haunting them.

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[Commander Tamson]

I am not a believer, but heard an interesting account from someone whom apparently would have no reason to lie.

He is British, used to live in Isaan and he never believed in ghosts. But then his mother-in-law died. A few night later he claims her saw her in his bedroom, he then went into the living room for a while and had a drink, then went back into the bedroom and she was still there, but she never spoke. Can't remember what happened after that.

This a work colleague of my dads who stayed in Thailand for like 20 years.

Apparently he told it like he believed it, but who knows (i'm not convinced)

I think there are far too many accounts of ghost sightings, from otherwise non-superstitious people, for there not to be something to the fact. I'm certainly not a follower of Gregolo's rant above - we, individually, are far too complex, both physically and mentally, to be a result of Chaos! I think however that that is a different debate altogether. This debate is about ghosts and I think it has been shown that Buddhism has in fact got an explanation for them. My personal thanks to those who contributed and to ChrisB87 for the OP.

[ChrisB87]

Thinking about it,,,,, really..... ghosts is a concept that goes back to the dawn of man.... way long before

Buddism came into play....

Ghosts starting to appear round the campfire with the hunters some 200.000 years ago.....

I think so at least... So forget about religion. religion is just pure copying life and stealing from it, nothing else....

Glegolo

Don't know about the 200,000 years bit - not much documentation or archaeological evidence to back that up, but if you consider the Amazon tribes who believe in the Spirits of the Forest and have had no contact with the outside world, then maybe there is something to the ghost theory. On the other hand it may be something to do with the coco-leaf they chew before seeing these spirits!

BTW the temple-pictures of hell that you uploaded previously are great. All by the same artist obviously. I wonder where he got his inspiration [a certain Mr Dante springs to mind] . Do you remember which temple you saw them in? I'd be very interested in paying it a visit.

The White Temple in Chiang Rai has a very interesting hell theme and beautiful architecture. And if you go to the White Temple you ought to go the Black Temple too. It's full of pagan stuff.

[granuaile]

The White Temple in Chiang Rai has a very interesting hell theme and beautiful architecture. And if you go to the White Temple you ought to go the Black Temple too. It's full of pagan stuff.

I've been to the White Temple but have never heard of the Black Temple. I will have to make a point to find out more.

About ghosts, when i was a child on two occasions I saw something in the shadow the night my uncle had a cerebral hemorrhage - woke my parents and they could see nothing, when the lights were on nothing there, but with the lights off I could still see it. Maybe it was the imagination of a 10-year old, but it was real enough I locked myself in the bathroom with the light on and a book) and the next morning we learned my uncle was in the hospital, brain dead. On another occasion, also as a child, I dreamt that another uncle came knocking on the back door to our apartment and the next morning we received a call he was inthe hospital, shot by his wife who claimed to have thought he was a burglar. Ultimately, no one knows, and I have not had any personal experiences other than those two.Maybe it was childhood imagination, but that in both instances it coincided with deaths seems eerie. My parents told me of the first place they lived when they married, and old log house in Kentucky and hearing the sound of things moving in the loft and the sound of horses walking on frozen ground outside, though was summer.... After my mother died, my father would awaken to see her standing at the foot of his bed... Given stories of things they had seen, that members of my family have seen.... I believe... I am not afraid of ghosts, and except for those two occasions can't say to have seen (or imagined) anything... but I do believe in ghosts, and I do believe there is more to the us (and all creatures) than a complex organic machine... What happens when we die I don't know, maybe we are reborn as ghosts or perhaps some residual energy remains while a part of us goes on to rebirth, energy moving from one host to another... Just my thoughts... Doesn't matter to me if people believe or not. I do.