Do Buddhists Believe in Ghosts?

For many people in the West, Buddhism is appealing because it seems to be free of superstition and offers a rational approach to many of the problems of human life. Many Buddhists living in traditional Buddhist countries in Asia, however, blend a rich variety of beliefs from folk religion with Buddhism. If we look at the original scriptures of Buddhism, we find that it is not so "modern," that is, free of superstition, as some Buddhists in Europe, Great Britain, and the United States may wish it were.

In many countries, Buddhists observe a range of superstition, involving amulets for good luck, curses, ghosts, and witchcraft. Superstitious beliefs are woven into the whole fabric of Buddhist faith and practice. Some of these ideas, such as the belief in ghosts, can be traced to Buddhist scriptures.

Buddhism inherited many ideas and words from Hinduism, including the idea of troublesome ghosts. The life as a ghost came to be considered a distinct rebirth for working out bad karma in dreadful places where they eat dreadful foods, including corpses.

The best known of these ghosts are the "hungry ghosts." These ghosts are identified by huge, bloated bellies and tiny mouths through which they cannot feed their overwhelming hunger.

These ghosts are just one class of many spiritual beings whose stories make up the whole story of life as it is presented in Buddhism. Many of these stories, such as the stories of the ghosts who have to eat themselves, suggest imagery from Dante's Divine Comedy. They probably were not meant to be taken literally but as emblems of psychological deficiencies. At least, that is the way that we can make them fit into the modern superstition of a thoroughly rational worldview.

Other spiritual beings lead a more comfortable life. In Hinduism, there were already devas, various sorts of spirits or heavenly beings. Buddhism also absorbed other deities and spirits from other traditions as it encountered them. They are not gods in the sense of eternal beings. Life as a ghost or as a god is just one of many possible lives through which one works out one's karma, from age to age. Ultimately, life as a deva or as a ghost is hardly different.

Both states fall short of nirvana. Both are ways of developing from one life to another. One ends up in one life or the other as a result of improper behavior in previous lifetimes. In some Buddhist traditions, good deeds, especially alms to the monks, are dedicated to deceased ancestors, the better to free them from life as a ghost. For a Buddhist, there is nothing contradictory to speak of "life as a ghost," since the ghost state is a life, although such an expression may sound odd to us.

At their worst, these spiritual life-forms (ghosts) can be put under a spell to do a magician's will. At their best, they may become Dharma protectors, protecting the Dharma (Buddhist teaching) and those who follow it.

In some Buddhist countries, there is a festival called the Ullambana is celebrated every year in order to ease the suffering of the hungry ghosts.

Ghosts and gods, although not attractive to many Western Buddhists, are basic beliefs in traditional folk Buddhism. Interpreted as symbols of emotional and spiritual states, they can enhance Western Buddhist practice and faith.

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