Hungry ghosts

I’m sitting in the Ho Chi Minh airport. It’s 35 degrees and raining. I’m drinking my 78th iced coffee here and am waiting for our flight to Da Nang. We’ve been here two nights and in that time I have learned how to cross eight lanes of traffic without anyone stopping. I’ve learned that many of the Viet Cong were under the age of sixteen. I’ve learned that Vietnamese people love Milo and that two days ago was the Ghost Festival, a day where Buddhists appease the dead by offering them meals so they do not haunt them for the rest of the year. 

These hungry ghosts are said to be reborn into this realm due to negative karma accumulated through actions fueled by greed, stealing, hoarding, and harbouring resentment. These individuals, consumed by their desires even in the afterlife, find themselves perpetually tormented by insatiable hunger and thirst.

The existence of a hungry ghost is one of constant suffering. They are condemned to wander a barren landscape, forever seeking sustenance that eludes their grasp. Their insatiable wanting drives them to desperate measures, leading them to steal others offerings, harass the living, and even devour their own flesh in a futile attempt to appease their cravings.

I first learned of Hungry Ghosts in Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. I was amazed to look upon an ancient Buddhist tapestry in a Korean museum featuring hungry ghosts just after reading about them for the first time. They were howling, reaching out and withering away. These figures were so clear to me: I recognised them as if looking into a mirror.

Our egos, the constructed identity we cling to, are constantly starving. Without awareness, we are consumed by an insatiable wanting without ever feeling full. We hope will be happy, not now, but when we have this, get there, do that. 

Then those things happen yet we are still hungry. We want more, only thinking of what we lack, as we want for the next thing: the next drink, the weekend, when it’s all over, when it begins. 

When is it enough?

We can appease our own inner hungry ghost through an offering that will feed it: understanding, love, acceptance, patience, gentleness. Not scolding yourself for thinking petty thoughts, or making comparisons. Not punishing yourself for having flaws, or being human.

The purpose of our ego is to interact with the physical world. For example, when you reach into the shower and find the water is too hot, you make it colder. Along the way, the voice constantly jabbering in your head has convinced you that you’re the one doing all the talking.

In Eckhart Tolle's teachings, the ego is not simply our sense of self, but rather a constructed identity built upon layers of beliefs, thoughts, and emotions. It is not our true essence, but a temporary mask we wear in the play of life. We are the awareness behind the thinking mind.