Purple Lotus Publisher > Journal > Volumn NO. 12

Gods and Ghosts --- Do they exist?

An excerpt from a talk by Living Buddha Lian-sheng Sheng-yen Lu, given on Aug. 22nd, 1998, after the Saturday group cultivation at Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple in Redmond, Washington

Translated by Janny Chow from a transcript published in the TrueBuddha News

Earlier Hsuan-jen [a resident monk in the temple] talked about the existence of ghosts. This was because he had read my article on the lake ghost in Lake Sammamish. [Grand Master laughter] He asked me, "Do ghosts exist?" This is my answer to him, "They exist." Why? Because they exist in his mind! In my mind, there is no ghost.

So, if someone comes to ask me, "Do you think ghosts exist?" I would say, "No!"

Hsuan-jen will say, "Grand Master has plainly written in his book about this lake ghost. How can he say now that there is no ghost?"

Let me give you a simple example, and you can give it some consideration.

Does Master Lian-huo have a wife? [audience laughter] Hsuan-jensaid yes. Let me ask Hsuan-jen the same question, "Do you have a wife?" He said no. Herein lies the reason to the different answers: it depends on the individual. Some people can make contact with ghosts or beings in the bardo state and thus feel their presence. Some people just don't believe in ghosts. Whatever happens, they just have never experienced any ghosts in their consciousness of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, bodily sensation, and mental consciousness. This is the reason why ghosts exist for some and not for others.

This is what is happening in my case! As long as I bring out all of the insulators in my body to insulate myself from all ghosts, then ghosts do not exist for me. When I remove all these insulators, then ghosts become existent. So, if I want to feel their presence today, I simply call out or invite them to come, and I can have contact with them. If I don't want to have any contact with them, then they would not be able to get near me, and then tome they are non-existent. So, for me, I have control over whether they exist or not. If I summon them, then they exist. If I don't summon them, then they don't exist.

You have to be clear on this matter: not everyone who goes to the lakeside will get dragged away by a ghost. If that were true, who would dare to go and look at the lake? Who would dare to go swimming there? I love swimming the most, are you telling me notto go swimming at all in the seventh lunar month? [Grand Master laughter]

Let me tell you, as long as your lifespan has come to an end, then it will be time for you to go whether it is the seventh lunar month or not. If it is not your time to go yet, then no matter how much you swim, how high you surf, or how much you sink or float in the ocean, you won't die. You have to be clear on this concept.

Actually ghosts exist in days as well as in nights. [Grand Master and audience laughter] Every place has ghosts, and every house has ghosts in it. Bardo beings can travel very rapidly and movements are very swift in the spirit realm. When you think about them or summon them with your mind, they can come very quickly. Buddhist practitioners who have training in mind power can, by engendering a thought, summon the gods and ghosts to come very rapidly and also to feel their presence. I just need to open the dharma wheel and I can feel the presence of gods and ghosts. So, whether gods and ghosts exist should be a matter that one have control over. It also depends on each individual.

Footnote 1: Refer to The Lake God, p17?1 of issue 10 of Purple Lotus Journal, published January, 1999.