Feed Me, Feed Me Pleaded the Hungry Ghost
Yesterday, I was on the way to meet my sister for dinner when I felt and heard a hungry ghost inside of me – feed me, feed me it wailed. It was a marvel. I was fascinated.
Over the years of working on patterns, habits, conditioning and attitudes, I don’t believe I have ever experienced the past’s struggle to reassert itself as a hungry ghost. As I was approaching a stop sign, I thought – maybe I could… (partake of an old experience). A quick response – Why, aren’t I through with that? And then this feeling from my gut that moved up into my chest and then into my head – feeeeeeeed meeeeee…
This is not a Halloween tale, though the timing is timely! It was kind of spooky because the presence actually felt ghostly, like vapor, fog, amorphous. It was wafting up and around and through me like swirling smoke – and it was definitely hungry. One little morsel won’t hurt, will it?
Wikipedia – Hungry ghost is a Western translation of an Eastern phrase representing beings who are driven by intense emotional needs in an animalistic way. In Buddhism, Hungry Ghosts are ghosts only in the sense of not being fully alive; not fully capable of living and appreciating what the moment has to offer. Although the Eastern terminology and metaphor is very different, the concept has strong parallels with similar concepts in western psychology.
My hungry ghost was most definitely connected to the animal soul. It’s hunger spread to the pelvis, to my arms and legs – the hunger was everywhere except in the presence and awareness observing this phenomena. My mind was working overtime in trying to figure out how to have it’s cake and eat it too – feed the ghost and live one’s realization.
In the end, I settled for a nice Pinot Noir and some delicious fish tacos.
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