‧by Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Sheng-yen Lu‧
Translated and edited by TBTI
In the netherworld, it is commonly known that all one can see are ghostly non-physical beings. In contrast, in the material world, besides physical objects there are also non-physical beings who exist in spiritual form. In other words, fairies, ghosts, and the soul all exist.
Homeless spirits exist and we have known about them for some time; however, some believe they exist and others do not. This is because not everyone can see or experience them.
Why are there malevolent ghosts in our world? They exist because of unsettled debts and unresolved extreme (usually negative) emotions that they experienced while living in this world.
Here is a story I would like to relate about such a spirit:
There once lived a girlfriend and boyfriend who admired each other greatly and eventually fell in love. For the benefit of the boy’s future, the girlfriend encouraged him to attend medical school, become a doctor, and get his doctorate degree overseas. In order to support him financially the girlfriend worked very hard.
Eventually the boyfriend finished his schooling.
One would expect a perfect ending to this story…!
However, if what happened was expected then no unresolved negative emotions would have occurred here.
While the boyfriend was at school, he met a wealthy student. They fell in love. He considered marrying her for both her beauty and her fortune; his intentions were no longer pure and he no longer had virtuous motives.
The boyfriend returned home to visit his original girlfriend. She was still performing hard labor on his behalf, but his feelings had now changed. He no longer wanted her and did not appreciate her devotion.
The girlfriend was very happy to see him and that he had finished his studies. She now was ready to marry him. The boyfriend, however, did not want to marry her; he no longer felt the same as she did about him. One day he took her out boating on the lake. The boat overturned. The boyfriend swam back to shore alone, without the girlfriend, who apparently had drowned. No one knew the exact circumstances of what took place that day on the lake.
Meanwhile, the girlfriend’s spirit arrived in the netherworld. The king of the netherworld sympathized with her. He gave her a permit which allowed her to become a malevolent ghost and to return to the physical world in order to get revenge.
The wedding of the boyfriend and his wealthy new girlfriend was attended by numerous guests. It was seemingly a perfect match–the groom was a medical doctor and the bride the daughter of wealthy parents. The crowd of wedding attendees believed that because it was a perfect match the marriage would last a long time. During the first night of the honeymoon, the groom awoke and was horrified to find his ex-girlfriend lying by his side with blood oozing from her nose, eyes, and mouth. He felt great shock and was intensely fearful as he realized that he had seen a ghost. From then on whenever he looked at his new wife, he saw his ex-girlfriend instead. He eventually went insane and no doctors were able to cure him of his paranoid behavior. Ultimately, the boyfriend committed suicide by jumping off a building.
Some thought that this tragedy had occurred because the boyfriend had inherited a tendency toward insanity. Others say that this was because the wedding date was not auspicious for the boyfriend. Yet others surmised that the wealthy wife abused her husband, or that the couple did not complement each other, or that the home they lived in had bad Feng Shui, …
Only I know that it was because the ex-girlfriend had received permission from the netherworld king to take the boyfriend’s life. Such permission cannot be taken lightly. When given to a malevolent ghost by the king of the netherworld, even I am not able to save such a merciless soul who deliberately plotted the most heartless murder. Even if I could, I am not allowed to do so as the permission granted in this manner is all-powerful.
Here is a question and it is a simple one. If you were the boyfriend, how would you choose between these two women? What would you do to create an optimum outcome? When love is involved, can we ever get even? Try to answer these.
(From Book #187 “Manifestations of the Netherworld”)
(本文選自蓮生活佛第187冊著作「地獄變現記」文章「厲鬼何處來」)
