Identical External Appearances Can Manifest Divergent Internal Appearances

Question: Are the objective aspects perceived by hungry ghosts and humans identical? For instance, when a hungry ghost, a human, and a deva look at the same river, what they perceive differs: humans see a river, devas see lapis lazuli, and hungry ghosts see flames or pus and blood.

Answer: Since they are observing the same river, the objective aspect must be identical; it is the subjective aspect that differs for each. This variation results from differences in karmic force. If a hungry ghost sees a river within the realm of hungry ghosts, that river is certainly distinct from the river humans perceive in the human realm — the objective aspects differ. If what the hungry ghost sees pertains to the world of hungry ghosts, it has no connection to us humans, and the objective aspect is different. However, if it observes the mountains, rivers, and land of the human world here, although what it perceives differs from what humans perceive, the objective aspect remains consistent — it is still observing a river within the human realm.

Though the hungry ghost realm has its own way of life and environmental conditions, distinct from those in the human realm, when a hungry ghost observes people, objects, or events within the human realm — for example, when a ghost sees a human — is it seeing a being from the ghost realm or a human from the human realm? The person it sees is the same person others see. Could the objective aspect be identical? It certainly is.