The fundamental cause of becoming a sentient being in the ghost realm

The defining characteristic of ghosts is greed and stinginess, so a person with a greedy and stingy mind will, at the end of their life, certainly be reborn in the ghost realm, no matter what they are greedy or stingy about. Hungry ghosts and malicious ghosts both belong to the ghost realm of sentient beings. The mental nature of hungry ghosts is extremely greedy and miserly, and so they have nothing at all, are extremely impoverished, unable to get food or drink; when they approach water, the water turns into fire, causing them great anguish. The mental nature of malicious ghosts is evil; they often come out to harm other sentient beings, including humans. Most beings in the ghost realm are simply called ghosts—ordinary ghosts, distinct from hungry ghosts and malicious ghosts. Greed in sentient beings does not only refer to money and material possessions; within the world of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), greed for any dharma whatsoever is greed, including the bodily, verbal, and mental actions that most people consider perfectly normal—all of it is greed, all of it is a cause for becoming a ghost. The scope of greed is extremely broad.

There was an old lady in my neighborhood. While she was alive, three old men in the courtyard often played mahjong together. The three old men died one after another, and finally the old lady died too. After being reborn in the ghost realm for a while, she appeared in her daughter's dream asking for a mahjong set. Her daughter burned a paper mahjong set for her, and later she appeared in a dream again saying that she was still playing mahjong with the three deceased old men. They were relatively fortunate ghosts; they had not committed any great evil karma while alive, were rather fond of play, and after death continued playing in the ghost realm. I have also encountered people who engaged in music, fine arts, and other arts while alive; after death they became ghosts, then took faith in Buddhism, and possessed the bodies of Buddhist believers to go to temples to cultivate blessings and perform meritorious deeds. These people devoted to the arts were also greedy—attached to art with emotional fondness, greedily clinging and unwilling to let go—and after death they became ghosts. Being fond of the qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, and the like all belong to greed. Literati, poets, writers, essayists, and the like of the past mostly became ghosts after death as well, all having habits of greed. Whatever you like will bind you, and you will not attain liberation.

There is another kind of serious greed: craving for sensual desire, romantic love, and emotional attachment. After death, one becomes a ghost of passion or a ghost of lust. Many people regard emotions as something everyone naturally ought to have, feel proud of developing feelings for others, and even praise those of deep passion, extolling things like romantic love and emotional attachment. In fact, emotional attachment is the most serious form of greed and is also the primary cause of birth-and-death in saṃsāra. The Buddha told us in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra that heavy emotional attachment will certainly lead to falling into the three evil destinies: with nine parts emotion and one part thought, one sinks beneath the wheel of water—that is, the hells; with seven parts emotion and three parts thought, one is born in the ghost realm; with emotion and thought in equal measure, one is born among humans; with little emotion and much thought, the mind can soar upward and one is born in the heavens. Thought represents rationality; when the mind is light, it soars upward and is born in good destinies. Emotion is heavy and turbid; when the mind is heavy, one will certainly fall into the three evil destinies.

Regardless of whether emotion is considered reasonable or not from the standpoint of human law and morality, from the standpoint of consequences and cause and effect it is unreasonable and should not exist. Emotion is greedy craving; where there is craving there is water, and where there is water it must flow downward. Many people, once they develop feelings, express and expand their emotions through composing poetry and painting, considering it beautiful, sincere, and romantic, believing that being passionate is wholesome. In reality, being passionate is unwholesome; it harms both oneself and others, causing both to fall into the three lower destinies together, to suffer the pain of saṃsāra, and to suffer the pain of passion. Many feelings of suffering are summoned because of emotional attachment; without attachment there is no grasping, and thus there would be no suffering.

Even proper emotions carry evil and painful retribution. Then improper emotions—emotions that should not arise, emotions that harm others' interests, immoral emotions, emotions that others find repugnant—carry even greater evil and painful retribution. "Proper" means permitted and protected by law and also permitted by moral norms; "improper" is the opposite—not permitted or protected by law, and condemned and disallowed by moral norms. After we study Buddhism, we should watch over our own minds more, subduing as much as possible the craving and emotional attachment that can be subdued, and restraining as much as possible what can be restrained. After all, greedy craving is not wholesome dharma; it belongs to afflictions and is unwholesome dharma. Quite a few people believe that by forming more connections with others, they will be able to liberate them in future lives, and so they recklessly interact frequently with the opposite sex, giving rise to improper feelings without restraining them, letting them develop freely, thinking this creates wholesome karmic connections through which they can mutually liberate each other. Little do they know that within one great kalpa, they may not have the ability to liberate a person of the opposite sex; emotional entanglement will cause both self and others to fall into evil destinies and suffer for many kalpas. Even after emerging from the evil destinies after so many kalpas, they still lack the ability to liberate the other person, because greedy craving and afflictions have not been eliminated, and they will certainly fall into evil destinies again because of greedy craving.

Having the aspiration to liberate sentient beings is wholesome, but one must also understand principles and know the Dharma; otherwise, the wholesome turns into evil—not only failing to liberate sentient beings, but being liberated by them instead, a loss that far outweighs the gain. Those who use this as an excuse should all the more rein in at the brink of the precipice, for cause and effect has never spared anyone. To summarize: in the Sahā world, as long as one develops greedy craving toward any dharma or any state of mind—delighting in it, rejoicing in it, clinging to it, unwilling to let go—it all belongs to greed. Therefore, the greedy generally fall into the ghost realm to repay their karmic results; cause and effect is not false.