pj harvey dent
@surrealisthells.bsky.social
726 followers 615 following 3.1K posts
data privacy aficionado | military families advocate | inadvertant tech professional | mediocre Buddhist | sequin enthusiast | inveterate overexplainer
data privacy aficionado | military families advocate | inadvertant tech professional | mediocre Buddhist | sequin enthusiast | inveterate overexplainer
![This particular painting features ten figures from the hungry ghost realm, each of whom has unique features. Based on various literary sources, one can make some best guesses about the various figures portrayed. For example, according to a short tract about hungry ghosts by Tiantai master Ciyun Zunshi (964–1032) entitled “On the Visualizations [That Accompany a] Charitable Bestowal of Food [on Hungry Ghosts], in Reply to Questions of the Official Cui Yucai,” there are three basic types of hungry ghosts: (1) those deprived of provisions, (2) those with meager provisions, and (3) those with bountiful provisions. Among the first type—those deprived of provisions—there are three subsets of hungry ghost: (1.1) the fire or flaming-mouth ghosts, insofar as flames blaze constantly from their mouths; (1.2) the needle-throat ghosts, whose bellies are huge as mountains but throats as thin as needles. The sūtra at hand mentions principally these two types, with all the others generically clustered around [in attendance]; and, finally, (1.3) the stinking or stench-mouth hungry ghosts, whose mouths are filled with stinking filth and rot, causing them agony from their own loathsomeness. These three kinds of hungry ghosts appear to be represented in the upper right of this painting. There are three hungry ghosts who are skeletal with large bellies, signaling their dire hunger, and who have protruding foreheads, noses, and jaws, giving them a simian quality. These are likely a flaming-mouth hungry ghost, with fiery breath; a needle-throat hungry ghost, with a small throat that inhibits eating; and a stinking-mouth hungry ghost, who is holding his nose, attempting perhaps to block the smell of his own terrible breath.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xc22n6sgqzrbqg2hi5p2ukvs/bafkreihwkvya5b37fjd6gwomiv6yhmum7cp5nnr7unqhs372eojo6hroqq)
![Notes on yellow and pink Post Its taped to the side of a desk.
- Hi other volunteers! Excited to be here - and excited to help! Cat :)
- Hello, fellow volunteers❤️! [in especially gorgeous decorative script] GLAD TO BE HERE! ❤️ ELIZABETH C.
- [next to the previous one] You should DEFINITELY be a tattoo artist!!
- Hey new volunteer! Have a great time and SMILE! - Micah
- [illustration of flowers] like a WILD flower, you must allow yourself to grow in all the places people thought you never would
- PLEASE don't forget that all OPPRESSION IS CONNECTED as we continue to support & fight for the rights of women let us not forget our LGBTQIA+ friends along with our brothers, sisters & siblings of color. Y'ALL ARE AMAZING ❤️](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xc22n6sgqzrbqg2hi5p2ukvs/bafkreiclf2jzfhouitim6fwjebam4chpaejpblyat6x5osdyh5yfl5lzhq)
![“Bhadanta,” Nālada said, “I am coming from a journey through the realm of hungry ghosts. There I saw a hungry ghost who looked like one of the demons of Yama; she was covered in blood and surrounded by skeletons, as though she were in the middle of a cremation ground. And she said,
By day I eat five children, by night I eat five more. After giving birth to them, I never feel sated.
[And the venerable Nālada asked,] What terrible sin did she commit in the world of mortals so that she now experiences such horrific suffering? “Nālada,” the Blessed One said, “that hungry ghost is a sinner. Do you want to hear the deed that led her to this fate? “Yes, Bhadanta.” “Then listen to this, Nālada. Concentrate well and closely. I will speak.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xc22n6sgqzrbqg2hi5p2ukvs/bafkreierfpcz3by6k5biedrl7ewu5ahbv7d7kzrl6bflt27xiucoka3zqa)
![When the first wife, who had previously been the merchant’s only spouse, saw the second wife being honored and cherished, she was filled with jealousy. “If this second wife gives birth to a son,” she thought, “he’ll surely torment me. Some skillful solution must be arranged, at any cost.” As they say, one who indulges in sensual pleasures doesn’t shy away from doing something sinful. The first wife was foolishly [perched] at the precipice of the [three] realms of existence that no one desires—[the realms of hell beings, animals, and hungry ghosts]. She gained the second wife’s trust and then gave her a drug that would induce an abortion. As a result of consuming the drug, that poor woman had a miscarriage. The second wife then gathered together all her relatives and questioned the first wife: “You gained my trust and then gave me a drug to induce an abortion! That’s why I had a miscarriage!” Then the first wife, in the midst of those relatives, took an oath: “If I gave you a drug to induce an abortion, then may I become a hungry ghost and devour my children as they are born!”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xc22n6sgqzrbqg2hi5p2ukvs/bafkreiblqgav6adacxc3foaihyyi6u535p6vj5ihmablfhwoa3x3aoi7e4)
![Consider this description from the story called “A Pot of Shit”:
The venerable Maudgalyāyana saw a hungry ghost who looked like a burned-out tree stump, naked and totally covered with hair, with a mouth like the eye of a needle and a stomach like a mountain. She was ablaze, alight, aflame, a single fiery mass, a perpetual cremation. Tormented by thirst, she was racked with sensations that were searing, piercing, distressing, agonizing, and acute, and she was crying out in pain. She was foul smelling—really foul smelling. She looked like shit, and she was feeding on feces. And even those, she only procured with difficulty.
As the text goes on to explain:
She runs around suffering, piles of shit everywhere, [wailing] “I drink and eat only shit!”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xc22n6sgqzrbqg2hi5p2ukvs/bafkreifcl3f4aluyacxhzgbka237tfgwgtevq3wmgxmzcogjn3cf2mnvzy)
![The venerable Maudgalyāyana then approaches the Buddha, who explains to him the deed that the hungry ghost performed in a previous life that led her to this present fate:
Long ago, Maudgalyāyana, in the city of Vārāṇasī, there was a solitary buddha who had compassion for the poor and neglected and who stayed in remote areas. Afflicted with an illness, he entered Vārāṇasī for alms, since a doctor had prescribed for him [a diet] of wholesome food. He approached the home of a merchant. The merchant saw him and asked, “Noble one, do you need anything?” “Homemade nutritious food,” he said. Then the merchant instructed his daughter-in-law: “Give wholesome food to the noble one.” In his daughter-in-law there arose a feeling of mātsarya. “If I give him food today, he’ll just come back again tomorrow.” She retreated indoors, filled a bowl with shit, then covered it with food and proceeded to give it to the solitary buddha. Now the knowledge and insight of disciples and solitary buddhas does not operate unless they focus their attention. So the solitary buddha accepted the bowl, and only after accepting it did he realize how much it smelled. “She must have filled it with excrement,” he thought. Then that great being dumped out his bowl to one side and departed.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xc22n6sgqzrbqg2hi5p2ukvs/bafkreidyey73wrpmzh2odut5azgwwpf4viesesd7il7hn2hvku2fgyhbqa)
