Namarupa and Ghosts

The Watercooler
1

Would you consider ghosts namarupa… if so what form would the be made from?
Ghosts are talked about in the suttas. (Ghosts realms, etc…) but has anyone found out what exaclty a ghost is made of? For that matter, what is a ghost in general?
Do the suttas define what an actual ghost is?

Thoughts? Statements?
All welcome…

Maha metta

2

“… the sentient beings who die as ghosts and are reborn as gods are few, while those who die as ghosts and are reborn in hell are many.”
“… the sentient beings who die as ghosts and are reborn as gods are few, while those who die as ghosts and are reborn in the animal realm are many.”
–SN56.129-130

Disembodied longing, cravings and regret held fiercely into death perhaps?

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3

No.
The way I understand Ghosts also consist of five aggregate which includes Vinnana.
Namarupa is a result of Vinnana contact with the matter.
Ghosts are Dependently Originated phenomena hence subject to namarupa.

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4

Ghosts are beings that are made of ghost stuff.

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5

Lol… thanks

6

Possibly an inhabitant of the formless realms?

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7

I think they are fine material realms.
I have seen some Ghosts like figures (smokes like) few times.
Others said they are like black something suspend in space.

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8

In Mahāyāna Buddhism, pretāḥ inhabit the same plane as human beings, animals, etc. That is why we can interact, allegedly, with pretāḥ in a way we can’t with higher devāḥ.

Such as in offerings to pretāḥ, etc.

I don’t know if they got it from earlier beliefs or if that is an innovation based on local cults of ancestor veneration.

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9

Hungry Shades/Ghosts (peta loka:
Ghosts and unhappy spirits wander hopelessly about this realm, searching in vain for sensual fulfillment.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sagga/loka.html

10

I wonder what is meant by “spirits”?

11

Maybe… but what do you yhink they are made of? Are they spirits?

12

Something that is intangible like air, but exists, like air. “Spirit” is related to breath and air.

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13

Hmmmm… ingeresting… can one see or experience a spirit?

14

Ven Anuruddha was the an expert in ‘divine vision’

I have heard that on one occasion Ven. Anuruddha was dwelling among the Kosalans in a forest thicket. Now at that time, a devata from the retinue of the heaven of the Thirty-three named Jalini, one of Ven. Anuruddha’s former consorts, went to him and, on arrival, addressed him with this verse:

Direct your mind
to where you used to live,
among the devas of the Thirty-three,
empowered
with all sensual pleasures.
Honored, surrounded
by deva maidens,
you
will shine.

[Ven. Anuruddha:]

They’ve gone astray,
deva maidens
established in self-identity.
And they’ve gone astray,
those beings with deva maidens
as their aim.

[Jalini:]

They don’t know bliss
who haven’t seen Nandana,
abode of the eminent devas,
glorious,
of the Thirty-three.

[Ven. Anuruddha:]

You fool, don’t you know
the arahants’ maxim? —
'How inconstant are compounded things!
Their nature: to arise & pass away.
They disband as they are arising.
Their total stilling is bliss.’

Jalini, there is now
in deva company
no further abode
[for me].
With the utter ending
of wandering on in birth,
there is now
no further becoming.
Anuruddha Sutta: Anuruddha

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15

Some of these are related to mental health issues or bereavement…

16

sometimes I think if anyone who is bereaved can experience these, then we may all have the ability to experience them, given the right progressive development.