Heart Full

It was someone’s birthday, our instructor seemed excited that the birthdayee was spending it in her class. She smiled, “it’s wonderful … it fits perfectly with my dharma talk”. I assumed this meant she was going to talk about the wonder and the miracle of life, always an inspiring topic, but nothing new. I closed my eyes, ready to meditate on the beauty of life. Instead, she spoke about Halloween, or ‘All Hallows Eve’, as it was formerly called. All Hallows Eve and All Saint’s Day, is a time, when we as a culture turn our attention to the other side, the spirits. The spirits during these holidays, wander perhaps a little longer and a little more freely than they do on other nights of the year. Interesting … but still not quite getting it.

Some of these spirits are what various eastern cultures call “hungry ghosts”. I’d heard of hungry ghosts growing up, I had always just assumed these ghosts were noisy, not too friendly, and ‘hungry’ in a sense for our soul. Not so, she explained that these spirits had a head as small as the top of a needle, and mouths even smaller than that, but with stomachs unimaginably large, gigantic. These were hungry ghosts, ghosts who could not satisfy their hunger, because their mouths were too small to nourish them. These people had been greedy in life, and this was the form to work out that karma.

Yogis, mindful of not just this world, but also the unseen will often burn incense as an offering for these hungry ghosts, because smells were something they could find a little nourishment in. As a step further, yogis could offer a quarter of their meals to the divine and/or to the entities who could not similarly consume the nourishment of a meal, the offerings could be thought of as treats.

It’s no small feat to be born in this body. This body represents an infinitely rare opportunity to work out karma, through the wisdom and (possibly) enlightenment we’re able to attain. In fact, having this opportunity is so rare, the chances are so slimmer than a turtle at the bottom of an ocean coming up only once every 100 years and finding a gold ring around its neck. We must’ve been verifiably saintly in our previous life, to be gifted the opportunity to work out our karma in this form.

I don’t know if I believe in next/previous lives or karma (at least in this way), but her dharma helped me find a more profound understanding of the beauty in life, and in my body.