Are hungry ghosts considered "alive" if they are one of the six options of rebirth?
Upvote:-1
A Buddha will not preach unnecessary things. In Buddhism the Buddha is believed to be Omniscient and whatever he preached is thus so.
Peta (hungry ghosts) is one of the Apaya (hell) out of four Apayas. It is believed that especially who commit greedy deeds (as opposed to deeds like killings) will be born there.
Even in present days some people who are said to be working with spirits (if claims are true), say they see such ghosts especially who have been born there due to grasping their lands, houses and relatives.
Upvote:0
Hungry ghosts are people who are addicts. Iti 93 says:
The fire of lust burns mortals (macce; men) Infatuated by sensual pleasures; The fire of hate burns malevolent people Who kill other living beings;
The fire of delusion burns the bewildered, Ignorant of the Noble One’s Dhamma. Being unaware of these three fires, Mankind (pajā; this generation) delights in personal existence.
Unfree from the bonds of Māra They swell the ranks of hell, Existence in the animal realm, Asura-demons and the sphere of ghosts.
Upvote:1
yes, they are also a group of sentient beings (born in lower abodes due to bad karma they had been performed
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They're considered (categorized) as "sentient" -- see for example definitions of sentient here:
- Does the Pali word "sattā" mean "sentient beings"?
- Wikipedia: Sentient beings (Buddhism)
- The 5 realms of sentient existence
Bikkhu Bodhi mentions sentience here -- this (i.e. not killing sentient beings) is a context in which the word "sentience" is often used:
(1) Abstaining from the taking of life (panatipata veramani)
Herein someone avoids the taking of life and abstains from it. Without stick or sword, conscientious, full of sympathy, he is desirous of the welfare of all sentient beings.[28]
"Abstaining from taking life" has a wider application than simply refraining from killing other human beings. The precept enjoins abstaining from killing any sentient being. A "sentient being" (pani, satta) is a living being endowed with mind or consciousness; for practical purposes, this means human beings, animals, and insects. Plants are not considered to be sentient beings; though they exhibit some degree of sensitivity, they lack full-fledged consciousness, the defining attribute of a sentient being.
When he writes "for practical purposes" there I take it to mean, not that hungry ghosts aren't sentient, but that (like gods or hell-beings) they are not the type of being that a human might kill.
Another context in which "sentient" is often used is in the Mahayana Bodhisattva vow:
The Bodhisattva vow is a vow (Sanskrit: praṇidhāna, lit. aspiration or resolution) taken by some Mahāyāna Buddhists to achieve full buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.
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