I am so afraid of ghosts.
Author: VaNa De-va
Posted on: 15th May 2022
Keywords: #ghost, #haunt, #imagination
Length: 481 words
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Hey, everybody, welcome to my 5-minutes Dhamma Talk Channel, today,
I receive a question from Gai, one of my Channel’s viewers. She wants to
ask the monk about ghost. It sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Let’s listen to her
question.
I am a kind of person who is so afraid of ghosts. Especially when I know
somebody in my family or someone I know has just died; during those
times I would not be able to sleep or being alone in the house after dark
because I could not stop thinking about the dead might come to me or
make appearance or sound. When getting in bed, I would cover myself
from head to toe for fear that ghosts might tease me by pulling my leg at
night. How can I stop being afraid of ghosts?
So, now, let’s see what the venerable monk is going to say?
The fear will not stay with you long because by nature it is impermanent,
meaning it comes and goes. But, if you keep thinking about the death of
someone that you know, it causes the fear coming back to you; it is equal
as you extend its stay. The best way is do not let your mind wander
aimlessly because it will end up thinking about things you are afraid of
such as ghosts. Find time to chant the prayers. If you have firm faith in
the Triple Gem: Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, the prayers will have the
power to protect you.
As a matter of fact, you are not afraid of ghosts but you are afraid of your
imagination. Whenever, you can stop imagining things, you can stop being
afraid of ghost. It is all in your mind. I suggested you to chant the prayers
because chanting can help reduce aimless and groundless imagination. Moreover, if you could practice meditation whether be it mindfulness
meditation or concentration meditation, you will be able to count on it. Mindfulness and concentration combat fear. Suppressing fear can cause
it to reemerge intensely. Instead of suppressing it, you neutrally observe
it through the strength of mindfulness; then it will fade away. At the
beginning of practice, you may not be able to get rid of it quickly. When
your mindfulness is getting stronger, you will realize the rising fear quicker
and it cannot take on you long. Keep practicing.
Being afraid of ghost does not have only a downside but the upside is it
benefits the practice of meditation for some afraid-of-ghost practitioners. While practicing, they concentrate well on the breath for fear that if the
mind starts wandering, their imagination can go wild into thinking about
various ghost versions. So the more they are afraid of ghosts, the more
they meditate well. Likewise, the old say, the more the tortoise fears, the
more it shrinks its head.
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