anyone seen petas & devas before?
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did anyone encountered or seen petas and devas b4?
how did they look like? is petas really scary?
devas is kinda like light isnt it -
I think many of us would have encountered a ghost before. It is especially common for army people to encounter them, i believe. Lots of encounters were during army according to many people. Anyway last time i was living in an eerie rented house, luckily only for eight months. We don know who lived there before or what happened. I encountered a ghost when i was younger - 9 years old. I didnt have the habit of chanting and i was completely shocked and stunned when i saw a hand, definitely not mine, coming towards me from below. I closed my eyes, opened again, the hand has still there but very quickly it sort of get sucked away from me. I think it does not have harmful intentions and maybe want us to help, so we dedicated merits to that spirit.Originally posted by marcteng:did anyone encountered or seen petas and devas b4?
how did they look like? is petas really scary?
devas is kinda like light isnt it
In buddhism there is not only one kind of petas but generally thirty six kind, each with different looks and characteristics.
As for devas, i hadnt met one. But my dharma teacher did met one years ago. That time she almost died and was sent to the hospital and she could feel her blood stopped flowing and i think her heart stopped beating. The deva was very very tall... And it wore costumes that look like military kind. It spoke in a language my dharma teacher couldnt understand. But anyway my teacher was revived. My dharma teacher didnt knew that she encountered a deva, it was only later that she realised it and confirmed with another teacher from taiwan. As for what exactly happened i would rather not discuss about it here. But anyway there are many different types of devas and they also looked differently. There are devas from the sensual planes and the higher ones are the brahmas from the jhana planes. Devas and brahmas have much lighter bodies than our dense physical bodies. And the highest kinds are residing in formless planes so they have no body and are shapeless. Their consciousness are absorbed in jhanas. -
wore a costume? u sure that was deva?Originally posted by An Eternal Now:I think many of us would have encountered a ghost before.That time i was living in an eerie rented house, luckily only for eight months. We don know who lived there before or what happened. I encountered a ghost when i was younger - 9 years old. I didnt have the habit of chanting and i was completely shocked and stunned when i saw a hand, definitely not mine, coming towards me from below. I closed my eyes, opened again, the hand has still there but very quickly it sort of get sucked away from me. I think it does not have harmful intentions and maybe want us to help, so we dedicated merits to that spirit.
As for devas, i hadnt met one. But my dharma teacher did met one years ago. That time she almost died and was sent to the hospital and she could feel her blood stopped flowing and i think her heart stopped beating. The deva was very very tall... And it wore costumes that look like military kind. It spoke in a language my dharma teacher couldnt understand. But anyway my teacher was revived. My dharma teacher didnt knew that she encountered a deva, it was only later that she realised it and confirmed with another teacher from taiwan. As for what exactly happened i would rather not discuss about it here.
devas body like illuminating isnt it, like bright light.
was that deva male or female? how tall is tall, that deva?
is it different from humans or similar? -
That was quite long ago so I don't remember the details. She din say whether male or female but i believe it was male. And yes, devas do wear costumes, but are called 'celestial clothings'. I don't think people asked her that much about how the deva looked like. But she was quite surprised by the tallness and I think she even had to looked up to see the whole figure.Originally posted by marcteng:wore a costume? u sure that was deva?
devas body like illuminating isnt it, like bright light.
was that deva male or female? how tall is tall, that deva?
is it different from humans or similar?
But Guan Yin and Amitabha is even taller, especially in Sukhavati (Western Pure Land). Of course they can appear short to people but in Sukhavati especially, they appear extremely tall. My master saw Amitabha before and my Taiwanese teacher saw Guan Yin before.
My Taiwanese teacher was able to enter deeply into samadhi even before he knew about the teachings of Buddhism or attained enlightenment, and attained lots of supernatural powers. At his earlier days, he was saved by Guan Yin, when he foolishly used his powers to fight a few vengeful spirits but in return was attacked by a whole bunch of them. He fought the spirits to protect someone he knew and was reprimanded by my master for using spiritual powers in this way. My Taiwanese teacher later set a rule for his students not to seek any spiritual powers before gaining wisdom.
Anyway so my Taiwanese teacher died in the battle, and his consciousness left his body. He was very lost and didn't know what to do. Then when Guan Yin appeared to him, Guan Yin commented that he was pitiful and 'resurrected' him. When he looked around, all he could see is enormous toes... the toes itself is like the height of a human. Guan Yin was so tall that he didn't see the whole figure, and therefore couldn't recognise who was the one who saved him. It was only later that he confirmed with my master that it was indeed Guan Yin who appeared and saved him.
This reminds me that in Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra, the sutra states that Guan Yin will save those people who are in danger. It further states many many dangerous situations where through contemplating Guan Yin's power alone, one will be saved. That is why Guan Yin is known as 'Jiu4 Ku3 Jiu4 Nan4 Guan Shi Yin'. One of the things it stated is that when evil spirits of the entire universe is aiming at attacking you, you will be saved from them and they will not harm you if you would just contemplate the powers of Guan Yin, chant Guan yin.
Another 'big toes' story is about my master. He visited Sukhavati/Western Pure Land while he was alive. I'm going to post on that.Disciple: Master, how do we witness Sukhavathi?
Regarding this white curled hair, later I found this from the Amitabha Sutra or another sutra on Amitabha, that Amitabha's white curled hair between his eyebrow emits light that illuminates countless the worlds in the ten directions.
Master Shen Kai: That's easy. But Sukhavathi is very far away. How far? It's passing through hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhalands. In between this hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhalands are not Buddhalands but Hui Tu. Buddhalands are pure where Buddhas dwell. Sukhavathi is hence very very far away. Far does not mean we don't believe.
In the sutras, Buddha used to explain that it's very very near. So near that nobody believe it's true. There's no choice as sentient beings are too greedy, hence say it's very very far away and not easy to go or reach. So He expound the Amitabha Sutra, where Buddha spoke without people asking. If a person is not greedy, then Dharmakaya is very near as it encompass everything.
Since it's entire existence, it's so near to reach like space everywhere exist Dharmakaya. Without Dharmakaya, Earth cannot be in the space. Cars cannot works. Every thing is benefited by Dharmakaya.
When people do business, they need an initial funding, now Buddha say you don't need that initial funding, you believe in Amitabha and recite His name.
When one see people wearing a gold necklace, but it's just a piece of metal chain like the one you see in jail to chain prisioners. Then Buddha told sentient beings not to be obsess with gold, you just need to recite Amitabha and don't need any initial funding and you can reborn in a place where gold is use for building constructions.
So does Sukhavathi really exist? Yes. Don't think Buddha is lying. You can GO NOW and witness yourself and come back to tell people. Master tell you I been there before, you all might disbelieve. So I will describe it to you.
Sentient beings on Earth are very small, Bodhisattvas of Sukhavathi are really Big and tall. A person standing next to Amitabha only reach the height of Amitabha's toe! When I reached Sukhavathi, only wish to pay homage to Amitabha, and adore Amitabha.
Amitabha Buddha reply: What do you seek here in Sukhavathi?
Shen Kai: Honored One, i came to seek Dharma.
Amitabha Buddha ask: What kind of Dharma?
Shen Kai: i'm not sure. Seeing Amitabha's forehead is adorned with a curled hair. i wisk to seek that Dharma, Honorable One.
(Back to reality.) That's how I cultivate and got my curled hair, but this Dharma method cannot anyhow expound to people. It's is because you people have doubt in Sukhavathi. Thinking it doesn't exist. Hence I tell you my experience. Due to the busy schedule, the white hair is curled. When it grew longer to 3 inch, it will extend when i'm washing the face. That's the proof.
How did Ocean of suffering (ku hai wu bian) come about? Because beings of samsara cannot sever emotion, love and greed. Sentinet beings cry a lot. Separation from friend, family, love ones, people cry. Son is leaving, mother crys, so does the son. Mother is dying, sons also crys. When people want's to eat, the mouth starts to water. This is greed. People need to work, they swear. In a life them, people generate so many water. One person, say one bucket of water, 100 pax, 100 bucket form a pool of water. If millions of millions of people cannot sever emotion, love and greed, form an Ocean of water.
In our world there's male and female. Those who goes to jail, 99% are involve with female. But in Sukhavathi, there's not male nor female form.
(translated by Sinweiy)
Also, I later found out that another Buddhist master from Vietnam by the name Khoan Tinh had a similar encounter, but his experience was even more spectacular. His account was much more detailed, he visited many places in Sukhavati and stayed there for quite some time before returning. He went missing for 6 and a half years and returned later to tell the story. He too reported that his height was on par with Amitabha's toes.
As for devas, they are also tall but are not as tall as Amitabha or Guan Yin. I don't think they are completely different from humans, but are probably much better looking. Just a guess. In fact Human race is according to Buddhism, descendents of the 2nd Jhana Light-Sound Heaven brahmas. Their looks should have some resemblance with us although of course due to degeneration of humanity we are probably much more uglier. -
Merry Meet marcteng,
Why are you interested in petas or devas? What would your curiousity bring you? Trying to confirm what you met up with in your personal encounter? Petas or Devas?
Blessed Be,
Oceanos -
supernatural powers come naturally by itself after enlightenment right?
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It depends on what you mean by enlightened. One may have a glimpse of our true nature and yet not attain any powers. Some claims that some Arhats do not have powers, while some say that they have them just that some Arhats themselves didn't realise it.Originally posted by Cenarious:supernatural powers come naturally by itself after enlightenment right?
Furthermore there are plenty of stages of Bodhisattva bhumis. It's only at the 10th Bhumi that the Bodhisattva attain all the Siddhis they can ever attain. At that level, there is completely no more obstructions in penetrating all dharmas. -
I have a slightly different view. Petas,devas, ghost whatever people call it. Just seems to happened more often in Asia & in counties that have such believes. In my own views, we grew up in the enviroment of so many believes & ghost stories. There are "Young Experiance" of these believes/stories embeded some thoughts into our minds & sometimes reflect thems towards ourself.
The reason/conditions when these "Young Experiance" reflect is when mind could not explain or could not accept or could not understand it's enviroments. Then our own mind starts to tell ourselves lies. This is when "Young Experiance" have a chance to grow/magnified itself.
As you can see, I watch my mind functioning. I am not saying there is no super natural beings. In my own views just that, over 85% of the people only experiance mind (Mind Lies). Not the real "Thing".
Be careful, be very careful of your own mind. Most is not true.
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I believe it is possible to see something he thinks should be a ghost, then interprete his vision.. maybe falsely seen? to be a ghost.... as for hallucination, its not very common to have clear hallucinations of ghosts unless one has some mental conditions that need psychiatrist help.Originally posted by surfer188:I have a slightly different view. Petas,devas, ghost whatever people call it. Just seems to happened more often in Asia & in counties that have such believes. In my own views, we grew up in the enviroment of so many believes & ghost stories. There are "Young Experiance" of these believes/stories embeded some thoughts into our minds & sometimes reflect thems towards ourself.
The reason/conditions when these "Young Experiance" reflect is when mind could not explain or could not accept or could not understand it's enviroments. Then our own mind starts to tell ourselves lies. This is when "Young Experiance" have a chance to grow/magnified itself.
As you can see, I watch my mind functioning. I am not saying there is no super natural beings. In my own views just that, over 85% of the people only experiance mind (Mind Lies). Not the real "Thing".
Be careful, be very careful of your own mind. Most is not true.
But if you truly see one, like myself, very very clearly, you will have absolutely no doubts. Just like you will never doubt you drank coffee this morning... went to work.. talked with your friend..
Lots of people see it... we shouldn't just dismiss what others mentioned as some form of 'mental lies' or deny what we see. Of course depends on who claimed that lah 
And there are other times I thought I felt the presence of some ghosts or seen something.... but I do not take these feelings or visions as real (and never did), not only till an undeniable sighting.
By the way... visions of ghosts are very widespread and prevalent in Western and other Abrahamic (religions) countries as well. In fact just as much as Asian countries do. There is not a part of Earth that I think never really have such beliefs... because there will always be people who see them... and in fact.. quite commonly..