“Hungry ghosts are everywhere; I vow to feed them.”

I’ve added a Bodhisattva Vow to the traditional four chanted by Mahayana Buddhists everywhere. You may think that’s brassy. Four vows have been enough since the 6^th or 7^th century. Why another? Maybe my vow is already encompassed by the other four. Why do we even need four? Embody any one of them fully and the other three are included. There’s nothing magical or sacred about the number of vows. So, these days, I’m chanting five vows each morning, and I’m finding hungry ghosts everywhere. There are my demons, of course. I’ve been working with them for years. These days I’m seeing them all around, not just in the rejected aspects of society that Roshi Bernie was pointing to. Bernie’s hungry ghosts needed jobs and places to live, day care and health care. They needed other things too, but that was a place to begin, and Bernie responded by building the Greyston Mandala. My hungry ghosts who were living with mental illnesses, needed to be included, to be respected and valued for who they are. I began there.

Now I’m seeing hungry ghosts everywhere, not just among the outcasts of society. When I sit in Council and listen from the heart, the voices of hungry ghosts are all around me. We all bring our hungry ghosts with us wherever we go. Often, they are hiding from us. We may think it’s the persona we’re aware of that are doing the talking while, unnoticed, our hungry ghosts are pushing out their wants. “Feed me. Agree with me. Tell me I have a great point. Tell me I’m speaking from the heart.”

How do I honor my vow to feed all these ghosts? What do I need? What do they need? Most often not what they want. Where do I even start? For the first time, I’m appreciating the traditional image of hungry ghosts, bloated bellies, needle-thin necks. If I try to give them what they need, they won’t be able to swallow the offering. What do I do?