This is Lesson 45 from A Comprehensive Commentary on the Words of My Perfect Teacher, focusing on the sufferings of pretas (hungry ghosts) within the chapter on "The defects of samsara." The lesson opens with a reflection on the balance between traditional and contemporary approaches to teaching the Dharma, cautioning against both rigid conservatism and the abandonment of foundational teachings such as impermanence, karmic consequences, and the sufferings of the lower realms. The teacher classifies pretas into those suffering from external and internal obscurations, illustrating their torments through vivid scriptural accounts — including Śroṇa's encounter with pretas who had gone twelve years without hearing the word "water," the story of Uttara's mother who suffered twenty years as a preta due to hidden stinginess, and 500 pretas on the Ganges who saw the river as fire rather than water. The lesson emphasizes that the primary causes of preta rebirth are stinginess, greed, and jealousy — emotions easily generated in daily life. Practitioners are encouraged to engage in analytical meditation on these sufferings, dedicate merit to beings in the preta realm, and bless leftover food through mantra recitation. Throughout, the teaching urges students to extract only what is essential for liberation, as a swan draws milk from water.
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meditation-practice
Lesson 45
2026-03-14
Lesson 45
Abstract
Key Quotes
“We can more readily accept and embrace new things based on the foundation of old traditions. To completely discard things of the past is also an extreme act.”
“If they make these changes and do not clearly explain the pain and happiness of the next life, then however eloquently they teach, their own fabricated thoughts will, in fact, lead beings to the wrong path.”
“Being stingy and greedy with food, drink, and other things causes rebirth in the realm of pretas.”
“We were stingy with our wealth and never made any offerings. Moreover, we often got angry and scolded others. As a result, we are pretas in this life.”
“Although I made offerings, I was stingy deep down in my mind. Moreover, I had no respect for the monks and other practitioners, and I scolded them. That's why I had to experience this effect of my actions.”
“In the vast ocean of knowledge we should get the most useful understanding, just like swans. The most useful knowledge is not various appearances in the material world, but the Four Noble Truths.”
