Wise Awareness (​Kumāra Bhikkhu's Blog)

Some months ago, a woman I had met only a few times (let’s call her MC) told another woman, “Did you notice that when Bhante spoke to you just now, he seemed to have some opinion against you?” The next morning, the other woman (who had been my main supporter for over a year; let’s call her CC) came to ask me if what MC said was true. I was perplexed. I recalled merely agreeing to CC asking to borrow something. How could that be interpreted as me having an opinion against her? I told her no and asked, “Did it seem to you like I had any opinion against you?” She said it didn’t seemed that way to her either. Then she added that MC had also said something against two other women. To keep it simple, MC claimed those women had done something to hurt CC. Knowing those two women fairly well, I found the story nonsensical and completely out of character for them. “That friend of yours is dangerous!” I said. “Actually, I don’t know her very well. I only got closer to her recently.” “...

Occasionally, people ask me whether I’ve had any ghostly encounter. I usually attribute such “encounters” to psychological issues, but there were a couple of occasions where I believed otherwise. Once after a food dāna, there was a commotion. Curious, I went over to see. A woman was sitting on the floor, speaking loudly in Mandarin in the manner of a little kid. Her elder sister whom I knew well was present. She told me her sister actually didn’t know Mandarin, and spoke only Hokkien and Cantonese. While I was trying to assess the situation, the “little kid” woman said to me, “你说要带我去的嘛, 你都没有带我去!” (“You said you’ll take me there, and you didn't!”) I asked, “去哪里?” (“Where?”) “去西方极乐世界嘛!” (“To the Western World of Ultimate Bliss (Pureland) mah!”) At this point I was pretty sure she mistook me for someone else. Anyway, I decided to assume that this was a case of spirit possession, and asked the elder sister for the woman’s name. Having gotten her name, I called her by her name and asked...