The Hungry Ghosts
Hungry Ghosts are beings with huge, empty stomachs, but they have pinhole mouths, and their necks are so thin they cannot swallow. One who is always looking outside himself for the new thing that will satisfy the craving within. Hungry ghosts are characterized by insatiable hunger and craving, addiction, obsession and compulsion.
“How much was enough?” He chuckled as he thought about what his father had said right before he died. How much was enough? What a stupid thing to say. It’s never enough… because it’s not about the money. Why couldn’t he have understood that?
I just wish that he could have been alive to see my latest acquisition. 200 million dollars for just 9 months work and I didn’t have to make a thing. Just debt and leverage…. a sleight of hand worthy of the likes of Houdini.
Suddenly his daydreaming was interrupted by his secretary. “Mr Crangston… Mr Andrew on line one”
About time he thought, picking up the phone. “Billy, you old son of a bitch. Are you ready for our monthly lunch debauchery?”
“Steve Crangston, you depraved dick. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I even found a new spot a buddy of mine told me about. A restaurant with the most gorgeous girls… there for our every whim. And we have it all paid for. Cost me a pretty penny but think about it..the rest of the day, catering to our gang of pranksters. Called the Preta-Gati, it’s supposed to be so exclusive that only the coolest of the cool know about it. And it’s OURS for the day, my sinister friend.”
“Billy.. you would make Beelzebub blush. But damn, you da man! I’ll have our company limos pick us all up in 30 minutes.” Steve replied then hung up the phone.
“Julie.. ” Steve yelled at his secretary “I’m outa here for the rest of the day. Take messages for all my calls and if my wife calls, tell her I’m in a day long conference.”
“Yes, Mr Crangston” Julie replied… even as she thought to herself.. “I’ve got to find another job because I’m working for the lowest piece of shit ever.”
The Preta-Gati
“Now this is what I call a restaurant!” Billy yelled as the gang strutted into the elegantly lit dining area. “And did you check out the 2 girls that greeted us? Damn!”
Altogether there was 7 of us. Billy Andrew of the exclusive public relations firm Andrew Incorporated, Tom and Jeff Thresher of Thresher Investments, William Drewson and Reece Miller from the Law Firm of Drewson and Miller, Tony Luciano of Luciano Imports, and of course myself… Steve Crangston of Crangston Capitol.
The gang of 7 were led to a linen table cloth table, set up with finest of silverware and crystal. As they came up to the table, 2 girls dressed in silk pulled out the chairs as they sat down, saying nothing but smiling seductively with each glance. Even Billy, who prided himself to be such a charming smooth devourer of women, was speechless.
“Well ain’t this just the cherry on the tip of my dick”, Tony spoke up. “I think you’ve outdone yourself with this one Billy”
“All I wanna know is where is the menu… ” William said, “I’m fucking starving..”
“Is there ever a time you ain’t starving?” Tony laughed “Hell, you practically had to have 2 chairs when you sat down.”
“So.. I liked to eat. I appreciate good food. Is that such a big deal?” William replied, ” Besides Tony, at least I eat my habit and don’t snort it up my nose like you do.”
“Okay… Okay… will you two shut up? Nobody wants to hear that shit.” Steve interjected “Tom… how you and Jeff doing with the investments? Kicked any old ladies out of their houses lately?”
“Now wait a second…” Jeff protested “I’ll have you know that Tom and I run a respectable investment group.”
Everyone at the table burst out laughing at the same time.
“Jeff, you would cheat your own mother out of her insulin money and charge her investment fees for doing it” Tony chuckled “But enough of this bonding banter. Lets get some menus. Where’s them slick looking broads?”
Just as he said that, 7 beautiful girls appeared behind each of them with covered dishes. They gently placed the dishes before each of them and stepped back.
“What is this? Where are the menus so we can order some food?” Billy yelled out “We paid good money for the best… so where is the fucking service around here?”
“Hold up. Let’s see what they brought us, Billy” Steve said.
They each raised their dish lids and were immediately awestruck by the sheer desire of what they saw before them. Each had received the perfect appetizer, meal, and desert all in one. Like their minds had been read and all obsessive desire had been materialized. The 7 couldn’t fill their plates fast enough, nor eat their dream meal any quicker.
But yet the more they consumed, the greater their hunger became. With ever increasing intensity and wanton lust, every movement dedicated to the task of swallowing more and more of this meal. Swallowing… feeding… refilling their plates. Soon even an eye glance away was energy wasted on not getting more of their dream meal.
Somehow, the meal they were consuming was beginning to consume them, stripping them of all thought… other than what was before them. Their obsession.. consumption… singularity….. nothing else mattered. The room soon became dark because even light itself was a distraction. A distraction from the only thing that mattered. The new reality of eternal want, need absorbed into darkness.
“So where are we going to go to celebrate, Mary?” Ryan asked. Ryan had just won the election and was feeling on top of the world. At last, he had the power he needed to make some changes in his district. Power! Is there anything more exciting? And who knows what would be next? Governor? Maybe even President?
“There’s this new place I just heard about…” Mary said with her best try at a seductive whisper.
Mary thought “Maybe this would be the ideal spot to make him think of ME instead of his wife. I made this election victory happen, not his wallflower of a wife. His stupid wife… standing in the way of the future. OUR future.”
Mary continued “Someplace called the Preta-Gati. I hear it’s very exclusive.”
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10 Comments
Metaphor perfect. The 7 deadlies? It reads like a Twilight Zone episode.
I had read something about the festival of the hungry ghosts in China and did further research on the subject and thought it would make a good basis for a little story. I took some liberty with the actual meaning of Hungry Ghosts but I thought it worked okay.
They are doomed to wander the earth realm with a never ending hunger. They have bloated bellies and skinny necks so they cannot consume what they desire. A zombie variation?
Something similar in western religion, The Book of Enoch describes the fall of the Grigori and the demons who might be the Grigori themselves, or the offspring of the union of the Grigori and mankind. These creatures are said to wander the world in the form of evil spirit, endlessly yearning for food though they have no mouths to eat, endlessly thirsty though they cannot drink. Seeking these things from the living, the evil spirits seek to possess weak-willed men and women to dispossess their spirits and to take over their bodies so as to partake of food and drink.
I thought it would be a great Twilight Zone episode, too!
Yes.. .it does have that Rod Serling sort of twist. I could see him introducing this episode.
I am a huge Twilight Zone fan so that is quite a compliment. Thank you.
Brilliant and profound allegory, Krell. Maybe you didn’t mean it as one, but that’s what I felt when I finished it. “The 7 couldn’t fill their plates fast enough… But yet the more they consumed, the greater their hunger became.” I don’t know if this was your original meaning, but all I could think about is the 1% endlessly gorging for power and money. If that’s what you intended, it’s definitely a Twilight Zone moment. I can see the episode: A group of seven business men die and spend their existence forced to gorge on food and suffer the pains of doing so before their spirits ascend.
I never heard of the Buddhist Preta-gati before. (You may be interested to know that your post showed up in Google on the 3rd page when I searched for Preta-gati to learn more.) I knew nothing about this Brahman philosophy. I also used Yahoo! and Bing. There isn’t much, but at least Yahoo! turned up something: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/six-states.shtml. I had no idea of the complexity of Buddhism. Naive, huh?
Many, many thanks, Krell. It’s an excellent post that puts me in a meditative, spiritual state of contemplation. This is an old, but interesting, site that gives me a better idea of the term. I am intrigued, but I can’t find much. http://www.tientai.net/teachings/dharma/6realms/fa5.htm
Wow.
Stella, I am so glad that you put the link of tientai.net on your comment because that’s the exact page I did some of my further research. I’m fascinated by the “States of Existence” and especially the 4 lower realms, they seemed to be almost like a cross between a cursed zombie and Jacob Marley of a Christmas Carol.
Hungry Ghosts have been the subject of many books. In fact, my original title was “In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts” but when I searched it I found out that it was already taken by a popular book. By the way… The Hungry Ghost Festival is a big event in some far eastern countries, particularly China.
You visualized exactly what I had in mind. In fact, I pictured a Wall Street Power Luncheon and wanted to give that impression by making the first paragraph about the thoughts of a “Vampire Squid” type venture capitalist and how he was so out of touch with his father, perhaps a honest working class guy with some integrity.
Anyway, thanks for the kind words.
Stella,
You are quite welcome, and I am very glad you are now one of the RoundTree7 writers – you bring an abundance of deep thought, common sense, and wisdom to these pages. Deep thinkers like yourself are always welcome over at my blog site, too.
I don’t know what in the world happened when I first tried to reply to your initial comment: it simply wouldn’t take for some crazy reason! When I checked it again a few days later, it was obvious that it and my subsequent extra attempts all did in fact, take. WEIRD!!!
All I can say is that I encourage you to keep on contributing. All of us at RT7 are definitely on the same page. It has been a very thought-provoking and educational site for me, too, and getting Stimpson’s Canadian perspective on topics has been invaluable to us all! Cheers to all!
so good. the imagery everything you set out to create.
I watched the nearly hour-long presentation alone and then I watched it again a few hours later with Marcia, and then I spent a sleepless night wrestling with the overwhelming evidence that, barring a confluence of major miracles, we are about to experience massive economic and environmental collapse, and when I say “we are about to” I mean any day now, with some very reputable scientists suggesting the earth will be uninhabitable by humans in less than twenty years.
Adrian, I fear that you are correct. With the oligarchs running everything and caring about nothing but the game of having more in their offshore bank accounts than anyone else, we are certainly doomed. It makes me very happy that my son has decided not to bring children into this mess the rich have created. I keep on signing petitions, protesting and generally making as much noise about it all as I can, but there is so damn much wrong that it’s hard to know where to be a squeaky wheel next and I find that i’m just overwhelmed. The feeling of helplessness drags me down and I have to just check out of nearly everything except my family and escapism for sometimes weeks at a time, and yet I know it’s the only way to keep hold of my sanity. I keep trying to understand why The Owners do what they do, but we who retain at least some of our sanity can’t begin to understand those arrogant, ignorant, sociopathic bastards.