The Hungry Ghosts: No Face
I first saw this post on Facebook. I found it very interesting that these facts about Studio Ghibli’s “Spirited Away” are inherent in Japanese culture, but not so obvious to the outside observer. The one thing, I would like to add to this breakdown is that No Face represents a hungry ghost and could literally be anyone, because of the lack of spiritual identity.
Below is a list of the 6 realms of Samsara- or the Wheel of rebirth, broken down in layman’s terms for easy digestion :D
In Buddhism there are 26 Deva realms which would be considered heavens to us. But for the sake of separating the different types of beings born into each realm and simplifying understanding a bit, I’m counting all of them as one:
Deva-gati- is the Realm of Devas (gods/angels) and Heavenly Beings. It is considered the most pleasurable. Being populated by godlike beings (the ones with all the arms and stuff) who enjoy great power, wealth and long life. Since they are all happy, secure and content, they have no understanding of the suffering of others, especially in lower realms. So in spite of their long lives, if they are simply born to Deva-gati - like Svargaloka, for example, where Indra is king, they gain neither wisdom nor compassion unless they make it their mission to understand suffering and pain (would you?). They live in splendor and happiness. Yet even the Devas grow old and die, likely to be reborn on the wheel of Samsara, because even in their realm, one’s actions are subject to good and bad karma.
Asura-gati, the Realm of Asura (Titans, Demi-Gods, and Demons)
Or as I like to call it: Aether. If you are a believer, like me, this realm, in theory, would have housed Mt Olympus as well as all the other demi-gods and titans that, to our knowledge, ever became legendary. In Islam, the Djinn are powerful beings that we cannot see or touch. They are said to be made of smokeless fire (so demons, in a fire-natured sense), but they can see us and interact with us and don’t think very much of humans in general. They have free will, like man, can be good or evil, spiritual or atheist and are said to live in places like high mountains, where human beings would never survive. They too would likely be housed in the realm of Asura. They too are subject to the generation of good and bad karmas, and thus rebirth.
Manusya-gati, the Human Realm
Jambudvipa, or, the Terrestrial world, is probably not just limited to Earth, but I imagine, includes even parallel dimensions in which the carnal/tangible nature of our planet with interstellar coordinates is what defines the matrix for its existing parameters. When I say parallel dimensions, I mean a world very similar to ours that may be housed in another galaxy and occupies 3-dimensional space. If time and space were folded like a piece of paper, and we could instantly be teleported, a parallel dimension would still be tangible and satisfy the perception of our 5 physical senses. The beings housed in this realm are you and me, obviously, and you know very well the extent of good and evil that humans are capable of - And That’s just counting the last 3000 years of recorded history on *this* rock.
Tiryagyoni-gati, the Animal Realm
The animal realm is also within Jambuvipa. It includes all the wild and domesticated beasts. In Buddhism, the belief is that animal beings are marked by stupidity, prejudice and complacency. They lead sheltered lives, mainly led by instinct, avoiding discomfort or anything unfamiliar. Personally, I don’t agree 100% with that assessment, mainly because I’ve met and seen some animals have more selflessness, decency and civility than humans on their best day. BUT in terms of rebirth the Animal Realm is conditioned by a sense of ignorance. As intelligent as beasts are and can come to be, their emotional state is driven by instinct. They are sentient, but do not plan for the future or self-reflect, existentially… except maybe dolphins...because dolphins are awesome. But in all seriousness, people who are ignorant and content to remain so (in the human realm) are likely headed for rebirth in the Animal Realm if their karma isn’t great when they die; assuming they aren’t there already *coughcough* because willfully and aggressively ignorant people are akin to wild beasts that can form speech *coughcough*
Preta-gati, the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
Hungry ghosts (preta) are pictured in old mandalas as beings with huge, empty stomachs, but they have pinhole mouths, and their necks are so thin they cannot swallow. A hungry ghost is one who is always looking outside himself for the new thing that will satisfy the craving within. So, in laymans terms, they likely reside on the Astral Plane/Limbo/Purgatory. They are constantly wandering, driven by insatiable hunger and craving. They are also associated with addiction, obsession and compulsion, and the real reason I think “Alcohol” is synonymous with “Spirits”. According to the Dhamma, hungry ghosts and other restless spirits are caused by bad karma of excessive craving and attachments to addictive substances, material wealth and hedonism. They do not have a bodies, are invisible and constitute only “subtle matter” of a being. If you have ever experienced sleep paralysis, where it feels like some invisible force is sitting on your chest, holding you down, it’s likely you’ve met one. If you’ve ever had an out of body experience, there is a feeling that people have named “The witch over your shoulder” in which it feels like some evil invisible force is staring at you hungrily from behind<( this I can personally confirm) and it is because, while you’re out of your body, the being without one, is looking on in a jealous, vengeful, angry or disrespectfully hungry way. As soon as I looked in the direction though, nothing was there and the feeling went away. Buddhist traditions in Asia attempt to care for Hungry ghosts on ritual days every year, by leaving food and drinks out in the open, to feed any hungry ghosts nearby (How sweet is that?). But do not misunderstand, this is a condition of a human being with bad karma who died and ended up in the in-between…when their sentence is up, they can be reborn into another realm, but being that this realm is intangible, lends them almost no options as far as interaction with the terrestrial world, which means their actions (if they wanted to correct their bad karma) are very limited. So in most cases, they are stuck until their time is up and the suffering and discontent of being driven insane with insatiable hunger is, by design, incredibly intense.
One particular type of hungry ghost, that seems to grow in power by gaining the power to feed themselves are classed as No-Face.
Remember him? Of course you do. He seemed lonely and innocent. In the movie “Spirited Away”, knowing what I know about the setting of the bathhouse, I would assume that No-Face was a rich pedophile when he was alive. That kind of karma will get you stuck for hundreds of years. So even though the movie is set in the modern era, this particular hungry ghost was likely wandering the spirit realm from the time there were Shogunates and Daimyos who would destroy entire clans villages, while giving orders and permission to rape the women and enslave the children to be sold as sex slaves or otherwise.
Kaiken, like the above pictured, were pretty knives that women would hide in their kimonos, in the event that such a tragedy would befall them. They would often use them to commit suicide before they could be raped and killed by brigands or mercenaries. It was fucking horrible. Cute knife though.
This parasitic abomination somehow made itself at home inside the host of a girl named Amaru in Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds. Without going into too much detail about the plot of the film, Amaru became possessed by this demonic no-face after falling into a deep despair that it used to leech onto. In the end it made her a vessel of a large amount of chakra, comparable to the other Jinchuuriki, like Naruto. BUT the evil force of this powerfully hungry no-face fed on negative emotions, biding its time until it could completely consume its host and overtake her body. It called itself the “zero-tails” which is obviously misleading, because all the tailed beasts, one through nine, had fucking TAILS. But to move quietly through the world until its endgame was realized, this was the lie it used to convince anyone who could sense its dark presence in a seemingly innocent adolescent girl. In the end, Naruto sensed the leech’s corruption in Amaru, despite the exorcism of it, which was why it had grown to a level of power, even remotely comparable to his own tailed-beast. She and her sensei were feeding it sin, and ultimately, both earned bad karma.
Talk about fucking done-If you are a fan of Naruto and wonder how he stays so single and ignorantly innocent of the opposite sex for 17 years of his life, watch this movie with abject scrutiny. Actually watch every movie in which he saves the girl and watch how they all slowly disappoint the fuck out of him. Amaru was a piece of work….
Koh was a hungry ghost residing in the spirit world of Avatar:The Last Airbender. It would silently stalk its prey and surprise them, using their emotions against them as a way to steal their face. Koh was a very dangerous, powerful and extremely insatiable hungry ghost, as it had a collection of faces that ranged from human to animal alike. The only way to escape it was to keep a stoic expression, no matter how it tried to provoke you. Take notes, kids. If you have shitty karma, you may be fated to wander the hungry ghost realm with debilitating hunger and rage, and if Koh gets the drop on you, no face to feed or express it.
Koh’s full mukade appearance was shocking enough to put anyone into a frenzy, but all it takes is one gasp in a state of surprise and its got you. If I were to speculate on this being’s life before it was reborn a no-face preta, I could only say that this person had the type of greed that he was willing to kill and steal to satisfy. I can assume this much because for a being suffering this realm to become as powerful as this, their greed and hunger never ceased being their drive for existing in the first place. To actively accumulate bad karmas even after being reborn into a lengthy sentence as a hungry ghost, takes an apex predator level of evil. A being such as this could very well spend an eternity in this state unless it was ever destroyed, then would be reborn in Hell.
Which leads me to the lowest realm of rebirth:
Naraka-gati, the Hell Realm
In most every religion there is a Hell. If any philosophy teaches you otherwise, it’s a bold-faced lie *coughcough* Jehovah’s Witnesses *coughcough*. Hell is in the ground, underneath the topsoil of earth and shit. Antarctica is a good prison- not just some old story made up to frighten children and idiots into being good people, but it can be used to that effect. To teach that there is no Hell or divine retribution to that extent of the law and that one will simply cease to exist when they die, after a life of sin and accumulation of karmic debt measured in trillions, is a sin in itself. The one spreading that lie is ALSO subject to bad karma. It’s a slippery slope and all I have to say is some people take advantage of believing there is no Hell by being the worst and thinking the only thing that awaits them after death is a peaceful unconscious lack of existence entirely as literally and figurative pieces of shit. Though that is enough to terrify most people, The mindset of a person who is basically the living embodiment of a hungry ghost is the destructive and contagious equivalent of an evil epidemic to the karma of every person they come into contact with. These are No-Face in real life and they can literally be ANYONE. Beware of those who exercise arbitrary morality by defying labels and use that to the advantage of rationalization to make themselves tolerable, yet have no true identity. (For example somebody who cries the feminist victim, but is truly a Male to Female Transgender “woman with a penis” who rapes lesbians and justifies it under some LGBTQA-Z gender assignment label when the true label is actually just Rapist) I’m saying this because I personally know some such evil people, that specifically fly under the banner of “Jehovah’s Witness” and because they think there’s no retribution waiting after they die, there’s no limit to the evil deeds they are wont to commit. Ugh… talk about remedial…
Anyway the Buddhist texts vary in their details, but typically describe numerous hellish regions each with different forms of intense tortuous design and suffering, such as eight extremely hot hellish realms, eight extremely cold, being partially eaten alive, beating and other forms of torture in proportion to the evil karma accumulated. If I want to bank on my promotion, personally, when I die and make even more karma, I will be an architect of this realm. Trust me, The former and current Devils or whoever is presiding over the torture designs of this realm cannot fuck your mind and soul like I can. I’ll even let you choose from little staycation packages uniquely designed to fit your individual sins. But as always, this realm is also designed to be an impermanent state- at some point every soul reborn in the Hell realm *should*, in theory, be able to claw their way up to rebirth in a higher realm after finishing out a long sentence…but that doesn’t mean you can’t end up right back there if you don’t learn your lesson. Unfortunately that seems to be the one design flaw of Samsara. One never remembers their past life, but that’s okay too. Because if you’re reborn in karmic debt, or just starting at 0, all types of misfortune will be reflected in the life of that Human/Animal/Hungry Ghost and passing those tests will either advance their evolution or trap them in a loop. So in the end, I guess The wheel of rebirth or Samsara is perfect.
A depiction of The wheel of Samsara, representing the 5/6 realms of rebirth.
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