The Anger-Eating Demon

Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, retelling of ancient Buddhist story from the Sakka Samyutta (SN 22)

The hot demon Kim Kardashian absorbs our hate and grows stronger (animalnewyork.com)

 

Once there lived a demon who had a peculiar diet: He fed on the anger of others. And as his feeding ground was the human world, there was no lack of food. He found it quite easy to provoke a family quarrel, or national and racial hatred, fanning the fire of racist hatred.
 
Even to stir up a war was not very difficult for him. And whenever he succeeded in bringing about a war, he could gorge himself. After all, once a war starts, hate multiplies exponentially by its own momentum and affects even normally kind, compassionate, and friendly people.
 

The demon!

The demon's food supply became so rich that he sometimes had to keep himself from overeating, being content with nibbling just a small piece of resentment found close by.
 
But as often happens with successful people, he became overbearing. One day, feeling bored, he thought, "Shouldn't I try it with the devas?" On reflection he chose the space world of the Thirty-Three, ruled by Sakka, King of the Devas (literally, "shining ones").

He knew that only a few of these devas had entirely eliminated the fetters of ill-will and aversion and fear, even though they were far above petty and selfish quarrels. So by magic power he transferred himself from Earth to that nearby celestial realm. He was lucky enough to arrive at a time when Sakka the divine king was absent.

There was none in the large audience hall, and soon the demon seated himself on Sakka's empty throne, waiting quietly for things to happen, which he hoped would bring him a tasty feast.

Soon some of the devas came to the hall. First they could hardly believe their divine eyes when they saw the ugly demon sitting on the throne, squat and grinning. Having recovered from their shock, they started to shout and lament: "Oh, ugly demon, how can you dare sit on the throne of our king? What gall! What disrespect! What a crime! You should be thrown headlong into some hell, straight into a boiling cauldron of oil! You should be quartered alive! Get out! Get out!"
 
While the devas grew more and more angry and incensed, the demon was pleased: From moment to moment he grew in size, in strength, and in power -- gorging on their hate. The anger he absorbed into his system started to ooze from his body as a smoky red-glowing mist. And this evil aura kept the devas at a distance, and due to their own anger, their own natural radiance dimmed.
 
Suddenly a bright glow appeared at the other end of the hall, and it grew into a dazzling light from which Sakka, the King of Devas, emerged. As a stream enterer (one entered upon the first stage of enlightenment), the undeflectible stream that leads to nirvana, was unshaken by what he saw.

The smoke-screen created by the devas' anger parted when Sakka slowly and politely approached the demon on his throne. "Welcome, friend! Please, stay seated. I can use another seat. May I offer you a drink of hospitality? Our Amrita nectar is good. Or do you prefer a stronger brew, some Soma perhaps?"
 
While Sakka spoke these kind and friendly words, the demon rapidly began to shrink to a diminutive size and finally disappeared, trailing behind a whiff of malodorous smoke which soon dissolved.

The New Hate (Goldwag)

The gist of this story dates back to the discourses of the Buddha. But even now over 2,600 years later, our world looks as if large hordes of Anger-Eating Demons were haunting it. And we are keeping them well nourished all over the Earth. Fires of hatred, greed, delusion, intolerance, and wide-traveling waves of violence threaten to engulf humankind. 

The grass roots of society are poisoned by conflict and discord, manifesting in angry thoughts and words and in violent deeds. There was a time to end our self-destructive slavery to our habitual impulses of hate and aggression. They better serve demonic forces than us.

The story reveals how these demons of hate can be exorcised -- not by more hate but by the power of gentleness and love, compassion and equanimity. If this power of loving-kindness can be developed and displayed at a grass-root level, in the widely spread net of our personal relationships, nations at large, and world at large, we will all be benefited by it.

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Was the Buddha a God? (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly translation, Dona Sutra (AN 4:36); Bhikkhu Bodhi (the defilements); Ven. Thanissaro (explanatory note); Justalittledust.com

A golden Buddha rises from the forest in Thailand (Thai-on/flickr.com)

The Story of Dona the Brahmin as a hymn by MOD (TBCM.org.my, Malaysia)

  

Gandharan scroll (justalittledust.com)

[Thus have I heard.] At one time the Blessed One was traveling along the road between Ukkattha and Setabya while the Brahmin Dona was traveling along the same road.

The Brahmin Dona saw in the Blessed One's footprints thousand-spoked wheels, together with rims and hubs, complete in all of their features. On seeing them, the thought occurred to Dona, "Amazing and astounding, these are not the footprints of an ordinary human being!"
 
Then the Blessed One, leaving the road, went to sit at the root of a tree -- legs crossed, body erect, establishing [the four foundations of] mindfulness before him.
 

The statue is massive (Thai-on/flickr.com)

And Dona, following the Blessed One's footprints, saw him sitting there at the root of that tree -- confident and inspiring confidence, with senses calmed, heart/mind calmed, having attained the utmost self-control and tranquility, tamed, with senses restrained and guarded, a great being (naga).

• [Naga is a term used to describe similar great beings, like tusker elephants or magical and/or extraterrestrial dragons. It was adopted by early Buddhists as yet another epithet for the Buddha and enlightened Buddhist disciples.]

On seeing him, Dona went up to [the Buddha] and asked, "Master, would you be a divine light being (godling, divinity, deity, deva)?" [See note below].
  

"No, Brahmin, I am not a divine light being."

 
"Would you be a divine messenger (angel/os, spirit, gandhabba)?"

"No, Brahmin, I am not a divine messenger."

"Would you be a mythical creature (yakkha)?"
 

"No, Brahmin, I am not a mythical creature."

"Would you be an ordinary human being?"
 

"No, Brahmin, I am not an ordinary human being."

 

Chiang Mai, northern Thailand (YR Journey/Arsenal1886london/flickr.com)

 
"When asked if you are a deva, gandhabba, yakkha, or an ordinary human being, you answer: 'No, Brahmin, I am not.' What sort of being are you then?"
 
"Brahmin, the defilements [asavas/taints and samyojanas/fetters] by which -- had they not been abandoned -- I would be a deva, gandhabba, yakkha, or an ordinary human being -- those are abandoned, their roots eradicated, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.
 
"Just like a red, blue, or white lotus -- born in water, grown up in water, rising above the water -- stands unsmeared by water so, too, I -- born in the world, grown up in the world, having risen above the world -- live unsmeared by the world. Remember me, Brahmin, as 'awakened.'
 

"The defilements by which I would go to [be reborn in] a deva-state, or become a gandhabba [angelic deva-messenger] in the sky, or go to a yakkha-state [becoming a "caretaker of the natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots," according to the Encyclopædia Britannica (2007)], or a human-state -- those have been eradicated by me, uprooted, their stems removed.

"Like a blue lotus rising up -- unsmeared by water -- unsmeared am I by the world, and so, Brahmin, I am awake."

• Human beings in Buddhism
• Revisiting Dona (Gandharan scroll) 
• In the Buddha's Words (preview of anthology)

Golden Buddha, mouth of Dambulla Cave, Sri Lanka (Richard Silver/rjsnyc/flickr.com)

 
Note: Now or in the future?
Noted by Ven. Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff, Abbot, Wat Metta) edited by Amber Larson (Wisdom Quarterly)

Tan Geoff's best translation

Dona's question is phrased in the future tense, which has led to a great deal of discussion as to what this entire dialogue means: Is he asking what the Buddha will be in a future life, or is he asking what he is right now? The context of the discussion seems to demand the present: Dona wants to know what kind of being would have such footprints. And the Buddha's image of the lotus -- which is born in muck but rises above it to spread its beauty and wondrous fragrance -- describes his present state. Yet, some might argue that the grammar of Dona's questions seem to demand the futuret. A.K. Warder in his famous book, Introduction to Pali (p. 55), notes that the future tense is often used to express perplexity, surprise, or wonder about something in the present. We do it in English as well: "What on earth would this be?" This seems to be the sense here. Dona's earlier statement, "These are not the footprints of a human being," is also phrased in the future tense yet does not mean "What would they be in the future?" The mood of wonder extends throughout Dona's conversation with the Buddha.

It is also possible that the Buddha's answers to Dona's questions -- which, like the questions, are phrased in the future tense -- are a form of word-play, in which the Buddha is using the future tense in both its meanings, to refer both to his present and to his future state.
 
The Buddha not identifying himself as a human being relates to a point made throughout the Canon, which is that an awakened person can no longer really be defined in any way at all. On this point, see MN 72, SN 22.85, SN 22.86, and/or the article "A Verb for Nirvana." Because a mind/heart with clinging is "located" by its clinging, an awakened person is trapped, fettered, or located in no place at all in this or any other world: This is why one is unsmeared by the world (loka), like the lotus which is unsmeared by water it springs from.

The defilements left behind
Bhikkhu Bodhi (In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon/Wikipedia.org asava), edited by Dhr. Seven (Wisdom Quarterly)

Various points about various definitions of the mental defilements, defilements of the heart, obstacles to insight and enlightenment and liberation are collected and summarized by the American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi:

The āsavas or taints are a classification of defilements considered in their role of sustaining the forward movement of the process of [re]birth and death.

The commentaries derive the word from a root su meaning "to flow." Scholars differ as to whether the flow implied by the prefix ā is inward or outward; hence some have rendered it as "influxes" or "influences," others as "outflows" or "effluents."

A stock passage in the suttas  [Pali "discourses," sutras] indicates the term's real significance independently of etymology when it describes the āsavas as states "that defile, bring renewal of existence, give trouble, ripen in suffering, and lead to future birth, aging and death" (MN 36.47; I 250).

Thus other translators, bypassing the literal meaning, have rendered it "cankers," "corruptions," or "taints." The three taints mentioned in the Nikāyas [discourse collections, volumes] are respectively synonyms for craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, and ignorance. [The fourth āsava, attachment to views, appears in the commentaries.]

When the disciple's mind is liberated from the taints by the completion of the path of [enlightenment] arhantship, one reviews this newly won freedom and roars a lion's roar:

"Birth is destroyed, the spiritual life has been lived, what [was] to be done has been done; there is no more coming back to any state of being" (In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon, edited and introduced by Bhikkhu Bodhi, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2005, p. 229).
 
Earlier British Buddhist scholars Rhys Davids and William Stede (1921-25) state in part that "Freedom from the 'āsavas' constitutes full enlightenment" [entry on āsava (pp. 115-16)].

Good foot, Bad foot, BIGFOOT (video)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; former police detective David Paulides (Missing 411, canammissing.com); Sasquatch Central; CryptoWatch

Sasquatch trail cam photo, American Bigfoot Society, 2012 (Bigfoot Evidence)

(Whitley Strieber's Dreamland) Host Strieber interviews former police detective and missing persons investigator David Paulides (canammissing.com).

  

People are missing from National Parks, boulder fields, and other hotspots in the western US. Many of the cases go unsolved, many of them inexplicable far beyond ordinary abduction. Over the years, Stieber has amassed many missing persons cases as well, and the two compare notes and discuss what might be happening.

WARNING: This is a chilling and powerful topic that does not admit of any simple explanation -- other than Sasquatch, "fairies," or other dimensional creatures, and/or extraterrestrial and subterranean civilizations. Paulides does not make a definitive declaration about what he concludes. But having listened to more than 12 hours of interviews with him, it becomes clear that the truth is far stranger than fiction or simply Bigfoot, creatures who are at least partly human and hominids. Boulders are the key as explored in paranormal Iceland.

 

Good foot

(Sasquatch Central, 2013) Boy Taken Back to Camp by Female Sasquatch! Posted with permission from Chuck and Stacy of The Bigfoot Tonight Show (Facebook).

 

Dave W. relates a true story of a camping trip that he and his parents were on in the summer of 1969 when he was 7 years old. His memory is as fresh today as the day it happened and we can hear why. Dave wandered away from his parents' campsite late in the afternoon. Before long, as dark began to settle in around him, he noticed he could no longer hear the voices of his family. After calling out for some time with no response and the forest growing darker, he began to cry for his mother. Before long he heard heavy footsteps moving through the brush getting closer. Then emerging from the darkness was a huge "monkey man" as he called it back then except it was no male but a female Sasquatch with clearly visible breasts.

Sasquatch Watch Canada presents these photos, audio clips, videos and all documentation for educational and commentary purposes only and does not claim any ownership or liability.

Bad foot

 

Aggressive juvenile "demon" (rakshasa)

Mike Wooley talks to Tom from The Crypto Crew (CryptoWatch) about his face to face encounter with two very aggressive Bigfoot creatures near Many, Louisiana in December 1981. They were chasing deer while he was hunting them from a stand. One creature chased a small doe before realizing Wooley saw it from the deer stand. He then menaced him -- with "evil, Satanic" eyes, teeth clicking, and a low growl -- before whistling for back up and chasing Wooley out of the woods.

In fear we kill

(CW) Bigfoot encounter and shooting one of these beings 2013, a Crypto Crew exclusive. This phone interview with a murderer who encounters two Sasquatches ends with one of them dead. The game warden refused to take the information. Then government agents show up to cover up the incident.

• PHOTOS: Bigfoot tracks, Washington state (C2C)

All of this is fun. But the evidence is now conclusive and peer reviewed (Ketchum, et. al.) Moreover, more compelling audio evidence has been around for a long time. Not only are there corpses, there are ongoing relationships with Sasquatch individuals, who are at least partly human. These three stories do show a range of mystery and individual temperament because the worst thing we could do is think that they are all the same, "demons" or "guardians" of the forest, anymore than thinking humans or human groups are all the same. Finally, it is foolish to think that elements within the government are ignorant of the phenomenon. Just as they study the paranormal and keep their findings secret, they are well aware of this class of creatures and have their reasons for maintaining the secrecy of their findings if only to promote our misguided view of the story of how we evolved on this planet  (see Lloyd Pye on that count).

Native Americans know "Bigfoot" (video)

Pfc. Sandoval, Xochitl, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; History.com; EsotericHaven

Yeti, Laos (Jenny-H-Edwards)

Monster quests are fun if a little spooky. Let us now take a look at what Native American legends say about the giant "Bigfoot." The wild man of the woods goes by many names among various First Nation peoples ("tribes"). But Sasquatch more than any other has been adopted into the American lexicon.

Wildmen stories are found throughout the world and among the indigenous US population of the Pacific Northwest from California through Canada to Alaska. These legends existed prior to a single name for the creature. They differed in their details both regionally and between families within the same community. Similar stories of wildmen are found on every continent other than barren Antarctica. 

 

 

Tribal Bigfoot (Paulides)

Ecologist Robert Michael Pyle argues that most cultures have human-like giants in their folk history: "We have this need for some larger-than-life creature."

Members of the Lummi tell tales about Ts'emekwes, the local version of Bigfoot. The stories are similar to each other in terms of the general descriptions of Ts'emekwes, but details about the creature's diet and activities differ between the stories of different families.

(National Geographic) Skeptical research into Bigfoot aimed to debunk sightings, native legends, and forensic evidence. Is there a large bipedal primate out there? Film footage from 1967 captured an image of an elusive hominid. Nat Geo examines the footage and interviews trackers who claim to have encountered the frightening beast.

• Bigfoot: Yetis fighting Bears in Siberia
  (Voice of Russia) Russians are concerned that a growing battle between bears and the "human like" Yeti [yakshi, Buddhist "ogre"] of the forests will cause trouble this winter, when the defeated bears come...

Some regional versions contain more nefarious creatures. The stiyaha or kwi-kwiyai were a nocturnal race that children were told not to say the names of lest the monsters hear and come to carry off a person -- sometimes to be killed. In 1847, Paul Kane reported stories by the native people about skoocooms: a race of cannibalistic wild men living on the peak of Mount Saint Helens. The skoocooms appear to have been regarded as supernatural rather than ordinary terrestrial beings.

Less menacing versions such as the one recorded by Rev. Elkanah Walker exist. In 1840, Walker, a Protestant missionary, recorded stories of giants among the Native Americans living in Spokane, Washington. The Indians claimed that these giants lived on and around the peaks of nearby mountains and stole salmon from the fishermen's nets.
 

Asian wild man ogre mask (mickjim/flickr)

Various local legends were compiled by J.W. Burns in a series of Canadian newspaper articles in the 1920s. Each language had its own name for the local version. Many names meant something along the lines of "wild man" or "hairy man" although other names described common actions it was said to perform (e.g., eating clams). 

  

Check the DNA! I did. - Dr. Ketchum

Burns coined the term Sasquatch, which is from the Halkomelem sásq'ets and used it in his articles to describe a hypothetical single type of creature reflected in these various stories. Burns's articles popularized both the legend and its new name, making it well known in western Canada before it gained popularity in the United States.

Frontiersman Daniel Boone reported having shot and killed "a ten-foot, hairy giant he called a Yahoo." Folktale scholar Hugh H. Trotti has argued that Boone's account may have been the inspiration for some of the early Bigfoot stories told in North America.

(Monster Quest) "The Mysterious Sasquatch Island" (documentary)

Tibetan Yeti is real: Oxford geneticist (video)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Mark Williams (geekexchange.com)

(Bigfoot Evidence) Documentary: The Government Cover-Up of Bigfoot and Cryptids

Yeti Mystery Solved says Geneticist

Yeti hand (factfictionandconjecture.ca)

An Oxford University geneticist says he has solved the mystery of the Tibetan snow creature called Yeti (“Abominable Snowman”). 

For hundreds of years the Yeti [yakshini, yakṣī, यक्षी, “ogre”] legend focuses on an ape like creature that hides in the Himalayas striking out at hunters leaving huge foot prints behind in its violent wake. Once again science stands on the verge of dispelling myth as genetic investigators present some compelling DNA evidence.

 

Has the Yeti mystery finally been solved?

Geneticist Bryan Sykes’ DNA testing is part of the Oxford-Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project (Wolfson College), which is also looking for genetic evidence of other mysterious creatures like Sasquatch in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and the Almasty in Russia. People from all over the world submitted samples to the project along with detailed descriptions in response to Prof. Sykes’ global call for said samples.

 

Yeti scalp, Nepalese ritual artifact (wiki)

Prof. Sykes studied DNA from a pair of “unidentified animals killed in the Himalayas” over the course of the last 40 or so years.

The samples included a single hair and a mummified jawbone. The samples were compared to a database of known animal DNA and produced some eye-opening results. More

• Bigfoot is a kind of "human," DNA shows The study was conducted by a team of experts in genetics, forensics, imaging, and pathology, led by Dr. Melba S. Ketchum of Nacogdoches, TX. In response to recent interest in the study, Dr. Ketchum can confirm that her team...
• Bigfoot DNA analysis completed (audio) Coast to Coast welcomed back Dr. Melba S. Ketchum (DNAdiagnostics.com), the professional geneticist who sequenced Bigfoot's DNA from hair and flesh samples. Host George Knapp discussed the official release...
• View from the Top of the World (film) Those who search will find a great deal of plausible evidence, such as that of Dr. Ketchum's recent DNA analysis and more DNA data being confirmed by a group that will be much more careful how they release the information...

(ABC News) Professor Bryan Sykes of Oxford tested hair samples from various sightings and makes a startling claim. (What can anyone ever expect from the mainstream media and the gatekeepers in "respectable" academia except more cover ups and diversions like this?)

• 5 Strange Bigfoot Theories (videos) While Bigfoot seems like a North American phenomenon, there are tales of giant "wildmen" around the world -- from the Tibetan Yeti to the Australian Yowie and Siberia's Chunchunya [and Indonesian fossil evidence]. And the Almas:

The Almas (cryptozoology)

Bill Munns/Gigantopithecus

The Almas (Mongolian Алмас, Bulgarian Алмас, Chechen Алмазы, Turkish Albıs), Mongolian for "wild man," is a purported cryptozoological species of hominid reputed to inhabit the Caucasus and Pamir Mountains of central Asia, and the Altai Mountains of southern Mongolia (Living Ape-Men: The Almas of Central Asia).

 

The creature is not yet officially recognized and cataloged by science. Mainstream scientists generally reject even the possibility that such mega-fauna cryptids can exist, due in part to the improbable numbers necessary thought to maintain a breeding population, and because climate and food supply issues make their survival in reported habitats unlikely (Bengt Sjögren, Berömda vidunder, Settern, 1980).
 

1. Gorilla 2. Australopithecus 3. Homo erectus 4. Neanderthal 5. Steinheim Skull 6. Human

 

Almas is a singular word in Mongolian; the properly formed Turkic plural would be almaslar. As is typical of similar legendary creatures (Bigfoot, Bigfoots) throughout Central Asia, Russia, Pakistan, and the Caucasus, the Almas is generally considered to be more akin to "wild people" in appearance and habits than to apes (in contrast to the Yeti of the Himalayas).

Male and female (Neanderthal Museum)

Almases are typically described as human-like bipedal animals, between five and six and a half feet tall, their bodies covered with reddish-brown hair, with anthropomorphic facial features including a pronounced browridge, flat nose, and a weak chin (Michael Newton, "Almas/Almasti," Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide, 2005. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 19). Many cryptozoologists believe there is a similarity between these descriptions and modern reconstructions of how Neanderthals might have appeared. More

(Monster Quest) "The Abominable Snowman" sought in Nepal, the Himalayas, Tibet, India's Himalchal Pradesh and Sikkim, Bhutan, China, and Mongolia...

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(Esoteric Haven) Some are now no ordinary bears but Ice Age hybrids