Now there is a character who stands on Grant Avenue in Chinatown, in the heart of the San Francisco business district, dressed in a flashy and colorful costume. He tells people, "I lived in the mountains for five years and became enlightened. Now I have such-and-such spiritual powers. Earlier he took me as his teacher and became my disciple. But he did not follow what I taught him. Before I came to America, guess what he did? He carried a big gourd on his back with a sign painted on it that proclaimed he was my disciple and that he had learned many skills from me. Further, he claimed he could solve any problem people might bring him. He used my name to swindle others before I arrived in this country. Now that I am here in America, he is still cheating people, but he no longer uses my name. This is the very kind of demon the Sutra is talking about here. He claimed to have attained the absolute truth.

Lacking proper samadhi, he will certainly fall. He has lost the proper state of concentration, and he doesn't follow what I taught him, either. Since I arrived here, he has never come to listen to the Sutra lectures or Dharma talks, but just says he has attained the Way, is enlightened, and has spiritual powers. Ultimately what are his spiritual powers? You would never guess. They are money, money, money! He swindles people. I don't know why he wants so much money! Therefore, he will certainly fall.

Sutra:
Further, in this state of samadhi the good person sees the disintegration of the form skandha and understands the feeling skandha. He has not yet obtained any results, and his prior state of mind has already disappeared. Surveying the two extremes, he feels that he is in great danger. Suddenly he becomes greatly distraught, as if he were seated on the Iron Bed, or as if he has taken poison. He has no wish to go on living, and he is always asking people to take his life so he can be released sooner.  

Commentary:
Further, in this state of samadhi, the good person, the cultivator, now with somewhat deeper power in samadhi., sees the disintegration of the form skandha and understands the feeling skandha. He has not yet obtained any of the results that he should obtain from his cultivation of the Way, and so his prior state of mind has already disappeared. Surveying the two extremes, past and future, he finds both are gone, and he feels he is in great danger. He thinks, "Oh no, this is really dangerous! It's too terrible!" Suddenly he becomes greatly distraught. He feels worried and afflicted about everything. The worries lead to afflictions, and what is it like to have afflictions? It's as if he were seated on the Iron Bed. From morning to night he thinks to himself, "Oh, I'm in the hells sitting on the Iron Bed! What can I do? To have this body is to suffer." Or he feels as if he has taken poison and is about to die. He has no wish to go on living. All day long he thinks, "I'd be better off dead. I'd be better off dead." In China, there is a saying, "I'd be better off dead. I'd be better off dead. It would save on pants and coats." This person probably thinks that way, so he says, "I'd be better off dead. I'd be better off dead."

Ghosts are involved in most suicide cases. The ghost bows to the person and then recites a mantra, but the person does not hear the ghost reciting. The meaning of the mantra is, "You'd be better off dead! You'd be better off dead! Hurry up and die. The sooner you die the better." Even though the person contemplating suicide cannot hear it with his ears, subconsciously it penetrates his mind. Since ghosts have the spiritual power of knowing others' thoughts, they can use their demonic energy to get into your mind and persuade you to want to die. Your mind hears the ghost and believes what it says. Then you may take poison, hang yourself, cast yourself into the ocean, or jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. That's how you die! There are lots of ghosts around the Golden Gate Bridge. They dare not bother you if you are full of yang energy. But if someone comes along whose yang energy is weak, who is lacking in essence, energy and spirit, the ghosts say, "You'd be better off dead. You'd be better off dead," and get the person to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. Most suicides are caused by demonic ghosts that provoke people into taking their own lives. And he, the person who experiences tremendous anxiety, is always asking people to take his life so he can be released sooner. He is always saying to people, "Kill me! If you have a way to do me in, that would be great! I'll be free!"      

 ~ To be continued