"Greed is the emotion of the hungry ghost realm. The hungry ghosts are beings with huge, hungry bellies and tiny mouths and throats. Some inhabit parched lands where there is not even a mention of water for hundreds of years. Others may find food and drink, yet if they swallow even a little through their tiny mouths, the food bursts into flames in their stomachs.

Generosity unties the hard knot of greed."

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

"And then again, no! Just look--these piecemeal monsters fill the streets. Look at them, and especially let us look at ourselves. All of us, to some degree, resemble these sectioned things. With one, the heart has its reasons that reason doesn't know, the head is hungry when the belly is full; with another, the intellect wears itself out in vicious circles while the decapitated body attends to daily needs. And each one in his own way, a way he is often proud of, is thus cut up in pieces barely held together by the loose threads of social function or of an obscure animal desire to live. Lucky people, Tibetan though it may be, if it considers these creatures exceptional and legendary! For us, on the contrary, it is the coherent man, made of a solid block, who would clash, crash and amaze. Take a good look, and you will see only hordes of dismembered phantoms who suffer, and who are our brothers."

Rene Daumal, "On the Life of Basiles"

"We think that we are human beings, not hungry ghosts. First let us acknowledge that the one who performs [the practice of offering] is the one who needs it the most."

Ven. Eido Shimano Roshi

"Today we are delighted to be in Ramakrishna's blissful company, riding in the cab of a horse-drawn carriage through the colorful streets of Calcutta--a city of cultural and intellectual ferment and creativity, where ancient and modern currents meet, colliding and blending. The Paramahamsa is seated cross-legged in the noisy, bouncing vehicle, immersed in the profound silence which arises as his mental and perceptual faculties become aligned and are drawn like iron filings to the powerful magnet of the Absolute. Unexpectedly, the God-intoxicated sage enters another mood. He is now leaning dangerously far out of the carriage window, embracing with ecstasy every passing detail of the city, crying out drunkenly to the patrons of wine shops and perfume stalls: 'Yes! You are experiencing a drop of Divine Bliss. But go further!' This admonition and encouragement to go further continuously along whatever path presents itself is the essential teaching of Ramakrishna. 'There are an infinite number of perspectives,' he passionately proclaims, 'and each one of them is a path to God.' "

Lex Hixon, "Great Swan, Meetings with Ramakrishna"

"The secret of Struwwelpeter: These children are all impertinent only because no one gives them any gifts, and that is why the child who reads him is well-behaved, because it receives so many gifts already on the first page. A little shower of gifts falls there from the dark night sky. Thus does it rain incessantly in the world of childhood. In veils, like the veils of rain, gifts fall down to the child, which veil the world from him. A child must get gifts, or else it will die like the children in Struwwelpeter or go kaputt or fly away."

Walter Benjamin, "Mescaline Protocol, 05/22/34," trans. Scott Thompson

"Just as India is dedicated to divinity, America's ruling spirit is liberty. They really respect freedom--of course misunderstandings come from this, and you have to pay a price for it. India has paid a price for divinity. All kinds of sadhana are prevalent here, but in the name of sadhana, there is much negativity also. In the same way, in America, there is a ruling spirit of freedom, but it is not fully applied. It will be applied only when just as I say, the divine in me acknowledges the divine in you and bows down before it, in the same way, the free soul in me respects the free soul in you. Everyone! And shakes hands with that. This can be."

Sri Karunamayee