Preta

As the Indian belief reached Japan by way of China and Korea, it is likely to have received a peculiar coloring in the course of its journey.

But in a general way, the Japanese classification of gaki corresponds closely to the Indian classification of the pretas.

The place of Gaki in the Buddhist system is but one degree removed from the region of the hells, or Jigokudo, the lowest of all the states of existence.

Above the Jigokudo is the Gakido, or world of hungry spirits.

Above the Gakido is the Chikoshodo, or world of animals, and above this again is the Shurado, a region of perpetual fighting and slaughter.

higher than these has placed the ningendo or world of mankind now a person released from hell by exhaustion of the karma that sent him there is seldom reborn at once into the zone of human existence but must patiently work his way upward thither through all the intermediate states of being many of the gaki have been in hell but there are gaki also who have not been in hell certain kinds or degrees of sin may cause a person to be reborn as a gaki immediately after having died in this world only the greatest degree of sin condemns the sinner directly to hell the second degree degrades him to the gaki do the third causes him to be reborn as an animal japanese buddhism recognizes thirty-six principal classes of gaki roughly counting says the shobo nen jokyo we find thirty-six classes of gaki but should we attempt to distinguish all the different varieties we should find them to be innumerable the thirty-six classes form two great divisions or orders One comprises all gaki world-dwellers, gaki sekaiju, that is to say all hungry spirits who remain in the gakido proper, and are therefore never seen by mankind.

The other division is called ninchuju, or dwellers among men.

These gaki remain always in this world and are sometimes seen.

The Pithiruloka is a transitional state and it's the place where you are working with the previous individuals in your bloodline and the ones who have your descendants who we hope are doing something to acknowledge and hopefully support in some way those who have come before.

A strong distinction is made in India between the Pitru and the Preta.

A Preta is a ghost who has not been able to find a connection to that world of ancestors.

A Pitru is an ancestor who has made a good transition.

In India, often the difference between these two conditions is said to depend on what rituals were performed at death and thereafter.

As the Indian belief reached Japan by way of China and Korea, it is likely to have received a peculiar coloring in the course of its journey.

But in a general way, the Japanese classification of gaki corresponds closely to the Indian classification of the pretas.

The place of Gaki in the Buddhist system is but one degree removed from the region of the hells, or Jigokudo, the lowest of all the states of existence.

Above the Jigokudo is the Gakido, or world of hungry spirits.

Above the Gakido is the Chikoshodo, or world of animals, and above this again is the Shurado, a region of perpetual fighting and slaughter.

higher than these has placed the ningendo or world of mankind now a person released from hell by exhaustion of the karma that sent him there is seldom reborn at once into the zone of human existence but must patiently work his way upward thither through all the intermediate states of being many of the gaki have been in hell but there are gaki also who have not been in hell certain kinds or degrees of sin may cause a person to be reborn as a gaki immediately after having died in this world only the greatest degree of sin condemns the sinner directly to hell the second degree degrades him to the gaki do the third causes him to be reborn as an animal japanese buddhism recognizes thirty-six principal classes of gaki roughly counting says the shobo nen jokyo we find thirty-six classes of gaki but should we attempt to distinguish all the different varieties we should find them to be innumerable the thirty-six classes form two great divisions or orders One comprises all gaki world-dwellers, gaki sekaiju, that is to say all hungry spirits who remain in the gakido proper, and are therefore never seen by mankind.

The other division is called ninchuju, or dwellers among men.

These gaki remain always in this world and are sometimes seen.