You can trust me about this, nothing good comes out in dealing
with spirits like that. Humans should cherish the conditions of
being a human being, not be too fond of relationships with spirits.
There are virtuous and evil spirits. Nevertheless they all belong
to the spirit realm. Some people call them spirit guide, but the
simple reason why they appear to you is because you have affinity
with them, and they may even help you out with or grant you worldly
things (and even some spiritual powers!).
But you are now a human, if you always want to be with these beings
and even think that they are even better than other fellow human
beings, chances are you have already deeply planted the seeds of
the ghost realm in your mind. I wonder if i have mentioned before,
but i know of people who practised spiritual mediumship, and at
death all the spirits want to bring them away. In buddhism, we
should avoid dealing with these spirits in this manner.
I have another friend who also post at times here, he used to
practise mediumship but now has stopped. He still continues to be
able to see spirits. I brought him and someone else new to my
dharma centre, but when my dharma teacher was told that someone was
able to see spirits, she immediately pointed at the right person
and said "is it him? His eyes look very yin". For his case he was
asked to take refuge in the triple gem (buddha, dharma, sangha) as
soon as possible and to chant buddha/bodhisattva name regularly to
increase his "brightness". My dharma teacher also advised him that
since he has a lot of affinity with the spirit realm, he should
cultivate the dharma well and after enlightenment, he should teach
the spirits dharma. Because some spirits are receptive to dharma
(they even attend dharma talks).
But if we never practice dharma, and instead act superstitiously,
we will surely end up in the spirit realm. As my teacher said, all
human beings seek bliss and brightness. Those spirits themselves
have not transcended the three poisons, greed, anger, ignorance.
Much less transcended samsara (although i know of spirits who claim
otherwise to trick people into believing them, they are far out).
They themselves are not free of sufferings, they also belong to one
of the 3 lower realms unlike human beings who belong to a higher
realm, and therefore they are unable to give humans true happiness.
Therefore we should associate with the noble and virtuous people in
the human realm, those who have practised the dharma, gained
insights and cleared their fetters. And not to go into seeking
supernatural powers, they are very unimportant and secondary, they
should only be a side effect of precepts, samadhi and insight
practise.
