The Anger-Eating Demon (sutra)

What modern person can believe in angelic and demonic influences? That's nonsense!

Indian artists try to depict ancient sacred texts.

The Anger-Eating Demon is an ancient Buddhist story retold by German Theravada monk Ven. Nyanaponika Thera.

Once there lived a demon (asura) 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 for him. He found it quite easy to provoke a family quarrel, or national and racial hatred.

Even to stir up a war was not very difficult for him. And whenever he succeeded in causing a war, he could gorge himself without much further effort. For once a war starts, hate multiplies by its own momentum and affects even normally friendly people.

This man is not channeling an ET creature.

So the demon's food supply became so rich that he sometimes had to restrain himself from overeating, being content with nibbling just a small piece of resentment found close by.

But as it often happens with successful people, he became overbearing and one day when feeling bored he thought, "Shouldn't I try it with the happy celestials (devas)?"

Sakka (Magdha of Macala): St. Michael

On reflection he chose the Heaven of the Thirty-Three Devas ruled by Sakka, King of the Devas. He knew that only a few of these fortunately reborn beings had entirely eliminated the fetters of ill-will and aversion (which is possible by the practice of Buddhism), though most devas were far above petty and selfish quarrels.

So by his magic power (abhinna) he transferred himself to that heavenly realm and was lucky enough to come at a time when the Divine King Sakka was away. There was no one in the large audience hall and without much ado the demon seated himself on Sakka's empty throne, waiting quietly for things to happen, which he hoped would bring him a good feeding.

Sakka as warrior deva (archangel, light being)

Soon some of the devas came to the hall and at first they could not believe their own divine eyes when they saw that ugly demon lounging on the throne, squat and grinning.

Having recovered from their shock, they started to shout and lament: "Oh you ugly demon, how can you dare to sit on the throne of our supreme king? What utter disrespect! What a crime! You should be thrown headlong into a lowly hell and straight into a boiling cauldron! You should be drawn and quartered alive! Begone, begone!"

But while the devas grew more and more angry, the demon was pleased because from moment to moment -- as their anger grew -- he grew in size, in strength, and in power.

What "demons" possess an infamous person?

The anger he absorbed into his system started to ooze from his body as a smoky red-glowing mist. This putrid aura kept the devas at a distance and their streaming radiance was 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.

He who had firmly entered the irreversible stream that leads to nirvana (sotapannaship, the first stage of Buddhist enlightenment) was unshaken by what he saw.

The smokescreen created by the devas' anger parted when he slowly and politely approached the usurper of his throne:

"Welcome, friend! Please, remain seated. I can take another seat. May I offer you a drink of hospitality? Our ambrosia (amrita) is good this year. Or do you prefer a stronger brew, like Vedic soma?"

While Sakka spoke such friendly words, the demon rapidly began to shrink into a diminutive size and finally disappeared, trailing behind a whiff of malodorous smoke, which likewise soon dissolved. — Based on Samyutta Nikaya, Sakka Samyutta, No. 22.

Commentary

It was my idea to get tattoos and amputations

The gist of this story dates back to the sutras (discourses) of the Buddha. But even now, over 2,600 years later, our world looks as if large hordes of Anger-Eating Demons are haunting it and are kept well nourished by millions slaving for them all over the earth.

Fires of hate and wide-traveling waves of violence threaten to engulf humankind. Also, the grassroots of society are poisoned by conflict and discord, manifesting in angry thoughts and words and in violent deeds.

Is it not time to end this self-destructive slavery of humans to our impulses of hate and aggression, which only serve demonic forces?

Oh, that we would be as loving and kind as the devas, the "shining ones," in the heavens!

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This story tells how these demons of hate can be exorcised by the power of gentleness and love (metta). If this power of love can be tested and proven, at a grassroots level, in a widely spread net of personal relationships, society at large and the world at large will benefit from it. Source

NOTE: 1. The Buddhist "Doctrine" or "Natural Law and Regularity" (Dhamma) here referred to may be expressed in the words of the Dhammapada (V. 5):

"Not by hating does hatred cease

In this world of tooth and claw;

Love alone from it can release —

This is an Eternal Law."

• Translated from Ven. Nyanaponika's German into English by Francis Story (aka, Anagarika Sugatananda), The Elimination of Anger: With Two Stories Retold from Buddhist Texts (accesstoinsight.org); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly