Hungry Ghosts are invisible (to most of us) spirits who are all around us. In a previous life they were basically very greedy and so their karma become a non-material being who sees all the food and riches in the material world, but cannot possess any of them so they have great suffering.

“Andy Rotman’s elegant translations of the Divyāvadāna established him as the foremost English translator of Buddhist narrative literature. Here he turns his attention to the ten tales of pretas, or hungry ghosts, in the Avadānaśataka. Rotman’s deeply insightful commentary and lucid, precise translations open these stories to the modern reader, revealing a profound exploration of what it is to be mean-spirited and of the consequences of being mean. This beautiful volume is a masterpiece of translation and commentary, a gift that is literary, historical, and most importantly, ethical.”
—Jay Garfield,”