Teacher: According to Mahayana classics, if you practice and learn Buddhism with confidence, you may dream about the world of Buddha, bodhisattva and Buddha, and these dreams may be true. There are also records of some masters and ancestors, who dreamed that someone told them where to find a teacher during their practice.
There are many stories about ancient Zen masters and dreams. A Zen master wants to see a farmland that belongs to a Zen temple in another place. The next morning, he went without telling anyone; When he arrived, the monks in the temple had prepared meals for him. The Zen master asked: How did you know he was coming? The monk replied that the earth god told him the night before, so he made preparations early. The Zen master replied, then we should support the land god, not him. In this case, the dream is obviously real.
Another story is about an old monk named Xu Yun. Once he dreamed that he came to Maitreya's pocket, where he met his old friends and his contemporaries. He said he wanted to stay, but Maitreya told him that his career in this life was not finished and he would return to the world.
The only known Sect says that dreams are a state of consciousness. Consciousness is usually expressed through the senses, but there is also an independent consciousness (translation: also known as "monocular consciousness"), which is not produced by the senses. There are three levels of independent consciousness, one is in a dream, the other is in Samadhi, and the other is in a state of madness. The sense of independence in the dream comes from the karma accumulated from the beginning. Consciousness arises and has nothing to do with the senses. On the other hand, it can't be said that it has no external reality, because it comes from the past industry and is produced by interaction with the environment.
It is said that several classics were written by masters in their dreams. For example, it is said that the important classic "On the Land of Yoga Masters" of the only-knowing Sect was written in a dream. Every night when he sleeps, Maitreya dreams and tells him what to write. Because he is the only one who has these dreams, we have to believe him.
There is also a story about a prisoner in the Tang Dynasty. On the eve of his execution, he dreamed that someone told him that he could escape by reading Hua Yan Jing a thousand times in a special way. When he woke up, he had a dream. When he was about to be executed, the steel knife could not cut in, but it saved his life.
The story of dreams told in Buddhist scriptures can't be finished in a day and a night. Obviously, Buddhism does mention dreams. From the perspective of Buddhism, dreams can be divided into three types. The first one comes from worry and imagination. For example, fears in daily life may appear in the form of nightmares. The second comes from close people, perhaps family members. When something happens to them, you will learn something through dreams. The third kind includes dreams given to you by ghosts, gods, bodhisattvas and buddhas. People who have developed some magical powers can also make people dream special dreams.
Zen believes that all dreams are illusory-whether they are short dreams, long dreams, true dreams, false dreams, and dreams of life and death. Dreams in our daily life are also called intermediate dreams. We should treat all our dreams as hallucinations, otherwise we will attach too much importance to them and produce emotions such as fear and expectation, which may hinder our practice.
When people dream, they are usually in two stages of sleep. One is that when I just fell asleep, my heart has gradually calmed down, but I haven't completely rested. At this time, almost all dreams are the first kind, that is, dreams revealed by daytime troubles. The other is that after a long sleep, my heart has completely rested. The dream at this time may be highly consistent with the real situation, but it is not always the case. For example, people with shallow sleep or uncertainty can't be calm enough to have such dreams.
The mother of a famous Buddhist in Taiwan Province Province signed up for the seventh Zen in Nongchan Temple. She didn't intend to attend, but one night she dreamed of a temple surrounded by high walls, but she couldn't find the entrance. Later, she saw an old monk gesturing to let her in. She doesn't know what temple it is or who the old monk is. After a while, when she was reading a newspaper, she came across a photo of my master and found that it was the monk in her dream, but at that time he had been dead for many years, and the lady had never seen the old monk. When she came to Nongchan Temple, she found it was exactly the same as the temple she saw in her dream.
Q: I dreamed of you, Master. This kind of thing rarely happens, but when I dream about you, I dream clearly and wake up clearly. I wrote to tell you that I had such a dream, and you replied that if I thought of you sincerely and confidently and needed your guidance, you would be there. I don't know if your statement is just a metaphor or true.
Teacher: The dream you described belongs to the second kind, that is, the special feeling between two people, which is easy to explain. When you dream of me with confidence and need my help, you can get strength from my wish, but that is what you, the dreamer, have realized. It is your heart that can do this. I didn't enter your dream. I may be awake. If I fall asleep, I may be dreaming. It is very likely that we don't have the same dream, although occasionally some people have the same dream.
However, sometimes people dream of people they have never met and tell or guide them something. In Taiwan Province Province, many people told me that they came to me because they dreamed that I called them to the temple, although we had never met. But I told them that they were really dreaming. This is the third kind of dream. Maybe the dharma protector or other gods in the temple appeared as me and guided these people, not me. If I have to do so many things, I have no time to sleep.
Most of these dreams come from the dreamer's stream of consciousness, and the other person does not really appear in the dream. Usually, people dream about me. However, a disciple told me that he dreamed of his master who had been dead for fifteen years. The dream was so clear that his master gave him important instructions. What the hell is going on here? Perhaps this is the disciple's stream of consciousness, but it may also be his master's heart, although he has passed away. The spirit of the overhaul walker can continue to exist for a long time after the physical body disappears.
Q: Is it possible that we are so alert that we put our exercises to sleep without dreaming at all?
Teacher: As I said before, people have their first dream because of troubles in daily life. For example, nightmares come from many stressed, sick and unbalanced people, or from bad karma. It is very difficult to get rid of these nightmares through meditation. When dreaming, you have little control. Meditate when you are awake, it is difficult to control the idea of roaming around, and you don't even know that your thoughts are roaming until these thoughts stop. It is conceivable that it is much more difficult to control these thoughts in dreams.
Some people tell me that they continue to recite Buddha even when they sleep. I think it's because I'm nervous, not because I practice well. If you want to sleep less, you should reduce the troubles in your daily life and become more calm. If you are stable, peaceful and cheerful, then dreams, especially the first-level dreams, will disappear.
Q: Is it abnormal or dangerous to dream of being injured?
Teacher: I don't interpret dreams. Some people say that some images in dreams are symbolic, but with different places and times, each culture has its own symbolic system. Therefore, dream interpretation is unreliable: I don't understand my own dreams, and I don't understand other people's dreams.
Q: I once read an article in which a man dreamed that he would give him some advice 30 years later. The man also said that he and his wife had the same dream. Is it possible?
Teacher: Of course, all these examples are possible, but are they meaningful? Most of these stories only arouse people's curiosity because of novelty. Most people can neither control their dreams nor interpret them correctly. I know a woman who saw a covered coffin in a strange room in her dream. When her father died two years later, he was put in the same room and the same coffin. This is an interesting story, but what's the use? I think you can call this dream an omen, but this woman didn't know the meaning of this dream until afterwards, and she was at a loss. What can she do if she knows that this dream is about her father? She doesn't know when or where, nor how her father will die.
As meditators, we should not cling to or attach too much importance to dreams-because our sober world is dreamy enough.