Off To The Temple With You!

ThailandTom

So quite a few nights ago I had a dream where a dog came up to me and bit my arm, it was bleeding and hurt quite a lot. I spoke casually to my GF about it a couple of days later, she started to talk about how in Thailand this means that and this etc. I did not think of much of it.

Today, well now it is yesterday, but in the evening my GF and a friend from her job were going to a special 7 day event at a temple. I really did not feel like going last night so I said that I would stay at home and that I hope she has a nice time. She left and about 30 minutes later she came back with her friend. Her friend is about 50 I think, she is a buddhist and I would say as far as 'thai buddhists' go, she has a pretty good foundation of buddhism. She came to the door with my GF and they were both trying to make me go to the temple. This woman took my arm (not in a way to drag me or to make me go, but in a kind of sympathetic manner). I persisted and they ended up going by themselves.

When my GF came back, she had some typical thai/buddhist fabric with inscriptions on, along with 2 small stone buddhist objects with an image of a monk ingraved. She also took my camera and took some pics. Anyway, she said that her friend claims that this dream suggests that I have some spirits around me at the moment which may make easy things difficult, anger and such things more of an issue. I can see that I have been that way more recently, but that could be down to anything. Both her and my GF say that I need to go to the temple, well not need as in a life or death situation, more of a suggestion.

I do not know what to make of this to be honest. A part of me says it is typical thai tradition which puts a lot of emphasis in good luck, fortune and mystic business when it comes to buddhism, and then there is another part of me which questions it. When she took my arm at the door, that was a very strange moment to be honest, it has all kind of left me confused

patbb

you should research dream interpretations. (from a psychological base)

Buddhists saying a "spirit" might be around you may not be the same as believing on lucky charms or whatever.
What they may mean by "spirit" could as easily be a situation in which some negative emotional response is present in you in your life.

Using the word spirit instead of conditioned emotional response to your environment maybe more appropriate to fit with the local community and beliefs.
both term can end up meaning exactly the same thing.

ThailandTom

Well we were talking about it in thai, and my GF explained that they are similar to 'pi' which is ghost in thai.

I looked up the dog related dream a few days ago actually, and of course as it is the internet, there are so many interpretations, but I found one that said about spirits trying become between me a person who is close to me :-/

seeker242

You say you want to practice buddhism but you don't want to go to the temple? I don't get it!

Lady_Alison

Maybe it was just a dream...just a dream

patbb

Well we were talking about it in thai, and my GF explained that they are similar to 'pi' which is ghost in thai.

okay one more point before i let go.

scientologists refer to conditioned negative emotional responses as the soul of aliens hunting the world. (or ghosts)

see how the "spirit" or "ghost" angle can make sense and refer to the same thing?

There might be considerable benefits of referring to these things as "ghosts/spirit" as well since i think most would find it much easier to observed them with a equanimous mind.
Difficult to get attached to them. Difficult to get lost in their stories...

ThailandTom

I did not want to go today as I ran out of valium a few days ago and had a prang of social anxiety.

I_AM_THAT

When I first started my practice I would have similar dreams as well as visions during meditation (still do when I butt up against new layers of the onion). In discussing these with my teacher I was able to come to the understanding that these images where created by my ego(s); egos that I was currently in the process of trying to destroy. However, please keep in mind that we are all individuals and we all have our own karma. Using a meditation and mindfulness practice can be beneficial in understanding our dreams and or visions.

Go to the Temple!

I visit Thailand at least once a year and will retire there in a couple of years... The temples there are great place to sit, meditate, and contemplate. I have a special attraction to one particular temple in Chaing Mai, where my practice was literally kicked started.

Namaste!

person

A dog in dreams usually symbolizes the kind of base animal impulses we have, lust, craving for food, etc. The right arm is outward activity, expression. The left is inward feeling, also less dominant functions, ie emotions for an intellectual person. I think those may be reversed if you're left handed, I'm not sure. So a bite to one of those would mean your base impulses injured one of them.

IDK though maybe there are some spirits that can invade dreams too. :scratch:

I_AM_THAT

My own personal opinion is that "spirits" are manifestations of ego...

Jeffrey

Tom, go to the temple or don't go. But don't be divided one side wanting to go and then at the mercy of the other side that this doesn't work for. Not saying you are doing that but that's what I was doing with drinking when I couldn't quit.

Simplify. Go Or don't go

patbb

My own personal opinion is that "spirits" are manifestations of ego...

yes, i just hate to use the word "ego" .. i believe it leads to too many misunderstandings.

ego: A collection of negative emotional responses giving the illusion of being an entity.

ThailandTom

I have been to many temples here in Thailand, even in my town I have visited 4 different ones. They are very peaceful and you can feel the calmness in the atmosphere, sometimes time seems to even stand still. I did not really want to this thread to turn into 'to go or not to go', or about anxiety, but things take their own route. I simply did not go last night because of factors including social anxiety, inosmnia which makes me feel unclean and mentally unstable and just general fondness of being in my house.

I do not know if there is anybody here who can fully understand the Thai culture with regards to buddhism, you can visit the kingdom and so forth, but it is really quite different from what you will pick up in the west. Luck, fortune, rituals, mytsic notions of placing certain things in certain places in your house, they all resinate throughout the nation. So to hear from a Thai practicing buddhist about this dream/spirit and to discuss it here may not be so adequate.

I will take your advice though Jeffrey and just go when I get my head together again. Like with how I came across a very productive period, this period is due to the coming together of various factors.

Jeffrey

Tom, thanks for clarifying. I think the title threw me. Just checking online a bit a dog biting you is like harm that you can't avert, but at the same time there is a sense that you wish to fight back. I would guess that your mind is sensing that it needs to distinguish what to let happen and endure and what to fight off.

Lady_Alison

Hobitses.

ThailandTom

Coincidental that I watched the triology not but 2 days ago. Yes Alison, Hobitses. But you can only have magotty bread!

A pain I cannot avert, but wish to fight back, interesting. That could be mental or physical, or both. I have my tests back on the 31st, it may have something to do with the thought of that.
The dog was no random dog however, I remember it to be my dog (I actually have never owned one), but it was almost like a mountain wolf, white/grey in colour. After it bit me it stayed around acted shy but almost as if it had a hatred for me. Meh, dreams are dreams are they not. However it may be the one dream to rule them all! :rolleyes:

Lady_Alison

Lol...what good does it do to follow every dream.
?

Sometimes they just are. You wonder if maybeyou might be stressing yourself out trying to figure out what it all meant.

Take it from someone which dream even when they nap...fuck it...

Just a stupid weird ass dream.

Lady_Alison

Which was who...typo

Lady_Alison

Stupid fat hobitses..Alison doesn't eat disgusting Elvish bread...gollem! Gollem!

Sorry...I think I'm gonna watch that movie again

Kangaroo

Stupid fat hobitses..Alison doesn't eat disgusting Elvish bread...gollem! Gollem!

Sorry...I think I'm gonna watch that movie again

So off topic but if you haven't watched the extended versions of the movies (now avail on Blu-ray) I HIGHLY recommend it. Each movie has about an hour or more of film never seen in the original.

ThailandTom

Off topic yes, an off topic that is okay with me at least I have all 3 of the movies in extended versions. They are all around 3 and a half hours long, and that being said I can actually watch them over and over without getting bored, unlike pretty much any other movie. I also think they do a lot of justice to the books as well, unlike many other movie adaptations. Still, not quute the same without good old Tom Bombadil I want to read The Silmarillion as that is meant to have a lot of the history of middle earth and how everything in Tolkiens world came to be.

I will throw this out there (even though it is way off topic), what is everyone's favourite race in the entire trilogy, or character even??

Kangaroo

Favorite race? The Ents. I still wander around the woods hoping I find one.

ThailandTom

lol, good luck with that. Actually I read that plants do actually communicate with each other somewhere according to biologists. I am fond of the elves as they seem so reserved, noble and they have a highestened sense of awareness.