Dreaming Buddhist

TheFound

Something has been bothering me for quite some time..
I'm a heavy dreamer, I dream every night without fail and I remember most of them that, make an impression/made sense

..The Problem is that in my dreams, I seem to forget my Buddhism or rather I feel like an older model of myself in a previous life before I've got this newer programming... I'm quick to violence, sexual misconduct, stealing, lying, basically in my dreams I'm a total psychopath.. of course only a small percentage of my dreams are violent or negative in nature, I have a lot of dreams that I have fear in, some I act the same way as I do currently, some dreams I am emotional.. but I also have a lot of regrets in my dreams..

After becoming more and more advanced, why am I still weak in my dreams..why do I forget my Buddhism..? In normal everyday life I'm really calm I have a certain mastery over stillness of my mind and emotions..

Bekenze

Dreams evolved so we could act out certain potential situations in our dreams to prepare us for real world events - like being chased by a lion or something. My guess is its your subconscious primeval instincts kicking in during your dreams, rather than your conscious, Buddhist mind.

Money? Steal for food.
Attractive lady? Must make children.
Man trying to kill me? Stab stab stab.

You get the gist.

Try learning to lucid dream.

www.reddit.com/r/luciddreaming is a place you could go to find out how.

ThailandTom

I do not know why, but you are like me with your dreaming, apart from I remember my dreams most of the time. I have probably violated every precept across every week in my dreams, and then some. The violence sometimes is worse than any movie I have seen, and there is often an element of drug use and police.

I am a very calm and peaceful person in everyday life, for the most part. I don't think it matters too much about being a buddhist in your dreams, they are illusions of reality. If one is unconscious, then how can one cultivate the mind?

Iñigo

Hi TheFound
I have read in a few places that through meditation and practice a lot of negativity can arise in our mind. My point is that perhaps your mind (whilst passive in sleep) is working through all the negativity that has accumulated as possible actions. I hope in any case that more peace will come in time.

ThailandTom

Hi TheFound
I have read in a few places that through meditation and practice a lot of negativity can arise in our mind. My point is that perhaps your mind (whilst passive in sleep) is working through all the negativity that has accumulated as possible actions. I hope in any case that more peace will come in time.

Can ypu elaborate? I have never stabbed anybody in the eyesocket or laid flat on a tran track waiting for a train to rail me over, the drugs side yes, I have had a long history with drugs, but can you please elaborate on your post please @Iñigo I am curious

Iñigo

Hi Tom
Yes, I don't mean literally that we are susceptible to act is such bad ways, but rather our mind is like a sponge.

For example, re-read your post, the idea of “stabbing someone's eye-socket”, exists in your mind, like it or not it came to the surface. So too does the idea that you would never do it, the idea is still in our mind.

We are influenced by ideas from interacting in the world (TV, books, conversations) and at some point the mind processes those ideas. That act of processing is of course sophisticated, but most of us can confirm we are attracted to some ideas or appalled by other ideas.

I read in the news many months ago how some people tortured a man to death, the man had whilst living been asked why he stayed with those who were mistreating him and he had replied “they are my family”, eventually he died a horrid death and I haven't been able to forget it since, I don't know how to forget it, it needs to be processed, left behind. From what I have read meditation and the eight fold path is one way.

ThailandTom

In buddhism it is often said that the 8fold path is the start of ones practice and the end of ones practice, if covers so much if you read into it in detail. It is crucial to the path.

I don't know where the whole notion of stabbing someone eyes out with a knife came from, no novel I won has that in it and I have no TV so.. But I understand where you are coming from.

I leave dreams behind me as they are mere illusions and one should not cling to them, but rarely they leave such an print on my waking day, I feel the need to consider the dream. I once had this very very violent dream, it was a blood bath in a prison and I won't go into detail because it will take too long. But I posted it on a dream webiste and got no replies lol...

Iñigo

What is interesting also is that children suffer nightmares. If we are born tabla-rasa, like a blank slate with no memories then it is curious that a child of 3 for example is already experiencing horror. Could it be that they have some thought currents from previous lives or is just through exposure to this life?

Perhaps it will come to some relief to TheFound to consider that we are passive in respect to our dreams and ideas, although we may consider them to be ours or our responsiblity in a way we are just the vessel through which they pass, much like an innocent 3 year old.

Perhaps too, our darker desires and dreams are the desires which inflicked a new birth. Maybe not enough for a lower birth, but something we take into this human life that needs to be left behind at some point through our life. As you say the 8 fold path has that nature; when we are not generating negative actions, the pre-existing negative ideas may have more room to be worked through and expelled

ThailandTom

Your comment about kids having nightmares, that is interesting, but it would need some investication into what exactly the nightmares entailed. I believe in rebirth, but like I have said many times I do not argue it, I do not think too much about it, I just live in the now and try to do my best in that frame of time. If rebirth is a reality, BONUS.... KERCHING!!!

andyrobyn

My children have great imiginations and are avid readers and love stories - in some this may contribute to nigthmares, especially if television and the variety of programs is thrown into the mix.

Iñigo

That's a good example andyobyn

I agree with your approach Tom,
Similar to you, I personally tend to keep the topic of rebirth (and Karma) at the level of philosophy otherwise it can become a question of emotional debate: "show me the proof". After philosophy it comes down to personal practice and personal insight, something specifically personal. To my knowledge Buddha 'confirmed' rebirth and the continuation of karma, for himself, through entering the states of meditation (Jhana). Before that point it is intellectual and we can find ourselves going around in circles of frustration or having to accept that we continue on the 8fold path and start to mediate today.

For TheFound, it may indicate that meditation and time will see the end of these states. Or it may just be a part of the mind's exposure to the world i.e. inevitable and ignorable.

Sabre

There are some Buddhist traditions that do some things with dreaming, but in general dream analysis has never been a big part of Buddhism, so I think there is not much to fear here.

I mainly have very vivid dreams in retreats or when I'm very mindful in general. Not really violent or indulgent per se, but just very active dreams, while I'm generally very calm; also lucid dreams quite a lot. One possible explanation I had -which is already given- is that the subconscious is cleaning up. Another is that you are just more mindful also when sleeping, so dreams can be noticed and remembered more easily.

Zero

No-one as yet understands how the mind works and until every facet of it is understood, dreams will just be one of those things...

One facet could be your mind filing and processing information and pathways - some of this is done while asleep (so memories are moved to and from cold storage) - there could well be a link between day to day experiences and dreams (in that your brain is just doing some downtime calculations and crunching)...

If computers are a simplistic indication of the mind then consider defragging, scans etc as an analogous process in a fuzzy computer...

It may be very positive - i.e. now that you are no using certain pathways as much when awake (such as violence say), perhaps your brain is processing them and lowering their priority etc - your brain sort of builds a reality for you and perhaps it only needs certain information at the forefront when it does that.

I wouldnt let it concern you overly (perhaps it can be a lesson that you cannot control everything!)... lots of techniques to explore your subconscious above if you feel thats where you need to go.

shanyin

Loving.kindness.meditation..

person

Maybe its some mental karmic energy that was previously created that still needs to subside. You could maybe try some purification practice to help.

http://www.wildmind.org/mantras/figures/vajrasattva-mantra

ThailandTom

Maybe its some mental karmic energy that was previously created that still needs to subside. You could maybe try some purification practice to help.

http://www.wildmind.org/mantras/figures/vajrasattva-mantra

Thanks for this, I will see if it helps with my dreams as well :thumbsup:

TheFound

thanks guys, I'm going to try to work on it..i'll tell you what i dream tonight,..