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Dreams in Buddhism
mockeymind
Veteran
Can anybody comment on how buddhism deal with dreams? A couple of months when I started meditating, i dreamt of being killed, it was so clear that I woke up feeling so cold. A friend of mine told me that my dream was a manifestation of change from the inside, a sort of transformation. I don't know if it is true or not.
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No one can prove whether dreams are true or not - or even that they can be accurately interpreted - some think trying to figure out the meaning of dreams is a joke. I think there's some psychology and common sense to it. I think of dreams and attempts to interpret them as an art form, of sorts. Studying the details of particularly interesting dreams IS rather fascinating. What did you make of your dream?
I learned how to exert a certain amount of control over my dreams as a youth and so when I do get chased I'm almost always able to turn it around.
I don't think that has all that much to do with Buddhism though and lucid dreaming can be a harmful attachment.
No matter what goes on in our dreams we can either experience the dream, ferret out a meaning and then let the dream go or we can just experience the dream and then let it go.
I totally agree. I've written my dreams down sporadically, and sometimes I share them on a particular forum and it's absolutely cool and amazing what other people can come up with in explanation of someone else's dream. It really can help to share...sometimes we have a driving need to figure them out, especially if there's a lot of detail.
I hope you don't mind me asking, but I've read posts with this view on Buddhism-related forums before and I'm curious... In what ways can lucid dreaming be a harmful attachment? Perhaps if done mindlessly, only to experience certain pleasures in doing things within the dream which couldn't be done in waking life, which is a possibility. Or in terms of most/many things being such.
I've recently been reading about Tibetan Dream Yoga and it's quite interesting. Most Buddhism doesn't seem related to it, but there are some who actually use it as part of their practise in seeking to attain liberation.
Even without taking it so far, one can meditate within a lucid dream, or work on more consciously and mindfully resolving things that might surface within a dream, or learn about and change their mind for the better.
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So from what I can tell there are many views about dreams even within Buddhism. Some view them as unimportant, others as of some use, and others believe them to be extremely important.
It's a similar case with dream interpretation. Often different people will have different interpretations of a dream, and though it can be interesting to try and figure it out, there's not really any sure way to know. Also, though dreams do sometimes appear to have a meaning, often it does seem to be just our minds working through things happening in our life, and to try and get some kind of clear message out of every dream would likely be quite futile. Sometimes, though, they do seem to have some sort of message, even if it's only about whatever is going in your mind. Perhaps your friend is right, or perhaps you were simply afraid of something (and perhaps the dream resolved that), or perhaps the it was about something quite unrelated - there are endless interpretations. Do you feel it meant anything in particular?
Mostly because it is addictive and is often used as a means of escapism. Dreams can give us insight into our daily living but it can also start to take the place of our daily living.
They could also lead to confusion as when one gets involved with this kind of study sometimes memories of a dream get confused for real life memories.
I've read about that but it seems to me it would be better to be as aware and awake as possible... I'm not sure liberation is the same as a dream of liberation.
I've never had a situation where I could practice meditation in a dream but I would be more skeptical of the insights as the fantastical is more acceptable in dreams.
Buddhism doesn't. Or at least, the Buddha didn't. You're free to interpret as you wish.
"Dreams in Buddhism"
From a Buddhist perspective, is it not just one big dream....An interesting question to ask the self..."Who is dreaming the dream ?"
Every object including the different sentient beings appearing in the dream are part and parcel of the dreamer's own imagination...
"Form is Emptiness-Emptiness is Form!"
One could see meditation as just a way of observing the dream as it unfolds...
I think that a meditative view, sees all dreams for the simple conjurings that they are.
The reason why I raised such question is because even Queen Maya had a dream before Siddhartha was born. If dreams are not the significant then why it was manifested and being looked into by sages. Just an observation .
Also, I am aware of the association of "self" manifesting, I'm just curious how and why dreams happened. It might not important since there is no-self.
@ syrphus Do you feel it meant anything in particular?
Nothing in particular - but meditating regularly brings so much calmness inside of me.
A friend who interpreted my dream said that "maybe" because of taming the mind. There is a part of me who somehow "died" and that dream was a manifestation of change. He may or not correct - it doesn't matter. What I don't want to happen is for me to indulge in the idea of self.
One was from a Zen master. It was in reference when hungry eat, when tired sleep. No dreams no thought.
No one knows why or how we dream. But we do know it's another state of our reality.
But both that and this. We are the observer.
Oh my. The rain clouds are forming.
R.A.I.N. Good point.
I don't see why dreams are essentially different (more important, less important; divinely inspired, neuron brain farts) from any other 'sensation' available to us humans. They are just more 'sensations' that come along with being . . . here.
Whatever feeling (yet another sensation) that comes up strongly when having or remembering a dream is as important as a strong feeling arising from doing something while conscious. It's not that dreams don't mean anything or they mean SOMETHING very important. They happen as results of other happenings, which in turn blah blah blah and turtles all the way down.
My Zafu suggests relating to dreams while sleeping no differently than when awake.
"No feeding the wildlife" signs should be posted outside all Zendos.
My wife told me last week she had a vivid dream of a girl she works with called Amy announcing she was pregnant, at work, in the kitchen.
I just got a phone call from my wife. Amy announced at work, in the kitchen, that she is pregnant.
Wow what an interesting event.
No, not that kind... I was dreaming about scaling a cliff face and holding onto a small root sticking out the side. I put too much of a strain on the root and it snapped. When it snapped I woke up because I just punched myself in the face.
Lip is still swollen.
D'oh!
@Ourself, reminds me of some recurring dreams I had when I was young.
One recurring dream had me riding a bicycle along a tremendously high ridge line that was winding and not much wider than the bicycle tire. I never fell off in the dream.
Another had me driving a car over a bridge, and then suddenly the bridge ended and I drove over the edge (but never hit the water).
Another had me chased by tree stumps whose roots were like legs. I kinda figured that one out -- apparently when I was very young I was often chased by the chickens and roosters we had.
And the worst was dreaming that my teeth were literally shattering.
So one day I found a book on how to interpret dreams. All of my dreams (except for the tree stumps one) had a sexual connotation...according to the book.
I guess I recovered from that phase. No more recurring dreams.
Well one...the one love I could never actually have keeps coming back in dreams...not often...maybe 3 times a year...for 30 years now!
My best dream was body surfing and being joined by dragons doing the same thing.
Close second was flying dreams but usually had some frustrations attached as I was never very apt at staying aloft for long.
I couldn't possibly pick a favorite dream as I've had some pretty odd and fun ones.
Totally describes my flying dreams. lol
@how...I love flying dreams, in them I can fly through buildings, just to prove to my self that it's all a dream....
BTW you have got to clock up 100 flying hours before you get your wings..."Practice makes perfect"
I noticed that too, quite frustrating!
When I have dreams of flying, it's more so hopping, gaining flight, and gliding. I can flap my arms like a bird to get aloft, but it doesn't keep me there, LOL. I love those dreams though
I got woken up by our dog right at the end of a dream. I knew how the dream would end but it was like getting to the last page of a book and finding the final page ripped out even if the major stuff had been resolved.
I used to do hang-gliding, which is about as close as you can get to actually flying. But flying in dreams has never been anything like that, more like levitation really, being weightless?
I wonder why that is... Yourself, @How and I all have the same experience where it's more like we can leap tall buildings in a single bound rather than fly parallel to the ground. You flap your arms like wings and I swim but it's pretty close.
The few times I can fly like the new version of Superman is when I dream that I am astral traveling.
I very, very rarely remember my dreams, and even if I do, it's snippets, rather than the full sequence.
I've only ever had two dreams which were so lucid, that Every detail was etched in my mind.
I still remember the one I had when I was 13, one night, at Convent Boarding School.
Naturally, due to quotidian influences, it was Christian-based, and revolved around Christ - in a 3-piece suit - walking along a castle parapet wall, (I was inside the castle, looking up at them) followed by 12 equally well-clad gentlemen. All were bearded but their hair was well groomed. They then turned in a line, and faced the castle courtyard and began to gently turn this way and that, as if modelling their suits.... At one point, I saw a figure climbing up the outside of the castle, directly behind Jesus, and he was holding a long paintprush, and he was about to hit Jesus with it, and I began shouting 'God! God!" and pointing up, at which moment my room-mate woke me up, because i was yelling in my sleep, but she couldn't make out what it had been.
The second dream was a week or 2 ago.
I woke up in a cold sweat. Literally.
It involves the absolutely perfect way to commit suicide.
And there's no way I would ever describe it to anyone.
But believe me, it's completely foolproof and flawless.
it still makes me shudder to think about it.
I hang glided back in the day when your seat was just a swing under your kite instead of being able to stretch out prone. The last flight I ever had was down a mountain side that included some steep cow pasture land. I was doing a bit of a low altitude speed run, following the contour of the land when I hit an air pocket and dropped 15 feet. Unfortunately I was only 14 feet above the ground at the time. I struck the ground, feet raised in the hope of gaining altitude again and one arm down to soften the blow on my tailbone.
In the nano moment before that sliding impact, I spotted a cow pie in front of me so fresh it had it's own puddle of urine still on top. I struck but the ground was steep enough that it was just a glancing blow and I continued on air borne again.
When I brought my arm back up from the impact it felt oddly constricted like I might have done some serious damage to it. What had really happened was that my hand had speed impacted the center of that cow pie and had scooped it up the coat sleeve of my fringed easy rider biker jacket right up to the elbow like I had an arm cast under it..
So..... some of my hang gliding was no more weightless than my dreams of flying.
Now wing suits..might be a different story!
My recurring dreams in the past (may they stay there forever) are those ever-narrowing mountain paths....I suppose it could be in preparation for death or something. I usually remember my dreams when there are a series of 3 or 4 in a row.
I don't believe there's any certain Buddhist aspect on dreams. When I'm dreaming I often remember that I'm only dreaming that is very soothing. I often dream how my violent stepfather is beating me, but he goes away when I remember he's dead. So dreams help to survive in this shitty world of reality.
“Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awoke, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.”
Zhuangzi
I wish I had the nerve to try that, it looks fantastic!
Death is often a symbol of transformation.
Dreams are used extensively in some aspects of spiritual psychologies to interpret, connect and comprehend.
http://sufism.org/articles/the-dream-of-the-sleeper-by-refik-algan-2
In dharma we tend to focus on waking up . . .