The Manas in Dreams

When we are asleep and dreaming, only the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness exist, without the first six consciousnesses. If one can realize the eighth consciousness in that state, one can pass through the final barrier (the heavy gate) and gain the ability to escape birth and death. Both when dreaming and when sleepwalking, the sixth consciousness is present. To understand what the state of sleepwalking is all about, one must first see the mind and possess profound wisdom of Yogācāra. Only when the dharma of the manas can also be realized, and the operation of the manas can also be observed, can one gradually sort out what sleepwalking is really about.

Sleepwalking and dreaming are both directly related to the manas. When walking in a dream, the manas, by controlling the rear brain and thereby controlling the mind consciousness, can control the entire body; that is why during sleepwalking the hands, feet, and body can all move. When I was a child, I often searched for the toilet in my dreams, and as a result I wet the bed—all of this is a matter of the manas. The manas discerns the condition inside the body and knows there is urine; when there is an urge to urinate, it wants to go to the toilet to relieve it, so it creates a dream and lets the mind consciousness handle it; if no dream is created, it is relieved directly in bed.

Before waking up, the manas discerns the mental sense-objects, though not clearly; then the mind consciousness discerns them again, and things gradually become clear, and we wake up. The mind consciousness in a dream is the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta), while the mind consciousness after waking is the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna); the realms they discern are different, so the mind consciousness after waking does not necessarily know the realm experienced in the dream. Sleepwalking belongs to this kind of situation.