The Difference Between Creating Karma in Dreams and in the Waking State

The difference between being inside a dream and outside a dream is that inside a dream there is no external object-aspect (nimitta), and nothing has changed, whereas outside a dream there are changes in the external object-aspect, and real events occur that benefit or harm others. Therefore, karma created in a dream has no substantive and concrete retribution, while karma created outside a dream has substantive and concrete retribution. Apart from this, inside and outside the dream are the same—both are illusory and unreal.

Although in a dream one gave away a thousand dollars in generosity (dāna), no substantive money was actually given away, and no substantive person received that money, so in reality there was no genuine act of giving; there was only a mental action of giving existing, a mental action of generosity toward others existing, a mental action of non-stinginess existing—that is, the mental action of the manas. If the manas's mental action in a dream is wholesome, it shows that this person's mental disposition is genuinely wholesome; a wholesome mind generates merit, and there will be blessed rewards and wholesome retribution. The more wholesome the mind, the greater the merit and the greater the retribution. Giving in a dream shows that the manas's mental disposition is wholesome; a wholesome disposition brings wholesome retribution, and after death one will go to a wholesome destination, being born and living in a place corresponding to the manas's mental disposition. Wholesomeness has wholesome blessings—this is the wholesome retribution of mental disposition. If the manas's mental disposition is unwholesome, it will damage one's blessings, and one will undergo retribution in an unwholesome place corresponding to the manas's mental disposition. This is the retribution of the wholesome and the unwholesome.

If outside a dream one gave away a thousand dollars in generosity, then substantive money was given away, a substantive person received that money, and together with the act of giving, the three are complete, and the retribution will be fully received. In the future there will be at least a hundred thousand or a million times the wealth in return, and corresponding merit will also arise, with wholesome retribution and blessed rewards. If the manas, due to the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of its mental disposition, directs the six consciousnesses to create wholesome or unwholesome karmic actions, then apart from the retribution of mental disposition, there is also the karmic retribution of those actions. Karmic retribution is a very concrete form of retribution—down to the smallest fraction, the karmic results must be repaid.

The difference between killing in a dream and killing while awake follows the same principle. In a dream, no substantive person is killed and there is no substantive act of killing, but there is the mental action of killing. Its retribution is based primarily on the mental action; because the mental disposition is unwholesome and evil, it will damage one's blessings and merit, and one will be reborn in an unwholesome place corresponding to that mental disposition, undergoing the retribution of evil and unwholesomeness. Killing outside a dream involves substantive deeds, so there will be repayment of the karmic results of killing, and in the future there will be the retribution of an evil, unwholesome mental disposition. For example, if one violates precepts after receiving them, some violations involve not only the offense at the level of mental disposition but also the precept-offense at the level of karmic action, and one undergoes the retribution of both combined. A person who has not received precepts, having created unwholesome karma, although without precept-offenses, still has the offense of an unwholesome mental disposition and will still receive evil retribution. When doing evil deeds, both those who have received precepts and those who have not receive evil retribution; receiving precepts provides a certain restraint on one's own mind, which is more beneficial for cultivation.

The manas represents the fundamental mental disposition of a sentient being. The mind consciousness can whitewash and disguise itself, but the manas cannot—it cannot pretend, cannot engage in deception, and absolutely truthfully manifests its own mental disposition. In a dream, the manas is absolutely in charge, while the function of the mind consciousness is extremely weak, so weak that it can hardly regulate the manas at all. Therefore, in a dream one cannot fake or disguise anything; what is manifested is the manas's mental disposition—the most genuine of all.