The Experience in a Dream

Someone had a dream in which their car was crushed and completely vanished, and in the dream they felt heartbroken to death; after waking up, their heart still ached. Which heart ached? Which mind's feeling was so attached and firm? In the dream, the heartache woke them up; the fear woke them up; the joy woke them up. Why is it so? Which consciousness's feeling was it in each case? Is the mind consciousness within the dream the same as the mind consciousness outside the dream? 

The manas is a continuous consciousness; past lives and this life, within dreams and outside dreams, it is the same—it always exists. What can govern falling asleep and waking up is the manas. The heartache within the dream and the heartache outside the dream—if there is heartache, it must be the feeling of the manas that causes the heartache; moreover, the manas can trigger changes in body and mind, so what can make the heart ache is the manas. When the mind consciousness aches, it is very slight, like a breeze gently brushing the sea surface, without ripples, not triggering reactions of body and mind.

In the dream, through the discernment of the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta), the manas took the dream-scape as reality, as a realm that truly existed; therefore it was extremely attached to the dream-scape, to the point of stirring body and mind and giving rise to the phenomenon of heartache. After waking up, the manas seemed still immersed in the dream, deeply moved, causing the heart to still feel pain; although the solitary consciousness within the dream had already changed, the manas was still attached to the dream-scape, so the solitary consciousness would recall the scenes in the dream and also have feelings. Among these, the feeling of the manas is deeply rooted and very hard to change, whereas the feeling of the mind consciousness is easy to change—upon encountering objects, it is readily influenced by those objects.

From this it can be seen that the feeling of the manas is not entirely neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā); otherwise it would not cause such great fluctuations of body and mind—there would be no waking up from pain, waking up from joy, or waking up crying, and it would be impossible that after waking up, one continues to cry, continues to rejoice, continues to ache. Eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), eradicating feelings, eradicating awareness—eradicating the manas's view of self, feelings, and awareness—is the most difficult; all the views, feelings, and awareness of the mind consciousness are easy.