The Difference Between Killing in Dreams and Killing While Awake

The difference between being inside a dream and outside a dream is that inside a dream there is no external object-aspect (nimitta), nothing has changed, whereas outside a dream there are changes in the external object-aspect, and real events of benefiting others or harming others actually occur. 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 a 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 fact there was no real act of giving; there was only a mental action of giving existing, a mental action of being generous toward others existing, a mental action of not being stingy existing—and that is the mental action of the manas. If the manas's mental actions in a dream are wholesome, it shows that this person's mental disposition is genuinely good; a good mind generates merit, and there will be blessings and good retribution. The more good the mind is, the greater the blessings and the greater the retribution. Giving in a dream shows that the manas's mental disposition is good; a good disposition brings good retribution, and after death one will go to a good destination, being born and living in a place corresponding to the manas's mental disposition. Goodness brings good blessings—this is the good retribution of mental disposition. If the manas's mental disposition is evil, it will diminish blessings, and one will undergo retribution in an evil place corresponding to the manas's mental disposition—this is the retribution of good and evil.

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 there was additionally the act of giving—with all three complete, the retribution will be fully received. In the future there will be at least a hundred thousand or ten-million-fold return of wealth, and corresponding merit will also arise, with good retribution and blessings. If the manas, due to the good or evil 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 retribution, reckoned down to the smallest fraction—the karmic fruits must certainly be repaid.

The difference between killing someone in a dream and killing someone 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 evil and unwholesome, it will diminish one's merit, and in future lives one will be reborn in an evil place corresponding to that mental disposition, undergoing the retribution of evil and unwholesomeness. Whereas killing while awake is a substantive matter—a person is truly killed, and the substantive external object-aspect is gone—therefore one must repay the karmic fruit of killing; in the future there will be the retribution of an evil mind and hateful disposition, as well as the retribution of repaying the life-debt. For example, after receiving precepts, if one violates them, some violations carry not only the offense at the level of mental disposition but also the precept-offense at the level of karmic action, and both are received together as retribution. A person who has not received precepts, having created evil and unwholesome karma, has no precept-offense, but still has the offense of an evil mental disposition and will still receive evil retribution. When doing evil deeds, there is evil retribution whether or not one has received precepts; receiving precepts has a certain restraining force on one's own mind and 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 and will not engage in fraud; it can absolutely truthfully manifest its own mental disposition. In a dream, the manas is absolutely in charge, and the function of the mind consciousness is very weak, extremely weak, almost unable to play any role in regulating the manas. Therefore, in a dream one cannot fake or disguise anything; what is manifested is entirely the manas's mental disposition—the most genuine.