Using Dreams to Demonstrate the Thinning of Ignorance and the Weakening of Afflictions

Ru Chun: During this period, both my life and my practice have hit a bottleneck. Some problems in life cannot be resolved, and my practice has made no progress. I reflected on where I had gone wrong. Whatever problems arise in life or in practice, in the end they are all problems of that "self." So what is wrong with my "self"? In the end, my analysis showed that I am too fond of being affirmed and recognized. In life, liking to be affirmed and recognized makes one strive to become a strong person; becoming strong brings more power, status, fame, wealth, resources, and so on, gaining a sense of superiority, security, and a sense of close connection with the world, being needed, respected, flattered, valued, envied, and complimented by others—various wonderful feelings—to satisfy the deep inner self-affirmation and self-recognition.

Yet these feelings both nourish the self and are important components forming that "self," and that "self" is the root of samsara. So liking affirmation is liking the self, liking ignorance, liking samsara, deepening bondage, and taking suffering as joy. Practicing with such a mental disposition runs contrary to the Path, to no-self, and to emptiness—how could one practice well? Painful feeling, pleasant feeling, neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling: people habitually choose pleasant feeling, without realizing that the very premise of this multiple-choice question is wrong. Where there is feeling, there is a self; where there is a self, there is suffering. Out of compassion, our Buddha taught: the ocean of suffering is boundless—turn your head and the shore is there.

When I thought of these things and resolved to change, I had a dream. I dreamed that I had diarrhea, and in a daze I felt my head had become a bit clearer and my belly had emptied out a great deal, with a refreshing feeling throughout my whole body. If I change a little of my cognition and a little of my mental thinking, can I thereby transform a bit of karma?

Assessment: Dreaming of having diarrhea means that the self has been dissolved a little, and some of one's afflictions have been expelled. A clear head in the dream indicates that wisdom has advanced a step, and a refreshed feeling throughout the body indicates that the burden of ignorance has lessened somewhat. When the mental thinking of the manas changes, past karmic obstructions are eliminated to some degree, and the obstructions in the mind are reduced. Such a dream is very good. Bit by bit, as the obstructions of ignorance are removed, practice makes progress, and the dawn of seeing the Path is not far ahead—the distance grows ever closer.

Dreams are a manifestation of the manas's thoughts, arising from the manas's thinking and manifested by the manas's mental nature. When the manas's views change and its thinking transforms, He will display it through dreams, because He cannot express Himself through language, writing, or sound, so He expresses it through dreams. Therefore, whenever a Buddhist practitioner makes any progress in practice—when karmic obstructions are eliminated, when entering the stage of the four aids to enlightenment (nirvedha-bhāgīya), when afflictions are subdued, when practicing toward the srotāpanna fruit, when realizing the Path of the Great or Small Vehicle, when passing through various checkpoints and bottlenecks, when ascending step by step—the manas will manifest it through dreams. So those who have practiced for a long time yet have no dreams to show are, in all likelihood, those whose manas's mental nature has undergone no change; if one even feels that one has realized the fruit yet the manas gives no indication whatsoever, then it is certainly a false realization of the fruit.