The Relationship Between States and Meditative Concentration (II)

Question: In the past three or four years, in my dreams I have dreamed that I was reading sūtras and listening to the Dharma. Some of the Buddhist scriptures were in the ancient thread-bound format, and some were carved on agate and lapis lazuli, crystal clear and pervading space. In the dream there was a grand, distant voice expounding the Dharma, and in the dream I could perceive with perfect clarity Dharma principles such as "forms arise from the mind" and "form and emptiness are not two," and I could understand them all and take them to heart. But after waking up, I could not remember clearly which specific Dharma principles I had contemplated. Is this due to the blessing of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, or is it merely that what one thinks of by day one dreams of by night?

Answer: When listening to the Dharma in a dream, the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) listens together with the manas. If only the manas were listening alone, there would be no dream at all, and the mind consciousness would not know it was dreaming. The solitary consciousness after waking cannot remember the states in the dream clearly, first, because the dream was not extremely important; second, because the solitary consciousness after waking is not closely connected with the solitary consciousness in the dream, so the information is not handed over completely, causing part of it to be forgotten; and third, because the manas' immersion in the Dharma principles is not yet particularly deep. Such dreams appear, first, because what one thinks of by day one dreams of by night, and second, possibly as the result of the blessing of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. If it is a deliberate blessing from the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, generally speaking, one will remember it very clearly upon waking and will feel somewhat emotionally stirred.

Question: There was another time when, in a dream, I genuinely experienced a transformation between emptiness and existence: as soon as a thought of discrimination arose in the mind, the body-mind and the world immediately appeared; as soon as the mind became empty and pure, the body-mind and the world all became empty, leaving only a lucid knowing that is beyond words with not a single thought arising. This repeated two or three times in the dream, very clearly. I wonder whether this counts as a bit of good news? In the dream, it felt that as long as a single thought stirred even slightly, the body-mind and the world, the mountains, rivers, and the great earth would manifest; and if I turned the switch to not-a-single-thought-arising, in that very moment only the lucid knowing remained. This repeated two or three times, all the same.

Answer: Being able to control your own mind and its images shows that you have meditative concentration (samādhi). All dharmas, once the mind thinks of them, appear in the mind; if the mind does not think of them, they will not appear in the mind. As for whether dharmas exist outside the mind, that is another matter. Therefore, this physical phenomenon of emptiness and existence is a matter of the transformation of thoughts in the mind. True emptiness is an empty mind. When the mind is truly empty, even if there are hundreds and thousands of colors before you, brilliant and resplendent, you will not take them as truly existing, will not take these forms as real, and will have no clinging thoughts. The lucid knowing within not-a-single-thought-arising is the mind consciousness itself, which you can control; if you control it well, no thoughts appear; if you control it poorly, it becomes a jumble of chaos. Whether you can control it is a matter of meditative concentration.