Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (156)

Is eating bitter melon in a dream really existent?

Original text: 大王。如人梦中。为饥所逼。得其苦瓠。并拘赊怛计子。毕租摩哩捺子。而便食之。心生恚恨。于意云何。是人觉已。忆其梦中。食苦瓠等。为实有不。王曰不也。

佛言大王。是人所梦。执以为实。是智者不。王曰。不也世尊。何以故。梦中毕竟。无苦瓠等。况复食耶。当知是人。徒自疲劳。都无有实。

Explanation: Great King, suppose a person in a dream, pressed by hunger, obtains a bitter melon, along with kuśa-dantī seeds, bījapūra seeds, and other such bitter and unpleasant things, and eats them; after eating, his mind feels anguish and displeasure. What do you think? When this person wakes up and recalls eating bitter melon and the like in his dream, is that event really existent? King Śuddhodana said: It is not really existent.

The Buddha said: Great King, if this person clings to what he dreamed as really existent, is he a wise person? King Śuddhodana said: He is not a wise person, World-Honored One. Why is this so? Because in the dream there is, after all, no such thing as a bitter melon—how much less is there such an event as eating a bitter melon. One should know that this person merely tires his mind in vain and gains nothing real at all.