The Experience in the Dream

Someone dreams that their car has been crushed and has completely vanished, and in the dream they feel heartbroken to death; after waking up, their heart still aches. Which heart is aching? Which mind's feeling is it, so attached and firm? Heartache in the dream wakes one up in pain; fear wakes one up in terror; joy wakes one up in delight. Why is it so? Which consciousness's feeling are all these? Is the mind consciousness within the dream the same as the mind consciousness outside the dream? 

The manas is a continuous consciousness, the same in past and present lives, in dreams and while awake, always present. It is the manas that governs falling asleep and waking up. Heartache in the dream and heartache outside the dream must both be the feeling of the manas that causes the heartache; moreover, the manas can trigger changes in body and mind—it is the manas that can make the heart ache. When the mind consciousness feels heartache, it is very slight, like a breeze gently brushing the sea surface, without ripples, and does not trigger reactions in body and mind.

In the dream, through the discernment of the solitary mental consciousness, the manas takes the dream-scape as reality, as a genuinely existing state, and therefore becomes extremely attached to the dream, to the point of stirring body and mind and producing the phenomenon of heartache. After waking up, the manas still seems immersed in the dream, deeply moved, causing the heart to still feel pain; although the solitary mental consciousness in the dream has already been transformed, the manas is still attached to the dream-scape, so the solitary mental consciousness must recollect the states in the dream and is also moved. 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 states, it is readily influenced by them.

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 in body and mind—one would not be woken by pain, woken by joy, or woken by crying, and it would be impossible to keep crying, keep rejoicing, or keep aching after waking up. Eliminating self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), eliminating feeling, eliminating awareness—eliminating the manas's self-view, feeling, and awareness—is the most difficult; all the views, feelings, and awareness of the mind consciousness are easy by comparison.