A Vivid Dream

[adept]

Greetings everyone.

 

Recently I had a really vivid dream and wondered what it meant in regards to my study and practice.

I have read only a little Huayen related literature, but what little I have read has left me absolutely gobsmacked by the sheer brilliance of this Way. I have a longing to read the Avatamsaka sutra but the large price tag of the book has stopped me from buying it. However, I have made a vow that sometime soon I would find a way to purchase this book. Now to my dream....

 

I found myself in an abandoned cave/temple complex in China. It was in ruins, and was damp, with moss covered rocks strewn all about. There was a large statue of the Buddha, but his head had somehow fallen from the body and it (the head) was lying sideways in the centre of the room. At the other end of the room was a stone plinth with some large leatherbound books on top of it. There were about a dozen books, all beautifully encased in black leather with the word "Avatamsaka'' embossed in gold on the front of each volume.

I opened the book on top of the pile to find the most beautifully written sutra in red ink on thick moleskin paper. There was also a page by page commentary of the sutra. All of this was written in English.

It's hard to describe, but I felt as I was reading, I immediately understood everything instantly. Then I woke up.....

 

It was an extremely vivid dream. I actually thought I was there. I have been trying to understand the significance of it all. I really just don't know.

Can dreams point us in the right direction and keep us from straying from the path ?

[C T]

A most auspicious dream, Adept!

 

Sure sign that your practice is moving in the right direction. It sounds so... blessed. Well done

 

As for the interpretation, guess i'll leave that to someone who makes it their path to interpret dreams. I never pay too much attention to mine, cos i seem to have recurring themes in dreams all the time.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Greetings everyone.

 

Recently I had a really vivid dream and wondered what it meant in regards to my study and practice.

I have read only a little Huayen related literature, but what little I have read has left me absolutely gobsmacked by the sheer brilliance of this Way. I have a longing to read the Avatamsaka sutra but the large price tag of the book has stopped me from buying it. However, I have made a vow that sometime soon I would find a way to purchase this book. Now to my dream....

 

I found myself in an abandoned cave/temple complex in China. It was in ruins, and was damp, with moss covered rocks strewn all about. There was a large statue of the Buddha, but his head had somehow fallen from the body and it (the head) was lying sideways in the centre of the room. At the other end of the room was a stone plinth with some large leatherbound books on top of it. There were about a dozen books, all beautifully encased in black leather with the word "Avatamsaka'' embossed in gold on the front of each volume.

I opened the book on top of the pile to find the most beautifully written sutra in red ink on thick moleskin paper. There was also a page by page commentary of the sutra. All of this was written in English.

It's hard to describe, but I felt as I was reading, I immediately understood everything instantly. Then I woke up.....

 

It was an extremely vivid dream. I actually thought I was there. I have been trying to understand the significance of it all. I really just don't know.

Can dreams point us in the right direction and keep us from straying from the path ?

 

I don't think I have a divine gift of dream interpretation, but I tend to be able to sort out the symbols pretty well, sort of like interpreting poetry, usually with a degree of success or relevance.

 

I would venture to guess that the understanding of the sutra left a tangible feeling.. this feeling, like Shen, was latently residing to be awakened by its illumination in the sutra. This feeling (perhaps related to "serenity, compassion, and wisdom"?__ qualities of enlightenment/The Buddha) was the seed of the scripture which had been planted. Thus, the Buddha had been broken, for the "statue" of the Buddha was unimportant in comparison to personal experience of The Dharma which will be your true guide [from time to time or when you've entirely devoted yourself to The Path(should you ever Detatch)].

 

That's my opinion... There's probably others.....

[adept]

[Vajrahridaya]

Now that's a good dream! Take it as a sign to keep up the practice, that's for sure.

 

Other interpretations? My Mom is good at that stuff... but, she's not here, so I won't go for it. It's your dream. I wish I wrote my dreams down like I used to.

 

I'd suggest writing them down and re-reading them later, like years later. It's a good practice. I'd definitely read the Flower Garland Sutra, that's a good Sutra to dream about.

 

I'll say this, it's a sure sign that your subconscious is deeply connected to the Dharma, based upon it's level of clarity and detail.

Edited June 2, 2011 by Vajrahridaya

[adept]

I'll say this, it's a sure sign that your subconscious is deeply connected to the Dharma, based upon it's level of clarity and detail.

 

This is something that I've thought since I had the dream. Maybe a connection to previous incarnations.

The weird thing is that the clarity of the dream did not fade as the day wore on, as usually does with dreams. As the hours passed I seemed to remember more.

[Sloppy Zhang]

Dreams are tricky. I've been doing lucid dream work for close to 10 years now (had done it on and off as a kid, then I learned it had a name, that's when I really got into it). The past five years I've been keeping serious, daily dream journals. At first hand written, but whet it started taking me nearly three hours to hand write 6-8 pages, I started to type them.

 

And honestly- most dreams are gunk. Crap. Mental junk. Projections, hopes, fears.

 

Most dreams that aren't just crap are only MOSTLY crap. You might get a little bit of "higher" stuff, but it's so mixed in with your hopes and fears and other crap that the message is so distorted that it's useless, and you really don't even recognize it.

 

Dreams that have meaning, I do believe, will smack you in the face. If you have to ask if it has meaning, if you have to ask if you're receiving a message from beyond, then you probably didn't get one. Chances are better that it's just you projecting what you HOPE a message will be. "An angel came down from on high and told me it was my higher self". Uh huh. Sure it did. Every ritual and process from every traditions that's more than 200 years old that I've come across shows such an event as demanding a LIFETIME commitment and a SERIOUS physical/spiritual event, and you think that it just floated down to you? But it helps you sleep at night, so there you are.

 

A tried a stint as a dream interpreter at a couple of forums, but I didn't take all jobs, either because I wasn't feeling anything from it, I couldn't read it well, it was too individual specific, or I just thought it was gunk.

 

Many people focus on the symbols, the visual, when interpreting dreams. I don't like that. Symbols are too individual. Roses mean love? Unless your fiance dropped off roses when they called it off to run off with their local bartender. Roses ain't so rosy.

 

Also, don't be so quick to jump to the past incarnation conclusion. It's far more likely that they are just deeply rooted impressions. For instance, I felt drawn to the military for a long time (still do). A palm reader said I was in the military in a past life. Then my mom discovered some of my old baby pictures. There I was as a two year old dressed as G.I. Joe

 

I noticed a lot of visual imagery in your post. Very descriptive. But really, it's just scenery. I tend to home in on emotions and reactions that people have- they are far more telling about what a dream meant to that individual.

 

When you entered the area- how did you feel? Were you comfortable? Excited? At home?

 

What did you think when you saw the severed head? Repulsed? Intrigued? Indifferent?

 

Were you excited when you read the book?

 

And so on.

 

If nothing jumps out at you, and you just felt neutral, all I've got to say it was a nice dream, I hope you enjoyed it, you really want to get your hands on that sutra. Hope you do and you enjoy it

 

And for the vividness- of course, it's a fond memory. But be careful about remembering "more as the day goes on". I can't tell you how many times I've sat to reread my dream journal thinking "oh, I remember this dream, I jump off the high dive next", only to get to the next paragraph that reads "then my giraffe friend said hi and we ate bananas". Memory DOES get distorted over time. Good and bad. Which is why I highly suggest, if ever you get into a situation which might involve legal troubles or a testimony or having to talk to the cops, write EVERYTHING down AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Thoughts and impressions to. They can and WILL warp, and, God forbid, they can BE WARPED by others.

Edited June 6, 2011 by Sloppy Zhang

[adept]

When you entered the area- how did you feel? Were you comfortable? Excited? At home?

At home definitely.

 

What did you think when you saw the severed head? Repulsed? Intrigued? Indifferent?

Indifferent. It was actually blocking my way to the plinth. I had to climb over and around it

Were you excited when you read the book?

Yes. I instantly knew everything.

[Sloppy Zhang]

Those weren't your only choices you know

 

I wasn't looking for you to pick any answers. But, IMHO, those are the lines of questioning that you should look at when examining a dream and understanding it's impact.

 

It's far more reliable than trying to decipher symbolism which changes from culture to culture, era to era, and person to person.

 

Anyway, dreams are fun

[de_paradise]

I'm a big fan of dreams, especially the particularly vivid or strange. As Sloppy says, most is jibberish that people read to much into.

 

I think that this dream tells you of a previous connection with the Dharma, and it is auspicious, and that you can continue reading sutras to see if anything affects you in the same way. Maybe the head off the Buddha is an admonition to stay out of your head, not use your intellect so much.

 

I had a strange dream last night because I was trying to lock my mind onto a certain deity at night as I drifted to sleep ( always meditate before sleeping) , but after I drifted on to dreamland. I dreamt that there was this Chinese dude next to me and he was poking a finger into my plexus, and I was complaining, dont poke so hard and I woke myself up from it due to the pain or my whining.

[imonous]

Yes dreams can definitely help us on our paths but when interpreting them we have a real tendency to color them or make what we want them to mean. If you are looking at a dream always remain conscious of what you are desiring from it. What makes you excited about the dream? What are you expecting and so anxious about finding? Detach from that and look at it from another point of view. I find it interesting that not only was the head of the buddha detached, but the head was actually standing in your way of finding true knowledge.

[Vajrahridaya]

I dreamt that there was this Chinese dude next to me and he was poking a finger into my plexus, and I was complaining, dont poke so hard and I woke myself up from it due to the pain or my whining.

 

That's always odd, when I'm about to enter into sleep and during an in between state I experience a being sleeping next to me, who's not supposed to be there in the physical sense and they're touching me. I've woken up like this before too... in between dreaming and waking up having a clear vision of all sorts of beings around me with their hands inside me and they'll be of different kind of colors.

 

Really weird.

[adept]

I had another short, but very vivid dream in which Sudhana and Manjushri appeared and introduced themselves to me.

This is becoming very bizarre. I feel as if I'm being coaxed onto a particular path. Not forced or converted, but gently shown a way.

A way with no answers, ever. Only more questions.

[gendao]

This is an easy one now.

What did you think when you saw the severed head? Repulsed? Intrigued? Indifferent?

Indifferent. It was actually blocking my way to the plinth. I had to climb over and around it

 

Were you excited when you read the book?

Yes. I instantly knew everything.

The proper way to approach Buddhism is with an empty mind (symbolized by the severed head). When you can do that, then you will instantly understand everything its sutras are trying to say...

 

(The "irony" here being that to truly understand all the "scholarly" scriptures, you must "get out of your head" and do so non-intellectually.)

Edited July 17, 2011 by vortex

[adept]

Well I've just managed to acquire a copy of this huge book at last. Yipee !
Casually flicking through the pages I can see I'm going to have my work cut out though.

Edited May 16, 2013 by adept