Chapter 1 BUDDHIST DREAM THEORY(Part 5)

By Quyen Ngo

Vibhaṅga-aṭṭhakathā

The commentary on the Vibhaṅga of the Abhidhamma-piṭaka (Vibhaṅga-aṭṭhakathā), work attributed to Buddhaghosa, states that only unenlightened people dream, ‘owing to non-abandonment of the perversions [greed, hatred, and delusion], non-trainers [Arahats] do not see them owing to the abandonment of the perversions’[1] . It lists four causes of dream:

(1) Owing to a disturbance of the elements (dhātukkhobha), or (2) owing to what was experienced previously (anubhūtapubba), or (3) owing to provision by deities (devatopasaṃhāra), or (4) owing to a portent (pubbanimitta).[2]

In the first case, for example, a disturbance of the bile, leads to dreaming of falling from the mountain, going through space, being chased by wild beasts, and robbers. In the second case, one dreams of what was previously experienced. In the third case, one sees objects through the power of the deities, and this can be good or bad, depending on whether the deities want to wish him/her well or not. And, in the last case, one sees the ‘dream as a portent of some good or ill seeking to arise due to merit or demerit’.[3] In other words, dreams arise as a sign of the maturation of karma; for example, Queen Mayā’s dreams and the Bodhisatta’s five great dreams.

According to Buddhaghosa, dreams caused by devas can be true or not, depending on the deva’s intentions. Dream owing to a portent is always true, and those of the first two categories are always false.[4]

Similar causes of dream are listed in Milindapañha. When king Milinda asks, ‘So what is it that is called a dream? And who sees it?’ Venerable Nāgasena answered:

This that is called a dream, sire, is a portent that comes into the focus of the mind. And these six (people), sire, see a dream: (the person) who suffers from wind sees a dream, the bilious (person) sees a dream, the phlegmatic (person) sees a dream, (the person) possessed of a deva sees a dream, (the person) who is exercised in his mind sees a dream, (the person) who sees a dream as a portent. Among these, sire, only the dream he sees as a portent is true, all the rest are false.[5]

Thus, dream can have a somatic cause, it can be caused by a deva (deity), from past experiences, or it can be a prophetic dream. Only the latter is true, all others are false. This differs from Buddhaghosa’s version, which states that dream caused by deities can be true or false.

However, both sources agree on the state in which one dreams, that is, when one is neither sleeping (deep sleep), nor awake, but when one is in ‘monkey sleep’ (makkaṭaniddā)[6] , sleep that is easily broken. Venerable NŒgasena explains that when one is in deep sleep, the mind is not functioning, thus dreaming is not possible. According to Buddhaghosa, when one is dreaming, there is the ‘dipping again and again [of consciousness] into the life continuum [bhavaṅga]’[7] . Harvey writes that during dreamless sleep, there is pure bhavaṅga (1995: 10.19), whilst dreaming entails rapid alternation of bhavaṅga, advertence, and javana (impulsion)[8] type of consciousness. Though there is much less javana occurrence during dreaming than waking (10.14). Furthermore, as in dreaming, there is also rapid alternation between bhavaṅga and javana when experiencing higher knowledges, however, in the case of dreaming, the cittas (mind-moments) are ‘confused’, due to dullness and drowsiness (10.30).

As to the mechanism in which a portent is seen in dreams, according to Venerable Nāgasena:

It is not, sire, that his mind, going along of its own accord, seeks for that portent, nor does anyone else come and tell him
of it, but that very portent comes into the focus of the mind. As, sire, a mirror does not go anywhere to seek for a reflection, nor does anyone else, bringing a reflection, put it on the mirror, but from wherever the reflection comes it appears in the mirror.[9]