Chapter 1 BUDDHIST DREAM THEORY(Part 6)

By Quyen Ngo

This seems to imply that consciousness becomes aware of the presence of the portent analogous to the way a radio picks up signals when in range. This contrasts with the traditional Hindu idea of the subtle body being the basis for dream consciousness, which separates from the physical body and wanders around. This subtle body is ‘equivalent to the prāṇamaya (vital), manomaya (mental), and vijñāna (intellectual) sheaths (kośa) all taken together’.[1] Alex Wayman comments that this subtle body ‘agrees with the Buddhist manovijñāna as a kind of body that can detach itself from the coarse body and wander’ (Wayman, 1967: 10). However, according to Harvey, manovijñāna just means mind-consciousness, which occurs in dreams, as well as in normal consciousness and in meditation[2] . Perhaps Wayman means manomaya kāya, a mind-made body, which in Theravāda Buddhism is thought to manifest during meditation[3] . There has been no mention of the manomaya kāya occurring in dreams in Theravāda Buddhism. However, it seems that according to Tibetan Buddhism, the manomaya kāya can manifest in dreams, as implied by the Dalai Lama’s comments:

There is said to be a relationship between dreaming, on the one hand, and the gross and subtle levels of the body on the other. But it’s also said there is such a thing as a ‘special dream state’. In that state, the ‘special dream body’ is created from the mind and from the vital energy (known in Sanskrit as prāṇa) within the body. This special dream body is able to dissociate entirely from the gross physical body and travel elsewhere… [This can be accomplished be aspiration or] by means of prāṇa yoga [which] utilize[s] the subtle, vital energies in the body… (Dalai Lama, 1997: 38)

What the Dalai Lama describes above as the ‘special dream state’ seems to refer to the manomaya kāya, which according to him, can be made to manifest during both dreaming and meditation. Namkhai Norbu expresses a similar view, in what he describes as the ‘mayic’ body, ‘Dreaming is the principle path for realizing the mayic body…with a developed mayic body you have the total realization of the unreal...’ (Norbu, 1992: 105). Norbu also holds the view that the mayic body can be made to manifest during sleep as well as waking (Ibid).

Ethics in Dreams

With regards to ethics in dreams, according to Vinaya rules, there is no offence for actions committed in dreams, for example, it is not an offence to dream of having sex, even if it results in emission of semen[4] . Does this mean that dream consciousness is ethically neutral? This was, in fact, one of the points of controversy dealt with in the Kathāvatthu, which explains that although dream consciousness is not ethically neutral, since no actual harm is done to property or life it cannot be classed as involving offence[5] . Furthermore, there is volition in dream, but that volition is negligible.[6] This is in line with the Vibhaṅga-aṭṭhakathā, which explains that dream consciousness can be ‘profitable [kusala/wholesome], unprofitable [akusala/unwholesome] or indeterminate [neither wholesome nor unwholesome]’[7] . For example, it is profitable when one dreams of listening to the Law [Dharma], preaching the Law, or paying homage at shrines. It is unprofitable when one dreams of killing living beings. When free from both extremes, the dream consciousness is indeterminate.[8] It also makes clear that dream consciousness has karmic results. Although such results are not strong enough to bring about rebirth linking, they may be experienced at some time in the future.[9] This would lend support to the importance of falling asleep mindfully so as to avoid committing unwholesome actions in dreams. In fact, the Vinaya records the Buddha’s advice on falling asleep as:

Monks who mindfully [sampajāna] fall asleep do not emit impurities [asuci na mucati]….There are five disadvantages to falling asleep thoughtlessly, without mindfulness: sleeping uneasily, waking unhappily, seeing a bad [pāpakaṃ] dream, not being guarded by gods [devatā], emitting impurities…five advantages come from mindfully falling asleep: sleeping easily, waking happily, not seeing a bad dream, being guarded by gods, not emitting impurity.[10]

This is the earliest advice on how to affect dream content by the power of awareness and resolution, and by implication seems to lend support to the practice of Dream Yoga.