Part 8

Dreams, illusions, and reality in Buddhist traditions

By Quyen Ngo

1. The Sthaviravāda

The Sthaviras were those ‘who stood for the tradition of the Elders’ at the third Buddhist council convened at Pataliputra (India) around 100 AD years after the Buddha’s passing to final nirvāṇa (Harvey, 1990, 74).

The Sthaviras acknowledged that the world as we know it consists of conditioned dharmas [fundamental elements of existence], which exist as short-lived, fleeting, constantly changing phenomena with no power to change and are entirely dependent on the factors which bring about their changes (Conze, 1962, 224). However, an unenlightened person, who fails to ‘see things as they really are’, has illusions about the world, which to him/her appears to be solid, stable and permanent. But a yogin who contemplates on the dharmas will discover their true evanescent nature, and thus find things to appear more and more deceptive and dream-like, and hence will become disenchanted with them (Conze, 1962, 224).

Thus, an unenlightened view of the world is an illusion projected on to reality. Illusion does not just arise from seeing, but from other senses as well. To dispel delusion and attachment regarding the self the, Sthaviras give five similes for the skandhas [the five ‘aggregates’ make up of a human being][1] . Form or the physical body, is like a glob of foam. Sensation is like a bubble. Perception is like a mirage. Volitional impulses are like the trunk of a banana tree. Consciousness is like a magic show.

If one were to examine a glob of foam, which appears to be solid from a distance, one would find no solidity in it at all because it consists of bubbles; it is without any enduring substance. Likewise, the body appears to be solid, but it actually consists of various elements, which are constantly changing, without any enduring substance. A water bubble bursts soon after it appears. Similarly, sensation is constantly arising and passing away. A mirage is the perception of something which does not actually exists, a false notion. Likewise, our perception gives rise to false notions about the things we sensed. If one were looking for heartwood, one would not find it in trunk of a banana tree, which appears to be solid from its outer appearance. Similarly, volitional impulses are without core or substance. A magic show tricks us into believing something other than what it is. Likewise, our consciousness tricks us with false imaginations

Editor’s Note:

The grasping upon the Five Aggregates of the human personality creates the multiplicity of the empirical world. Though the multiplicity of the material world is illusion and unreal in the ultimate sense, the lay Buddhists do not renounce material world externally. The lay Buddhists should train themselves to deal with material world of multiplicity with the Wisdom of Equanimity to annihilate the illusive Self or Ego. Self or Ego impurifies the mind. The most effective device is the Four Establishments of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna) to confront it effectively.