Dreams and Reality
One night before I went to sleep, I asked for clarity about something which would help with my decision-making. During that night, I had a clear dream which was so real and answered my question perfectly. I got up as usual and drove along the freeway to work. At one moment, I felt like I had fallen into a dream world: the cars were moving; the road was smooth; and I was in the flow of earthly life. I know one day, this scene would be in my dream land. The truth is that reality might be just a dream, but the dream can be actually reality.
If a person without a regular and persistent practice is driven by random thoughts all day, the dreams during the night can also be random and without much meaning, but for a student who is into deeper and sincere self-cultivation, dreams can be crystal clear and meaningful.
I have put dreams in six categories for spiritual cultivators:
1. Memory: Something happened in the past that is stored in consciousness which needs to be processed, and is mostly repetitive.
2. Message/prediction: This conveys an important message for the present or future times; in most cases an important messenger will appear in the dream.
3. Deception: Be mindful of bring tricked, for not all the figures in dreams are real.
4. Creditor: These are mostly nightmares such as being chased, or angry figures asking for debt repayment.
5. Test: This put the self-cultivator to a test, especially with a particular precept practice. For example, if a person is cultivating to refrain from becoming angry, the dream will serve as a test to see if the person would get angry in a particular scenario.
6. Accomplishment: This reveals the level of the practice and cultivation. For example, a student dreamed she could fly and saw a big, white lotus opening up, which means her cultivation has reached a higher level.
Dreams are clear indicators for cultivation, but too many dreams or too involved dreams can make one's energy too Yin, disturbing one's sounder and deeper sleep and affecting one's health condition.
Having no dreams or not remembering dreams at all can be an indication that the person's energy is too Yang, thereby missing important soul messages.
A balanced energy means that most of the time there are no dreams, but occasionally one will have an important message dream to guide one's practice.
Note: Yin/Yang are basic concepts of the Tao; they are two opposite polarities: Yin can be the Moon, female, dark, still, sensitivity, etc; while Yang can be the Sun, male, light, active, toughness, etc.
May you have soul-guided sweet dreams!