Do you have Zen dreams?

[Mensch]

I am probably guilty of idle talk now, but do you ever have "buddhist" dreams? Dreams that encouraged your practise?

I remember several, the most recent: I crossed some unknown sunny courtyard and stopped in front of a wide canteen where lots of very young men, apparently monks, where sitting at tables. Someone said aloud (in German of course):

Zen is the freedom to be what you are.

Quite a platitude. But in the dream the words had an unexpected profoundness and freshness and they triggered a distinct sense of relief. Once more I felt
- how convinced I was that there is absolutely nothing to achieve in life other than to recognize yourself.
- how much I longed to end that aimless struggle that my life mostly is,
- how increasingly bored I was with any ideas and judgments about "myself".

I repeated the words over and over while waking up. Then I scratched my head: How do you become what you already are? Obvious: just (and only) be ...

Bother to share a dream?

Mensch

[paige]

Hi Mensch!

I don't remember the content of the dream, but a few months ago I was awoken by a nagging pain in my back. When I opened my eyes, I realised I'd somehow arranged myself in lotus position in my sleep!

Ouch.

[Mensch]

Wow, lotus during sleep – maybe I should give that a try. Harry, I don't know much about common persecution dreams. Is there an aspect of avoidance or intellectualizing in your practice?

I got interested in dreams only because at age 30 I suddenly began to remember them at all and I have been keeping a diary since then. Many seem just sort of messy. But many contain manifest advice. If some authority is talking to me in a dream, if I recognize a "failure – different approach" pattern, if I meet scary or repulsive people I try to pay attention. I hardly remember a moment of insight or increased consciousness in my life that wasn't sort of echoed by several preceding dreams. I don't think dreams are of particular help in spiritual matters though and it's obviously easier to drop that biography stuff altogether.

I like predictive dreams: About a year and a half ago when I wasn't yet aware that my lifelong intellectual "stalking" of the Dharma was about to turn into a much more intimate relationship, I had unusual dreams of being seduced by a very determined woman who showed characteristics of a vamp, a witch, a teacher and a saint. She did indecent mystical things to me. :wink:

So either I did just the right thing or I seriously ought to improve my sex life.

Gassho,
Mensch

[Rev R]

I thought about it quite a bit. It has been ages since I remember any dreams I may be having.

I do think I would like to borrow Mensch's brain for an evening.

[will]

There is only that which presents it's self. There is no vampire, there is no witch. Dreams, colors, pains in the body, feelings, thoughts are all just "clouds floating by" (Steve Hagen ). Yes. We do have an intellect, but sometimes we use too much of it without sponteneaity. It can sometimes get in the way of our actual experience. That's when dualistic thoughts of this and that present themselves and we attach to them. Zazen is noticing the clouds of experience but not attaching to them. Just dream don't think about what your dreams mean.

Remember those dreams have already past. While your talking about what happen before, your missing the now.


Gassho Will

[Jundo]

There is no vampire, there is no witch.

Then what will happen to Halloween? My kid is looking forward to the candy! :-)

Gassho, Jundo

[will]

Haha :lol:

[Drut]

I once had a dream in which I was dribbling basketball sized segments of an insect while chanting, "Beetle bomb, beetle bomb." I woke up laughing like crazy. True story. I often have dreams that wake me up laughing. Now you all know my secret.

[will]

:lol:

[Dainin]

It’s funny; I never really paid too much attention to this thread, because I never had a Zen dream. But I actually had my first one the other night.

I have a very interesting, hand craved wooden Buddha statue from Southeast Asia. It is a lean, kind-of-historical-looking, Siddhartha with long hair and topknot, wearing only a loincloth, sitting under the Naga's head. I think it's really unique. Anyway, it is carved with the little dot between his eyes. I forgot what the correct term is, but I understand that it is one of the thirty or so marks of a Buddha. I also learned that it was thought to be a tuft of white hair, which I thought was interesting.

So, I had this dream that I was sitting Zazen and felt this strange itch between my eyes on my forehead. People around me were looking at me very strangely. I later looked in the mirror and saw a little tuft of white hair growing. I remember thinking that I'm going to really look weird, but at the same time I thought it was very cool.

Don't know what it means, if anything. Not going to analyze it. I'm nowhere near being a Buddha. All I really know is that I do like that statue.

Gassho,
Keith

[Fuken]

I'm nowhere near being a Buddha.

Don't be so sure!

Gassho,
Jordan

[Dainin]

Jordan,

You are far too kind. :wink:

Gassho,
Keith

[Fuken]

Jordan,

You are far too kind. :wink:

Don't be so sure! :wink:

Gassho,
Jordan

[Dainin]

Jordan,

I am sure of nothing except that I am unsure.


Okay Jordan & Harry,

I'll admit it. I am a Buddha... wait, no I'm not... wait, yes I am...wait,...now I'm not sure! Damn!

Man, this Buddhist crap is really schitzo. :wink:

Gassho,
Keith

[will]

Haha :lol:

Harry

We're just advised to sit and do nothing and to abide in the practice and all that flows from it like big boys and girls. That's why I'm here. If I want to be told how to think, or how not to think, I'll go to any number of crap religions that are very concerned with controlling human thought and behavior.

Nobody's telling you how to think Harry. You can take what I said or leave it.

Dumb Zen' sucks, dude. And we can't think ourselves out of 'dualistic' thought anyway: avoidance of thought or types of thinking is straight-up classic dualistic thinking/action itself.

What is dumb zen?

My comment does not come from thinking about dualistic thought. My comment is about noticing the way dualistic thought comes up in one's practice with attaching to any opinion about it.

Remembering a dream is 'the now' if that is what just happens, and its something I find personally that is 'just happening' more.

My comment meant "not to get caught up in it" and forget about everything alse that is happening.

Next time a loved one is saved by surgery or is hooked up to a life saving piece of technology, or is able to contact us across long distances, or is helped by a psychologist we should meditate on the merits of the fact that somebody racked their tiny little intellectual human brain to bring such advances into existence...

Should we?

alternatively we can meditate ourselves back to the dark ages and revert to dying much, much younger

Yes. We could.

haha. Did I specifically say that the intellect was "bad" and we shouldn't use it?

Jordan

I'm nowhere near being a Buddha.

Don't be so sure!

Are you sure I shouldn't be sure?

Who said they were a buddha? Did I say that?

Have fun.

Gassho Will