I hope this finds you well and happy. I’m pretty sure I read it in the Pali Nikayas. It is probably one of the texts used as the basis of the idea of a ‘merit bank’ which I have found amongst ethnic Buddhists **especially**. It is the story of a person (prince/king?) who goes to the Buddha with a report of a repeated (?) nightmare, of people (monsters/ghosts/demons?) moaning and begging for food at his residence. The Buddha advises him that it’s because he didn’t share his own meritorious actions (puñña) with relatives (bandhu?) in the past. So, he should do so in the future to avoid this. best wishes Joe

I have noticed last few months that my dreams are very real. This I say because if I recall a memory from some dream that I remember, that memory is usually more clear and stronger than most everyday life memories. I remember that better, coz I seem to be more "alive" in the dream. If right now I think about dreaming from yesterday night, I **know** that during the dream I was more alive then I am right now. I know this might be related to lucid dreaming, but I am not lucid dreamer - I haven't had a lucid dream ever. What do you think could be going on here? Have you been in a similar situation?

I had this dream in an afternoon 3-hr long nap today where I was so drunk that I could not keep track of the present. I remember, at one moment I was conscious that I feel drunk and then the next moment I knew of, much time had already passed from that previous moment of awareness. This all was in the dream itself. There were also accompanying signs like heart palpitations which are actually true for me in real life too. The surprising thing is that I did not drink in real life at all in the past few weeks, and neither did I drink within the dream. I was just curious if there is any insight in Buddhism on this - does it hint at any blockages, or hindrances that I may have in "real life"? Thanks for any insights.

Pretty much what the title says, but expand on it a little - During breath meditation (also during vipassana, but mostly breath) I frequently see random narratives. Sometimes it is random bits from TV/video games that I play or from real life. But mostly it is random. For example, today I was meditating on rising and falling on the stomach and in the beginning for half a minute or so I had clarity, but then it transformed into images of ball expanding and contracting (stomach is spherical, so I guess that is why it became a ball). Then within a minute or so it changed to two balls, and competition of which is bigger...and which then changed into someone saying 'you are good at management' which then changed to folder being arranged in finder in macos. You get the idea - they are almost completely unrelated to each other, and yet surprisingly, all the while I am deluded into thinking that I am still on the breath. If I were to guess, I'd say these are low consciousness states almost like dreams where we are deluded into thinking something while something completely logical and disconnected is happening. But what's more important to know is what these states are and how to fix my technique if it is wrong. So, please let me know your thoughts; and also I'd be more than happy to discuss it and give any more details. Thanks **EDIT :** I want to know what this kind of random images mean in regards to my meditation technique. I strongly think these are bad, in the sense that I am not doing what I am supposed to do in meditation. Maybe it is my technique, maybe I am not serious enough or something else. I know it because at other times in my mediation I am able to achieve concentration in some form or other. Only when I am low energy like that, these dream-like states come. I am surprised to see this kind of question is not talked about more here because this thing seems so common, kinda like one of the first pitfalls. But anyways, let me know what your insights on this phenomenon. I will be happy to share the exact details of my technique and mind states etc.

There is a Bön text I found out about recently that I’ve spent a lot of time looking for but haven’t been able to find anywhere as an English translation. The text is: Ma Gyud / Ma Gyudr / Ma Rgyud (Mother Tantra). I think the full translation of the name of the book is: Mother Tantra: The Tantric Cycle of the Sun of Compassion (Ma rgyud thugs rje nyi ma'i rgyud skor). Or it might also be: Secret Mother Tantra Cycle (Ma rgyud gsang skor), which was first promulgated among humanity by the Royal Shen Milu Samleg / Samlek [Mi lus bsams legs] I found references to the Mother Tantra in Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche’s book “The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep”. I’ve also come across some more info about it and its structure here: http://www.surajamrita.com/bon/MotherTantra.html There might also be some other names for it here: http://drenpa-namkha.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/A-Title-of-mother-tantra.pdf I’d really love to read and practice from the source material. I suspect, however, that there may not be an English translation of it available, as I haven’t found any traces of it online. Would anyone be able to point me to a page or pdf online of this original text where it’s been translated, or send me a copy if you have one? Or alternatively, know of an English translation I could buy as a kindle or physical book? Thanks in advance for any help!

In this video clip you can see renowned Tibetan master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu saying that life is unreal and that the Buddha taught it is just like a dream. Is he correct? I've transcribed below: > Sometimes we have very nice dream. Fantastic dream... And we enjoy. We > are very happy. We are dreaming, for example... ...I'm looking and > someone is selling... lottery ticket. Very, very big lottery. I am > taking and buying from someone and I am returning home. And I am > seeing the television. And when I am looking at my number... The > television is saying that number! Then I feel very happy. "Oh, what do > I do now?" All this money. I am really happy and then I wake up. When > I wake up, I discovered that is a dream, unfortunately. I am not > happy. Or sometimes... very, very bad dream. There are many people > that want to kill me. They are arriving in my house. Then they are > starting to kill me. I feel very afraid. That moment I wake up. And I > discover, "Oh, that is only a dream!" I am very happy. **You see, good > or bad. Even good or bad. A dream is a dream. Unreal. So Buddha is > saying, our life is just like a dream. Big dream.** Dream of night is a > very small dream, but... Our life's dream, it has many day and night, > day and night etcetera. When we discover that... Dreams, we discover > when we wake up. But big dreams, we discover... When we are dying and > being in a state of Bardo (transitional state). Emphasis mine. A closely related question (with answers) is here.

In the Dhamma talk *"Sleeping and dreaming"* , by Ajahn Punnadhammo, he mentions that in the Anguttara Nikaya (no specific sutta mentioned) the Buddha talked about the origins of dreams and different kinds of dreams. He taught that some dreams could be visions of the past and future, messages from Devas and "Wind in the belly" meaning random content with no real significance. What sutta is this? Thank you for your time.

What is Buddhism view on Ancestor Worship? Are there any references which talk about it? Do ancestors occupy any plane/realm ? How to explain the ancestors who come in dreams? Is it manifest of mind?

On various web pages relating to the Dhamma I have read the claim that arahants never dream. A few examples: * Buddhist scholar Lily de Silva [writes](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/desilva/wheel407.html) : > We may also note the tradition maintaining that arahants never dream, maybe because they have attained such perfect mental health that there is no necessity to release tension through dreams. * The ven. Dhammananda Maha Thera [writes](https://www.budsas.org/ebud/whatbudbeliev/321.htm) : > Buddhas and Arahants never dream. The first three kinds of dream cannot occur in their minds, because their minds have been permanently 'stilled' and cannot be activated to dream. The last kind of dream cannot happen to them because they have eradicated all their craving energy completely, and there is no 'residual' energy of anxiety or unsatisfied desire to activate the mind to produce dreams. * And the Czech monk U Sarana [writes](http://burmadhamma.blogspot.com/2016/05/cremation-and-relics-of-sayadaw-u.html) : > At that time Mahasi Sayadaw told to U Pandita that to his (Mahasi Sayadaw's) surprise, Mahasi Sayadaw had a dream. It is impossible for an Arahant to have a dream - and thus Sayadaw U Pandita knew, that Mahasi Sayadaw was not an Arahant at the time when this was said. Surprisingly, I have not been able to find any Suttas or other textual sources for the claim that arahants never dream. Do any of you guys know of such sources? Is it in the Suttas, the Abhidhamma, the commentaries, or in a later text such as the Visuddhimagga? Thanks in advance for your answers!

Is there any meaning given to dreams of the Buddha? For example is it considered an omen a sign or meaningless ...? EDIT: Sorry i have to change the edit back to the Buddha instead of Bodhisattva.My question is about someone dreaming of The Buddha.As in **Buddha,the fully enlightened** being.Not a Bodhisattva.Not a dream about Sidhattha.But a dream of the Buddha. My question is,Is there any meaning given to dreams of the Buddha in Buddhism.For example if you dreamt of The Buddha would it be considered an omen,a sign or meaningless. Thank you

Does anyone know if one can fall asleep into a dream while in the process of mindful insight practice and still maintain mindfulness and concentration? This would be different than establishing mindfulness while dreaming.

What has buddha told about dreams? Do dreams have any link with truths or realities? If a person understands something from his dream which he is asking in this world, than should such things considered as real? How is this world also one of the dream worlds among other infinite dream worlds/parallel universe? Is dream a type of meditation state?

1. Is there some standard Mahayana doctrine about dreams and illusions? 2. How is the doctrine meant to be used -- assuming it's a view, how is it meant to be effective? 3. I ask because of [this answer](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/28998/254) : > Consider how it feels to wake up from a dream and realize that all you felt during that dream was, “just a dream.” All the passion you felt while dreaming would dissipate upon waking up with the certain knowledge that it was “just a dream,” right? > Now, what if you knew you were “just dreaming” while you were dreaming? Like in a lucid dream? The passion and zeal would dissipate right then and there as you would know it all to be unreal. I don't think I have the experiences of dreams, described above -- instead: - The feelings, the emotional content, of a dream -- how I feel towards a someone in a dream, or about the place or surroundings in dream -- is not very different from the emotional content of waking life: similar feelings whether I'm asleep or awake. There are some childhood nightmares I remember -- of falling out of a tree, or being chased by a dinosaur -- I still remember the fear ... I probably am (or could be) still afraid of being a young child chased by a dinosaur, even though I know that was/is a dream. - When I know that I am dreaming -- e.g. because I'm with someone in my dream who I know has died in waking life -- the passion doesn't dissipate. The passion is part of the dream, part of the memory perhaps, part of the fabrication you might say, just as much as the person's form (appearance, voice, character, actions) is part of the dream. The "lesson" I get from the experience isn't that passion and zeal dissipate -- instead the lesson is that experiences (e.g. views of people and relationships) are mind-made. I assume that to whatever extent they're mind-made in a dream, they're similarly mind-made in waking life. The experience even leaves me doubting (because it's contradicted by experience) whether sankharas (if that's what dreams are) are really "impermanent" -- or perhaps they should be called "attachments" or I don't know. In summary I don't get the impression that dreams are less real than waking life, I do get the impression that waking life is mind-made like a dream. I'm not sure these are the right "lessons" to derive from the experience though -- or are they? -- since they seem to contradict the answer quoted above. 4. Inaccurate/approximate portrayals of the word illusion might imply: "everything is an illusion, nothing exists, nothing matters" -- I think that's a kind of nihilist wrong view according to the suttas: how about in Mahayana? 5. Another problem I have with "dreaming" as a characterisation of or analogy for waking life, is that I think I'm quite passive in a dream: i.e. things happen to me, things come out of nowhere, unpredictable. I fear that may be an unhealthy, unwise, unskillful attitude to have towards waking reality -- is one supposed to be, instead, active (not just reactive) and intentional? What does "awake" mean, in context? --- I note that the above doesn't mention anatta -- which, to the extent that the above is a problem, may be part of the solution -- but maybe the above question makes some sense as-is.

I am looking for early mentions of the accumulation of karma while dreaming. Here is what I've been able to find so far: 1. In The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom a discussion of accumulating karma in dreams: > Sāriputra: Ven. Subhuti, the Bodhisattva, the great being, who in > his dreams enters into the three concentrations—emptiness, the > signless, the wishless—does he, then, grow in perfect wisdom? > > Subhuti: If, Ven. Śāriputra, he grows through the development by > day, then he also grows in a dream. And why? Because dream and waking > are indiscriminate. If the Bodhisattva who courses by day in the > perfection of wisdom has a development of the perfection of wisdom, > then also the Bodhisattva, the great being, who dreams will have a > development of the perfection of wisdom. > > Śāriputra: If again, Ven. Subhuti, the Bodhisattva, the great > being, does a deed in his dream, will there by of that deed a heaping > up or accumulation? If all dharmas are said to be like a dream, there > will be no heaping up or accumulation of it. And why? Because in a > dream no heaping up or accumulation of a dharma can be apprehended. > But when one wakes up and thinks it over, then there is a heaping up > or accumu- lation of it. > > Subhuti: One who had committed a murder in his dream, and, on > waking, would think it over like this, 'he has been well killed by me, > (A: it is right that he was killed, it is just that he was killed, it > was I who killed him!' Such thoughts are equivalent to the conscious > notion that he wants to kill someone). > > Śāriputra: Not without an objective support does a deed arise or an > act of will. > > Subhuti: So it is, Śāriputra, not without an objective support does > a deed arise or an act of will. Only with an objective support is a > deed produced, or an act of will, and not without. In seen, heard, and > known dharmas does intelligence proceed, and not in unseen, unheard, > unknown dharmas. Therein some intellectual acts take hold of > defilement, and some of purification. Therefore, then, Śāriputra, it > is with an objective support that a deed or act of will arises and not > without objective support. 2. In Tsongkhapa's Praise for Dependent Relativity it is mentioned that the karma of killing in a dream was a question answered by the Buddha, but no sources are provided. 3. Shantideva addressed this (or a closely related) question in Chapter 9 of his Guide to the Bodhisattvas Way of Life verse 11 and on: > If consciousness does not exist, there is no sin in killing an > illusory person. On the contrary, when one is endowed with the > illusion of consciousness, vice and merit do arise. 4. In the Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 lines: > Sariputra: If someone in his dreams does a deed, wholesome or > unwholesome, will that be added on to the heap or collection of his > karma? > > Subhuti: In so far as the Lord has taught that ultimately all dharmas > are like a dream, in so far that deed will not be added to his head or > collection of karma. But on the other hand [from the standpoint of > empirical reality], that deed will be added to the heap and collection > of his karma if, after the man has woken up, he thinks the dream over, > and consciously forms the notion that he wants to kill someone. How > does he do that? During his dream he may have taken life, and after he > has woken up, he thinks it over like this: “it is good that he was > killed! It is right that he was killed! It was just that he was > killed! It was I who killed him.” Such thoughts are equivalent to the > conscious notion that he wants to kill someone. Does anyone know of sutras or other ancient sources where the Buddha or Nagarjuna, Shantideva, Chandrakirti, Aryadeva, Buddhapalita, Tsongkhapa or others might have addressed the question of whether karma can be accumulated in dreams and if so, how? **I'm especially interested to know if this question was ever answered or addressed by the Buddha in the pali canon**

I dreamed that I spoke to the Buddha, seems like it waa Gautama. He told me I should extend my meditation practice to an hour two times a day instead of half an hour as I do now, to reap greater fruits. I don't think I really spoke to the Buddha. Did the historical Buddha ever speak of such events? Thoughts?

What is the buddhist perspective on lucid dreaming? I am very curious about my first lucid dream last night.

I want to know if exist some practice to meditate when I am ready to sleep, in order to train while I am dreaming.

**Background**: Recently when I was in the deep sleep I saw some dreams, which showed that I am going against the five precepts. For Instance, I lied somebody. I felt that as I lie in real life; I remember that I planned about revealing disinformation and creatively managed the flow of false information. If it was a real situation I may not act in such way. Is this scenario really cause to break the fourth precept? As we know, dreams are born based on the feelings of our subconscious mind. Therefore, Isn't it my own fault to see such a dream?

My partner has practiced a lot of lucid dreaming. She is good at it, I'm not. All in all, I'm a conceptual, low level beginner not yet recovered from too many years of academics. I sleep 7 hours every night, and as I've gotten all the intoxicants out of my system (I'm referring to chemistry here, not Kant and Plato) I remember my dreams! I've read about lucid dreaming a bit, and understand it's vital to keep a dream journal. Does anyone have tips/own experience on what's best to focus on in such a journal? I've asked my partner, but she gets a bit impatient with me.

I normally do not dream and if i dream those are very long and mixed when it comes to content (Both calming and provoking). So what is the Buddhist point of view on dreams.