In Buddhism, the reason we call this world, this existence, and everything a dream is because nothing is lasting. Everything appears, changes, and disappears. This whole world is seen as a collective dream of all beings. From our collective pride, everything solid arises. From our collective anger comes everything fluid. From our collective attachments and desires, everything heat-giving. From our collective jealousy, everything that moves like the wind. And from our collective ignorance and confusion, the experience of space as being separate, as being something that separates us, instead of a container we are inside. Another reason that we may call this a dream is that we only experience what our senses are showing us. For instance, we don’t have any senses that pick up radioactivity. That might be useful one day, but we don’t have them, right? And above a certain vibration, we only see white light, or we can’t hear anything. And below a certain vibration, everything is dark, or we don’t see anything. So in this way, we can say that things are like a dream.
We also don’t see things the way they actually are. If we are happy, everything is beautiful and nice. If we are unhappy, everything is terrible and difficult. And this is not because the world is standing on its head. It’s not because the world is changing so much. The world is more or less the same. It’s we who are shifting from the dark to the rose-colored glasses and back again. So if we look at it, we can say that we are living many individual dreams inside a big collective dream. From our subconscious, this whole universe and all universes appear. Then we experience so many different situations and states of mind and worlds and so on. So that’s what we’re talking about when we say “dream,” but as a very real dream because body and speech are involved and because we have something you can call into subjective control. We can check things with each other. This we call green, this we call blue, and so on, and this also makes the daily dream more real. While the dream we have at night is only the mind. Okay, some people mumble a little bit. My dear brother Björn even sleepwalked a little bit from time to time, finding himself on a roof looking down when he woke up; a daredevil day and night, right? But anyway, except for that, when we dream, it’s mainly our mind that’s doing the thing. Things are happening in our mind, and they are not shared with others.
On the other hand, there is a certain wisdom in the dream state because we are more aware of the unreal nature of things, the easiness with which we can gain a million dollars and lose it again, or go everywhere, travel everywhere. This actually shows a deep wisdom in the understanding of the nature of our mind. I mean, there is an understanding of the nature of our mind in dreams that we don’t have in our daily time because we are tied to all these shared experiences. We are tied in by words, thoughts, and symbols shared at that time and that place. And because of that, things become more solid, and we don’t experience the freshness and the free play of the mind the way we otherwise would. So in this way, dreams are different. Of course, there are psychological diseases and mental diseases, where the difference disappears, and the conscious mind is flooded by experiences from the unconscious mind that come up uncontrollably and so on, but these are different states.
So if we look at the dreams we have at night, then it’s good to know from the beginning that only the last third of the dream is really useful to us. The first third of the dream is when the impressions which happened during the day are placed into different cupboards within the subconscious. For people who are stressed out or have jobs or positions that stress them out, who are not feeling at home with what happens to them in their lives, that first period of dreams is very important. Most of us, when we hear about gangsters like Al Capone or people like that, we often think, “Oh, they must have had a very wild life chasing ladies all night and stuff like that.” However, if we look at their actual lifestyles, they were exceedingly bourgeois. Because if you feed your mind with a lot of violence, a lot of anger, a lot of hate and so on during the day, then to be able to survive and live on, one actually needs this first period of sleep, if possible before midnight, where all the harmful experiences of the day can be cushioned and put into different compartments of the mind so that they don’t hit us like a hammer.
Then there’s a second period of dreams, which is around midnight or somewhat after that. And the second period actually is where people can have things which are called nightmares. There may be two reasons for nightmares. It may actually be that there’s somebody out there, some energy that we owe something to, or that doesn’t like us, or that we harmed earlier and so on. This is possible. But in most cases, I would say that it’s probably that our energy goes so deeply into the central channel of the body, goes so centrally into the middle of us, and our breathing becomes so slow that our mind begins to think, “Oh, I’m dying.” Then, it produces some adrenaline in order to increase breathing. And when breathing increases, then together with the adrenalin, the mind produces some hallucination or some other things like that. Then, one feels that some demon is riding on one’s chest or something like that. I can only speak about this from hearsay. I have never had nightmares myself, but I know that other people have that. Basically, I would say it’s a lack of oxygen. It’s simply your breathing gets too deep, and then adrenalin is produced, and then things like that come up.
Some of us rarely go to bed before three, four in the morning because there’s so much to do, and in that case, of course, you miss out on the first stage. But apparently, this doesn’t cause neurosis. If you do what you like during the day, you don’t get neurotic. If you don’t have that time for placing new things in different cupboards because you are already happy with what’s there, then there’s nothing there you need to protect yourself from.
And then there is the last third of the night. That is the important part, that is, where things happen which may look ahead into a point in the future. And here, there are different phases. There is a phase shortly before when you would naturally wake up. And if you are dreaming there, it may be what you would call a premonition. If the dream feels strong and meaningful, what one has dreamt may come to pass in the immediate future. And then there are the dreams where one is just waking up, and that may then happen further into the future. So dreams that happen shortly before waking up may be in the immediate future, and dreams just when waking up, farther in the future. And I think it even includes if you’ve set your alarm clock, as long as you know the alarm clock is set, because then the subconscious knows that and works through the different things in that way. If your mind subconsciously knows that you’ll have to get up at a certain time, it will put the processes in such a way that you get through everything.
The most important thing, more important than any sign in your dream, is how you feel the moment you wake up, if you feel good or if you feel bad. And here, don’t misunderstand yourself. If you kill beings all night in your dream and you wake up feeling excellent, it doesn’t mean you found your true nature, and you’re actually a sadist or something like that. What it actually means is that you’ve been destroying different obstacles in your mind manifesting like this, or fixed ideas, or something like that. If you help old ladies crossing the street all night, and you wake up feeling more ordinary or not so good, maybe you were actually thinking of getting into their will or something like that, right? So, it’s the feeling you have when you wake up that’s most important for what the dream was. But these are just worldly dreams; these are dreams that have to do with the pictures in the mirror–with the things coming and going.
There’s also another kind of dream, and you should be very happy when you have them, which are dreams that point to your enlightened nature, to your buddha nature. If you have dreams of your lama, if you have dreams of buddha aspects, if you have dreams of experiencing initiations or seeing much clearer light, or receiving blessings, or hearing mantras, or walking into mandalas, or things like that, then these are actually very, very good signs. It means that in different places in the mirror of your mind, the dust has become so thin that the real nature of mind, your enlightened nature, your buddha nature is beginning to manifest through that. And in that case, you have something to celebrate. It really means that your connection to enlightened nature is very close. And it also means that when you die you can be sure that these experiences will arrive again. Then you will be like a ring, and the energy of the buddha-fields will be like a hook and you will be pulled into different states of bliss and meaning. So, as far as this is concerned, these dreams are very, very good.
If you look at dreams, the very, very most important thing is to carry the dreamy feeling into the world today. To bring that feeling of a dream where you cannot be hurt, where the pictures shift all the time, where there’s always space around situations, and where you have a lot of inner freedom, to bring that feeling into your life today. It will teflon-coat you and will actually protect you in many, many different ways. If you can see things as a collective dream with individual dreams happening inside it, if you can always experience a space with the energy which is around different things, if you’re capable of doing that, and you’re really aware of that in every way, then you will be very well protected. You will have a lot of power, you’ll have a lot of surplus and there will be no limit to the things you can do for others. You will be able to put your energies out and help and benefit others, which is a really important thing, of course. So the most important thing is, like the Buddha said, to see the world as a dream, as a fantasy, as a film. That’s a more modern example, right? There’s something coming and going as pictures in the mirrors, as reflections in the water, and so on. If we see things like that while at the same time holding on to that fearless, joyful space, which is our true nature and we act out from that, then there will be immense benefit for others and ourselves.
What about dreams that happen when you are doing Diamond Mind meditation (Tib. Dorje Sempa, Skt. Vajrasattva) or when you take in different kinds of Tibetan medicines, blessed herbs, and so on?
Well, if they are unpleasant, they are removing knots from your subconscious, from your store consciousness, things that would otherwise bring problems. And if they are pleasant, they are sheer blessing. You should be happy. You should think the Buddha likes me and things go very well. Thoroughly enjoy that.
What’s the meaning if, during a dream, one knows that one is dreaming and so on?
It’s a sign of high awareness if you can hold it. If you can hold that state of knowing you’re dreaming while you’re dreaming, you can actually expand that out all the way into enlightenment. Most people just have it for a moment, and then they are flicked out of it again, but if you can hold that state, it’ll get you enlightened. It’s a sign of a clear mind.
And what would the ideal state be? The ideal thing to do would be: now show me the dreamer. In that moment, show me the dreamer, and then expand out into that. Go from knowing the pictures to knowing the mirror where the pictures come and go. Like that moment, just go into the dreamer itself, then you would have timeless vision.
So in daily life, how can you learn to see things as a dream? Well, I’d say one of the main things would actually be to first understand impermanence and the changing nature of all things. That’s the way it goes. It goes from seeing how things change all the time to seeing the conditioned nature of things, how everything works on something else and influences something else, then moving on from there. That is how it works. And then when you’ve done that for a while when the belief in reality and the real existence of things has lessened, then your experience of things not being solid and blocking, but having a lot of space around them, will grow. Then you will actually see things as they really are, and you will keep that dreamy nature whatever happens.
Another thing which is actually a lot easier than that is the fact that your mind is naturally united with all things at all times and all places. So, knowing all things is your natural state. And if there is a clear place in the mirror of your mind, a place with no expectation or fear, then intuitively, you could know things like that. That’s what the Karmapa often did. He just sat down in a chair, relaxed for a moment, and said, “Oh, these people are driving here now, and those will be arriving there. And they must talk like this,” and so on. And that was maybe a hundred miles away, those people. So, in that way, it’s that we all have that intuitive aspect, that going outside the here and now and being able to see it, to know other places and other times. It’s just something one has to check very well, to really look at very well, so that one is critical with it.
Then what is intuition?
Well, intuition is the basic nature of our mind. Actually, everything is united with all things in all times and places. The vibration of every atom in my body and the space between those vibrating parts of the atom is actually in connection with you, with all things in all times and places. We’re all totally united with each other. We are all basically together in every way on this absolute level. So the moment that the dust falls off, we see this radiant state of mind you can compare to a jewel. Before that, this jewel is covered by four things. First, the basic ignorance of mind, not understanding that subject, object, and action are interdependent, are part of the same thing. From this ignorance, the next layer comes, and that’s called mixed feelings. Then, the third layer comes from that because we can see that the feelings come and go. We speak and act. Then comes a third level of clumsy actions, and then comes the fourth level of habits. And these four layers are what keeps the natural radiance of our mind from manifesting itself. So in different states of awareness and so on, one can actually make the veils fall away. One can get a part of that mirror to radiate and really shine. One can do something to completely open the mind and bring out all of its potential. This is what one can do. These are the moments when you are intuitive. The moment you don’t separate subject, object, and action, you’re just in the here and now; in those moments, you will know things, not because you can hear them, not because you can see them, not because you can feel them, but because you’re a part of them. Because you’re not separate from them.
