พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าฝันที่ตรงกับเหตุการณ์จริงเกิดจากกายฝันต้องการสื่อสารกับเรา ส่วนการสวดมนต์ออกเสียงจะทำให้อวัยวะที่ใช้ได้รับอภิสิทธิ์แห่งบุญเพิ่มเติมจากการอธิษฐานในใจเพียงอย่างเดียวThe teacher explains that dreams matching real events happen when the dream body wants to communicate with us. Chanting aloud gives the specific body part used a special "privilege" of purifying merit beyond what silent mental prayer alone provides.
Someone asked the teacher two questions: first, why do some dreams sometimes match real events that occur shortly afterward; second, does praying and making a wish silently in the mind, without speaking aloud, earn the same merit as chanting out loud?
How Dreams Can Foretell Real Short-Term Events
The teacher explained that when we sleep, we move into , which leaves our physical form to travel to various places, and may or may not bring back something to tell us. When a matter relates to something that will happen afterward or happened before, and the dream body wants us to know it, it conveys this as an image or sound within the dream. Dreams arising instead from mental hindrances or bodily imbalance are simply confused, ordinary dreams unrelated to this kind of communication. He added that every body — the human body, the dream body, and others — each clings to itself as the true self; when the dream body wants the human body to know something, it delivers that as an image or sound during sleep.
Does Silent Prayer Differ from Chanting Aloud
The teacher explained that there is indeed some difference, because whichever part of the body we use to perform a good deed receives a special "privilege" — a flow of merit that purifies that part in particular. For example, using the voice box to chant aloud purifies the voice box itself, improving the quality of one's voice; someone who once stammered or spoke unclearly may improve, both in this life and in future lives. A pleasant, commanding voice that inspires trust is the fruit of merit accumulated this way. Likewise, using the hands to press together in reverence to the Buddha gives the hands grace and skill in handling things well. He therefore advised using every part of the body to perform good deeds — body, speech, and mind together — especially when inviting others to ordain or practice , which uses both body and speech at once. The amount of merit gained also depends on the sincerity and of faith held toward the Triple Gem.
What Happens When You Send Loving-Kindness to Someone
Asked further what happens when is sent to another person, the teacher explained it depends on that person's state of mind at the time. If unwholesomeness strongly possesses their mind, the wave of loving-kindness may not help much; but if unwholesomeness is weak, the wave can lighten it and open room for wholesomeness to take its place instead. The result also depends on the sender's own strength of mind — the more one practices, the stronger it becomes. Loving-kindness sent outward also affects the surrounding environment, making the atmosphere around it feel purer and brighter.
Occupations That Depend on Shared Merit
Asked about a career as a real estate agent, and whether it requires the combined merit of both agent and seller, the teacher explained that every success depends on each person's own merit and how much reward it can draw in — everything "matches" automatically according to each person's merit. Occupations involving greater risk require correspondingly greater merit, since a mistake in such work can even cost a life.