พระอาจารย์อธิบายว่าความฝันเกิดจากกายมนุษย์ละเอียดหรือกายฝันที่ท่องเที่ยวไปในขณะหลับ คุณภาพของความฝันขึ้นอยู่กับสัดส่วนกุศลในตัวผู้ฝัน ผู้มีจิตใจดีงามอาจฝันเห็นสิ่งดีงามหรืออนาคตได้ ส่วนกายฝันที่ไปทำบาปก็มีผลสะเทือนถึงกายมนุษย์หยาบได้เช่นกันThe teacher explains that dreams arise from the subtle human body — the "dream body" — wandering while we sleep. The quality of a dream depends on the proportion of wholesomeness within the dreamer; someone of good character may dream of good things or even the future, while a dream body that commits wrong can also affect the coarse human body.
Someone asked the teacher whether dreams can tell us anything — do they reveal the future, are they merely repressed worries, or are they unrelated to anything at all?
What Dreams Are, and What They Can Tell Us
The teacher explained that dreams always carry meaning, because the "dream body" is the subtle human body, the form closest to us of all. When we sleep, this subtle body travels freely anywhere, yet remains connected to the coarse body by the thread of life, which keeps other beings from possessing our body while we sleep, and always allows the subtle body to return. Whether a dream tells us something depends on whether intends to convey it. He recalled meeting an elderly woman of good and cheerful character, who in her youth often dreamed of visiting heavenly realms — showing that dreams can indeed reveal the future or coming events, when the dreamer's heart is good enough.
Why Some Dreams Are Confused While Others Reveal Good Things
He explained that the subtle body exists in countless variations. A person of good character has a subtle body of correspondingly good quality; a person of poor character has a subtle body of correspondingly poor quality, producing chaotic, confused dreams that offer the coarse body no real benefit. The quality of the subtle body depends on the proportion of wholesomeness within that person — the more wholesomeness, the more the dream body can guide us, since the coarse human body has only limited and ability, while the subtle body carries greater capacity. He added that every time the human body creates a wholesome cause, merit flows down from the subtlest dharma-body, refining every sphere within every body progressively, down to the subtle human body itself — improving the quality of the dream body in turn, since every body ultimately depends on merit that only the coarse human body can create.
Why Watching a Film or Reading Something Before Bed Often Continues Into a Dream
Asked why watching a film or reading something before sleep often continues into that night's dream, the teacher explained that the dream body perceives everything we do, right alongside us. When we become absorbed in something, the dream body becomes absorbed too, and remains absorbed even as we fall asleep — carrying that same story forward into the dream. He shared his own experience as a student, when he once practiced meditation in a cave in the forest at night and noticed he felt no fear at all, because his mind held no im. That night he dreamed of a strange creature behaving playfully, clearly meaning no harm, and he woke up laughing. He explained this as the power of — it makes everything appear friendly, holding no ill will toward anyone — an effect that carries through even into dreams.
If the Dream Body Commits a Wrong, Does the Human Body Share the Fault
Asked whether the human body shares in wrongdoing committed by the dream body, the teacher explained that they do affect each other, since the flow of merit and demerit passes continuously through the human body, whether awake or asleep. During sleep, this depends on the state of mind held at the very moment of falling asleep. Falling asleep with a mind recollecting goodness — the Buddha image, or the Buddha's teachings — draws in merit continuously. But if unwholesomeness possesses the mind during sleep, it draws in demerit instead, causing trouble for the subtle human body and even startling the coarse body awake. He stressed that the coarse human body remains the crucial factor, since the subtle body's behavior always follows whichever — wholesome or unwholesome — force possesses it at that moment.