{"id":5800,"date":"2013-12-02T12:50:43","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T17:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=5800"},"modified":"2013-12-02T12:54:53","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T17:54:53","slug":"a-busshist-poet-saint-on-dreams-they-are-illusions-but-so-is-life-so-dream-some-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/12\/a-busshist-poet-saint-on-dreams-they-are-illusions-but-so-is-life-so-dream-some-more.html","title":{"rendered":"A Buddhist poet-saint: if dreams are illusions, so is life, so dream more!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"-<\/a>I am always astonished when Westerners drawn to Buddhism tell me that in tradition, dreams are regarded as illusions from an unclear mind, for which the Rx is to cleanse and purify the mind, in order to dream no more.<\/p>\n

Serinity Young, a leading scholar of Buddhist dreamways, observes in\u00a0Dreaming in the Lotus: Buddhist Dream Narrative, Imagery, and Practice,<\/em> “without dreams and dreaming there would be no Buddhism”, since it was his mother’s dream of the six-tusked white elephant that announced both his coming and his nature. Especially in Tibetan Buddhism, dream yoga is a practice for raising and focusing consciousness, and a training ground for death and the afterlife journey.<\/p>\n

There is a most instructive episode in the life of the great Tibetan spiritual teacher Milarepa (1040-1123), who has been described as “the greatest poet-saint” in Buddhist tradition. \u00a0He instructed his disciples to report their dreams. \u201cRemember your dreams tonight and report to me tomorrow. I will then interpret them for you.\u201d \u00a0He cautioned his followers to cleanse their minds of \u201chabitual thoughts\u201d that would carry over into the dream space and confine them to deceptive and illusory experiences.<\/p>\n

In the morning, he asked his disciples to report their dreams. The most interesting narrative came from Gambopa, Milarepa interpreted Gambopa’s a rich and complex dream, explaining that it foreshadowed Gambopa\u2019s future role as a great teacher and his spiritual heir.<\/p>\n

Despite this revelation, Milarepa cautioned his followers not to assign excessive importance to dreams, since dreams partake \u00a0of \u201cthe illusory nature of all beings. Yet he applauded Gambopa for dreaming well: \u201cYour dreams were marvelous, wondrous omens foretelling things to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milarepa delighted in recounting his own numinous dreams portending the growth of his lineage. \u201cLast night I dreamed that an eagle flew from here to Weu and alighted on the top of a precious gem. Then many geese flocked around it\u2026They disperse in different directions, each goose again gathering about five hundred more companions.\u201d<\/p>\n

His essential message was that dreams may be illusions, but probably less so than ordinary life – so go dream some more!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Milarepa quotations are from Garma C.C. Chang, \u00a0The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa: The Life-Story and Teaching of the Greatest Poet-Saint Ever to Appear in the History of Buddhism.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article is adapted from The Secret History of Dreaming <\/em>by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am always astonished when Westerners drawn to Buddhism tell me that in tradition, dreams are regarded as illusions from an unclear mind, for which the Rx is to cleanse and purify the mind, in order to dream no more. Serinity Young, a leading scholar of Buddhist dreamways, observes in\u00a0Dreaming in the Lotus: Buddhist Dream…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,38,20],"tags":[1684,1685,1686,1683,1687],"class_list":["post-5800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancestral-traditions","category-ancient-religions","category-history-of-dreaming","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-dream-traditions","tag-dream-yoga","tag-milarepa","tag-serinity-young"],"yoast_head":"\nA Buddhist poet-saint: if dreams are illusions, so is life, so dream more! - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/12\/a-busshist-poet-saint-on-dreams-they-are-illusions-but-so-is-life-so-dream-some-more.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Buddhist poet-saint: if dreams are illusions, so is life, so dream more! - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am always astonished when Westerners drawn to Buddhism tell me that in tradition, dreams are regarded as illusions from an unclear mind, for which the Rx is to cleanse and purify the mind, in order to dream no more. Serinity Young, a leading scholar of Buddhist dreamways, observes in\u00a0Dreaming in the Lotus: Buddhist Dream…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/12\/a-busshist-poet-saint-on-dreams-they-are-illusions-but-so-is-life-so-dream-some-more.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-02T17:50:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-02T17:54:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2013\/12\/Milarepa_Late_19th-early_20th_Century_Dhodeydrag_Gonpa_Thimphu_Bhutan-208x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Buddhist poet-saint: if dreams are illusions, so is life, so dream more! - Dream Gates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/12\/a-busshist-poet-saint-on-dreams-they-are-illusions-but-so-is-life-so-dream-some-more.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Buddhist poet-saint: if dreams are illusions, so is life, so dream more! - Dream Gates","og_description":"I am always astonished when Westerners drawn to Buddhism tell me that in tradition, dreams are regarded as illusions from an unclear mind, for which the Rx is to cleanse and purify the mind, in order to dream no more. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5800"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5806,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5800\/revisions\/5806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}