CHRIS MARANO | Zen Wisdom

Nightmares, for instance, come to a person who is under a lot of stress or who is sick or chemically unbalanced. They could also come from bad karma.
our practice can carry over into our sleep and we won’t dream at all?

SHIH-FU:
As I said earlier, people have dreams of the first type because of vexations during their daily life. Nightmares, for instance, come to a person who is under a lot of stress or who is sick or chemically unbalanced. They could also come from bad karma. To get rid of these nightmares by meditating would be very difficult. When you dream you have no control. During waking hours while you meditate, it is very difficult to control your wandering thoughts. You usually don’t even know you are wandering until those thoughts stop. Imagine how much more difficult it would be to control thoughts during dreams. Some people tell me that they continue to recite Buddha’s name, even while they sleep. I think this is more a product of tension than of good practice. To have fewer dreams while sleeping we must lessen the vexations during our daily life. We must become calmer. If we are stable and have a peaceful, expansive mind, then our dreams will diminish.

STUDENT:
Is it abnormal or dangerous to dream of getting injured?

SHIH-FU:
I don’t interpret dreams. Some say that dreams have meaning, and that certain images in dreams have symbolic significance, but each culture has its own system of symbols. They change from place to place and from time to time. Therefore, dream interpretation is unreliable. I do not interpret my own or anyone else’s dreams.

STUDENT:
I read about a man who said he dreamt that he met himself thirty years later, and the older version of himself gave him advice. The same man spoke of sharing dreams with his wife while they both slept. They dreamed the same dream, Is this possible?

SHIH-FU:
Sure. These examples and more are possible. But is it really worthwhile? Most of these stories do nothing more than arouse people’s curiosity. They are novelties. Most people can neither control their dreams nor interpret them accurately. I knew a woman who dreamed she saw a closed coffin in a strange room. Two years later her father died, and he was laid in the same coffin in the same room. It is an interesting story, but of what use was it? I suppose you could call the dream an omen of sorts, but the woman did not know what to make of the dream until after the fact. There was nothing she could do about it. And if she had known the dream was about her father, what could she have done? She didn’t know the time, the place, or how he would die.

As Ch’an practitioners we should not become attached to, or place too much importance on, our dreams. Our waking worlds are illusory enough.

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