Spiritual Cultivation and Movement
If I dream of you visiting, did you personally enter my dream?
English translation draft · Based on the Chinese article. This is not a word-for-word translation approved by Master Shengyuan.
Seeing my image in a dream does not necessarily mean that I personally entered the dream to find you. Clients and students have told me that they dreamed about me the night before. I replied that I was asleep at the time and had not performed any ritual to enter their dreams. The image in a dream and whether I actually did something are two separate matters.
From the perspective of spiritual practice, deities and Buddhas sometimes use a familiar image. For example, the Bodhisattva at Sheng Zhen Men might use my appearance to let someone know that a dream is connected with the deities of Sheng Zhen Men. However, some dreams are simply random dreams. We need to consider what was said in the dream, rather than recognise only the face.
An old acquaintance of Dao Xuan once dreamed that Dao Xuan and I wore yellow robes, sat on an altar and radiated golden light. Considering the course of our practice at the time, we felt that it might symbolise a connection with deities or a form of recognition. That does not mean that Dao Xuan and I had already reached full spiritual attainment and were literally sitting there radiating light.
So even when we have dreams or spiritual perceptions, we still need discernment. I have met someone who believed a certain teacher must be a deity because that teacher appeared in their dreams every day. That made me feel that caution was needed. Deities teach people in order to pass on wisdom, not to make them continually fixate on what they see. Within religious belief, harmful spirits may also use dreams to gain people’s trust. Understand the principles first, then consider the whole situation. Do not believe everything simply because a familiar person appears in a dream.
A listener in Taichung dreamed of talking with me and wanting to join Sheng Zhen Men, and then came to ask about it. At the time I suggested another possibility: perhaps the listener’s original spirit wanted to learn and was communicating that through the dream. This was a faith-based interpretation offered while trying to understand that particular dream. It does not mean that every dream in which I appear is a divine instruction to join.