Stop talking in your sleep. When dreamland’s destroyed, there’s no place to rest.

Question 82

Question: 

‘Glad to get to live in the mountains, peacefully sleeping, undisturbed’ — tell me, what does one see when dreaming?

Answer: 

Stop talking in your sleep.

Verse:

Stop talking in your sleep.

When dreamland’s destroyed, there’s no place to rest.

Xiangyan and Yangshan were quite ambiguous;

Providing water, serving tea, pray to be allowed to persist.

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^{Source: One Hundred Questions, Cleary trans. is a compilation of questions by Yuantong, followed by a short response by Wansong and an illustrative verse composed by his student Linquan.}

^{Context Note: Xiangyan and Yangshan were disciples and successors of Guishan. Once when Guishan was napping, Yangshan came to see how he was. Guishan turned his face to the wall. Yangshan asked him why he was acting like this. Guishan said he had just had a dream, and told Yangshan to try to interpret it for him. Yangshan got a bowl of water and gave it to Guishan to wash his face. A while later Xiangyan came and asked after Guishan. Guishan told him he’d had a dream and Yangshan had interpreted it for him; he told Xiangyan to try to interpret it too. Xiangyan then got a cup of tea and brought it to him. Guishan praised them both for their perceptive understanding.}

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Picking on a few points from the Q&A case above:

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• What does one see when dreaming?

Physical surroundings alive with characters, a series of situations, emotions and thoughts. A present reality to deal with according to apparent circumstances. A creation of mind for mind to act in.

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• What is talking in one's sleep?

Responding to illusory matters whilst ignorant of their true nature. How to not talk in one's sleep?

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• What happens when dreamland is destroyed?

One wakes up to the true nature of what was taken for most present and apparent. Or so we think (see: False Awakening). An insight provides an understanding. The dream is a memory, much like 5 minutes ago is now a memory. Neither can be grasped anymore. Both seem alike to your current awareness. Right now is already like this. What stays?

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• How is a dream allowed to persist?

It has nothing to do with realising the true nature of the dream and thus awakening out of it (see: Lucid Dreaming). It can clearly persist after one gained the dispelling insight. To see through it is not to dissolve it, although it bares the possibility.

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Xiangyan and Yangshan provide Guishan with refreshing water and caffeine, fending off his "departure". Any one dream aside, does Guishan persist throughout the theatres he plays in? To say none of this here is a dream is a mistake, to say nothing is true reality clearly misses what is most obvious. The overwhelming feeling when a dream is recognised as such: Freedom.

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Deshan's last words (BCR):

“Grasping emptiness and pursuing echoes wearies your mind and spirit. When awakened from a dream, you realize it was false; after all, what matter is there?”

Submitted October 15, 2020 at 08:28AM by Coinionaire https://ift.tt/34YsmlF