Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (77)

Are the celestial maidens in a dream real?

Original text: 大王。诸根如幻。境界如梦。譬如有人。于梦寐中。与诸婇女。共相娱乐。大王。于意云何。彼梦觉已。忆所受乐。为实有不。王曰不也。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, the six faculties are all illusory manifestations, and the realms of the six sense objects are just like a dream realm. For instance, there is a person who, while dreaming, plays and amuses himself together with many celestial maidens. Great King, what do you think? After that person wakes from the dream and recollects the pleasure he experienced, is the dream realm real? King Śuddhodana said: It is not real.

The six faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are like illusory manifestations; out of empty space, which has nothing at all, the six faculties are conjured up, and their functions are likewise illusory and unreal. The master of this conjuring is the tathāgatagarbha, which is like a magician. The realms that the faculties confront—form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas—the Buddha said are like a dream, just like objects in a dream, utterly impossible to grasp. In a dream, the mind consciousness can still discern the dream realm, come into contact with the people and things in the dream, and give rise to feelings of joy, pleasure, sorrow, and anger; but after waking from the dream, there is nothing at all, nothing to be found. Sentient beings living in the so-called reality are just as deluded and inverted as in a dream: it seems they can make contact with the realms of the six sense objects, it seems there are the feelings of the six consciousnesses, but in fact all of it is illusory; after waking from the dream, nothing can be found. Sentient beings have not yet awakened from the dream; bodhisattvas are half-asleep and half-awake, not yet completely awake; the Buddhas, on the other hand, have already completely awakened and are no longer in the dream, and can fully recollect the events within the dream—whereas ordinary sentient beings are all talking in their sleep.

Original text: 佛言大王。是人所梦。执以为实。为智者不。不也世尊。何以故。梦中婇女。毕竟非有。何况与之。共相娱乐。当知是人。忆梦中境。徒自疲劳。不复可得。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, this person takes the dream he has dreamed to be real—is he a wise person? King Śuddhodana said: This person has no wisdom. Why is this said? Because the celestial maidens in the dream ultimately do not exist, let alone the matter of amusing oneself together with them—that is even more nonexistent. It should be known that when this person recollects the dream realm from his dream, he is merely wearing out his conscious mind in vain; the dream realm cannot be brought back and cannot be obtained.

Clearly, in the dream there is everything, yet upon waking there is nothing at all; and after waking, one still takes the people and events of the dream as real and keeps grasping at them—such a person is not a wise one. The Buddha used this method to alert his father not to crave the pleasures of the five desires. The pleasures of the five desires are just like events in a dream and should not be craved; through such craving, one will falsely undergo the suffering of birth-and-death and saṃsāra.