Dreams Can Test the Depth of One's Cultivation

Question: Can the manas distinguish true from false, good from evil? What should genuine, effective cultivation look like?

Answer: If the manas already knew right from wrong, there would be no need for the mind consciousness to guide and educate it, and in many cases there would be no need to bring forth the mind consciousness at all—He could handle these matters by Himself. The manas is neutral/indeterminate (avyākṛta) in nature; it does not know wholesome and unwholesome dharmas and does not itself create wholesome or unwholesome karma, but it can direct the six consciousnesses to create wholesome and unwholesome karma. Because the manas has two aspects—a defiled nature and a tranquil nature (praśama)—when the defiled nature of the manas manifests, it directs the six consciousnesses to create defiled karma; when the tranquil nature of the manas manifests, it directs the six consciousnesses to create wholesome karma.

A person with genuine cultivation, even when encountering evil conditions in a dream, knows to keep the precepts and does not create unwholesome karma. One's bodily, verbal, and mental actions in dreams reflect one's level of cultivation even more clearly: if one can be in charge in dreams and refrain from creating karma, then in the neutrino‑body (antarā‑bhava) one will have a certain degree of assurance. In dreams, the controlling power of the mind consciousness is weaker, and the habitual tendencies of the manas can manifest fully; if in dreams the manas does not manifest its habitual tendencies, it shows that this person's cultivation has already permeated and influenced the manas, and the manas has been subdued.

If the mind consciousness has cultivation, it knows that it is in a dream and can thereby resist the manas and refrain from creating unwholesome karma. Therefore, genuine cultivation should be able to transform the manas; for those whose cultivation has not reached the manas, their practice is not yet effective. Many people have not even succeeded in permeating and influencing the mind consciousness—the mind consciousness still openly and brazenly creates unwholesome karma and cannot keep the five precepts. Such a person is not yet on the Buddha path; they are a beginner in Buddhism.