The Difference Between Killing in a Dream and Killing While Awake

The difference between inside a dream and outside a dream is that inside a dream there is no outer representation, and nothing has changed, whereas outside a dream there are changes in the outer representation, and real events of benefiting others or harming others actually occur. Therefore, when karma is created inside a dream, there is no substantive and concrete retribution, whereas karma created outside a dream has substantive and concrete retribution. Apart from this, inside and outside the dream are the same—both are illusory and unreal.

Although in a dream one gave away a thousand dollars, no substantive money was actually given away, and no substantive person received that money. So in fact there was no real act of giving; there was only a mental action of giving existing, a mental action of being generous toward others existing, a mental action of not being stingy existing—and that is the mental action of the manas. If the manas's mental action in a dream is wholesome, it shows that this person's nature of mind is genuinely wholesome. When a wholesome mind arises, merit is generated, and there will be blessings and wholesome retribution. The more wholesome the mind, the greater the blessings and the greater the retribution. Giving in a dream shows that the manas's nature of mind is wholesome; a wholesome nature brings wholesome retribution, and after death one will go to a wholesome destiny, being born and living in a place corresponding to the manas's nature of mind. Wholesomeness brings wholesome blessings—this is the wholesome retribution of one's nature of mind. If the manas's nature of mind is unwholesome, it will diminish blessings, and one will undergo retribution in an unwholesome place corresponding to the manas's nature of mind. This is the retribution of the wholesome and the unwholesome.

If outside a dream one gave away a thousand dollars, then substantive money was given away, and a substantive person received that money; together with the act of giving, all three are complete, and the retribution will be fully received. In the future there will be at least a hundred-thousand-fold or ten-million-fold return of wealth, and corresponding merit will also be generated, with wholesome retribution and blessings. If the manas, due to the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of its nature of mind, directs the six consciousnesses to create wholesome or unwholesome karmic actions, then besides the retribution of the nature of mind, there is also the karmic retribution of the karmic actions. Karmic retribution is an extremely concrete form of retribution, exacting down to the smallest fraction—it must repay the fruits of karma.

The difference between killing someone in a dream and killing someone while awake follows the same principle. In a dream, no substantive person is killed and there is no substantive act of killing, but there is the mental action of killing. Its retribution is based primarily on the mental action: because the nature of mind is unwholesome and evil, it will diminish one's blessings and merit, and in future lives one will be reborn in an unwholesome place corresponding to that nature of mind, undergoing the retribution of evil and unwholesome karma. Whereas killing while awake is a substantive matter—a person is truly killed, and the substantive outer representation is gone—therefore one must repay the karmic fruit of killing. In the future there will be the retribution of an evil and hateful nature of mind, as well as the retribution of repaying the life-debt. For example, if one violates precepts after receiving them, some violations of precepts carry not only the offense at the level of nature of mind but also the precept-offense at the level of karmic action, and both are received together as retribution. A person who has not received precepts, having created evil and unwholesome karma, has no precept-offense, but still has the offense of an unwholesome nature of mind and will still receive evil retribution. When doing evil deeds, whether or not one has received precepts, there is evil retribution; but receiving precepts imposes a certain restraint on one's own mind, which is more beneficial for cultivation.

The manas represents the fundamental nature of mind of a sentient being. The mind consciousness can embellish and disguise itself, but the manas cannot—it cannot pretend, it does not engage in fraud, and it can manifest its nature of mind with absolute truthfulness. In a dream, the manas is the absolute sovereign, and the function of the mind consciousness is very weak, extremely weak, almost unable to exert any regulation over the manas. Therefore, inside a dream one cannot fake or disguise anything; what is manifested is entirely the manas's nature of mind—the most truthful.