What is the nature of dreams?
All conditioned experience can be compared to a dream. The outer world, experienced through one’s senses seems so real and solid and consists of minute particles which can be split until they disappear. It is continually shared with others and involves body, speech and mind. What we experience at night is a private dream involving mainly one’s mind. Buddha likened the outer and inner worlds to dreams because nothing in them lasts. All mental and physical phenomena appear, change and then disappear. Mood, education, upbringing and background colour one’s view. Furthermore we only experience the vibrations our senses can pick up and therefore do not perceive things as they are. For example, if we feel happy, everything seems beautiful and nice, and during unhappy states, everything turns terrible and difficult. Our perception is therefore both determined by outer conditions and by changing states of mind. There is a certain wisdom in the dream state, because in it we are more aware of th
