Dreams play a powerful role in the sacred biographies of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: they foretell the births of religious figures, describe their accomplishments, and reveal esoteric teachings.
In this fascinating study of the Buddhist dream experience, Dr. Serinity Young explores the complex functions of dreams in the sacred biographies of the Buddha and other central Buddhist figures, and reveals the ever-changing nature of dreams in Buddhist thought and practice.

Dreaming in the Lotus, Serinity Young, 320 pages, $18.95

Serinity Young has done fieldwork in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Russia, and Tibet and is currently a professor at Southern Methodist University. She was editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion, she edited An Anthology of Sacred Texts By and About Women, and she has published several essays in scholarly journals and collections

List of Illustrations	ix
Foreword	xi
Acknowledgments	xvii
Abbreviations	xxi
Introduction	1
Indo-Tibetan Dreaming
Dreams, Religion, and Sacred Biography	7
Dreams in World Religions	7
Dreams in Buddhist Sacred Biography	8
Elite versus Popular Views of Dreaming	15
The Psychoanalytic Study of Dreams	18
Dreams in the Biographies of the Buddha	21
Queen Maya's Dream	21
The Dreams of the Buddha	24
The Dreams of Others	33
Early Buddhist Dream Theory	43
Pali Texts	43
The Asokavadana	47
The Sardulakarnavadana	50
Buddhist Understandings of the Self and Consciousness	51
Dreams in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism	55
Indigenous Practices	56
Buddhist Influences in Tibet	59
Medical Texts	65
Continuity of Dream Material
Conception Dreams	75
Shared Dreams	87
Dreams as Signs of Spiritual Accomplishment	95
The Buddha	96
Milarepa and His Disciples	97
The Ability to Interpret Dreams	108
Innovations in Dream Material
Dream Yoga	117
Dreams and Religious Innovation	117
The Six Yogas	120
Practice in Tibet	125
Ritual Dreaming	129
Sought Dreams	129
Rituals to Counteract Bad Dreams	135
Dream Rituals from the Kangyur and Tangyur	137
Gender in Indo-Tibetan Dreaming	147
Women and Female Deities in Men's Dreams	148
Women Dreamers	152
Dreams, Death, and Women	160
Conclusions	163
Lucid Dreaming	167
Notes	173
Bibliography
Texts and Translations	245
Secondary Sources	253
Index	279