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: Buddhist Dream Narrative, Imagery & Practice , Serinity Young, Wisdom Publications,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 |
|