Himalayan Times (1955)

Two

September 25, 1955

LETTERS OF A EfllK&U

Dear Samaresh,

I wanted to write in
my last letter about
dreams also. Yes, it ia
true that it it recorded
that Mahamaya—the mo-
ther of Siddhartha—onoe
dreamt as if a white ele-
phant had entered her
womb. And when ' wise
men" were consulted re-
garding the meaning of
this dream, they predic-
ted that Mahamaya shall
give forth birth to a child,
who as a householder waa
destined to be a monarch,
but as a homeless one was
sure to be the Buddha,
the All enlightened one.

,To me all dreams are
more or less like the
'cartoons' of modern jour-
nalism. All that we see,
smell, taste, hear, touch
and even think makes
impressions uponourminds
& then those very impres-
sions express themselves
in the form of a thousand
and one odd dreams.
When I was in Germany.
I remember Dr. Dahlke's
kind sister's parting words,
almost every evening,
used to be "may you
have sweet dreams."

People who have made
special studies of dreams
have classified them into
several categories. Some
dreams are suppoeod to
be the result of pure and
simple physical conditions

e. g. if you are thirsty
you might see water in
your dreams, or if your
heart is under some pres-
sure of your own hand
or of something else, you
might have a fearful
dream, or if you have
constipation and haveover-
warmed yourself with the
necessary clothes, you may
even sometimes have "wet
dreams."

Certain other dreams,
which one generally
dreamt during the early
hours (say between 3 PM.
& 5 P. M.) are suppossed
to be fore, casts of co-
ming future events.

In this way there are
several categories. It is
supposed that a number
of good or bad dreams
influence our life to a
great extant. I think that
if, instead of saying that
good and bad dreams
have an influence upon
life, we mentained that a
good or bad life has an
effect upon our dreams,
then perhaps we shall be
closer to the truth.

After all, what sort
of weird things are dreams?
Our thoughts are influen-
ced by whatever we do
or hear. During the day
such ideas arise and find
expressions in different
desires and aspirations and
go on ooming into exis-
tence and passing out of

it the whole day long.
In the waking state our
sense-organs are function-
ing busily. In this busy
condition we perceive our
desires in a cloudy and
in distinct form, whereas
the state of sleep is a
time of rest. Such aspi-
rations as arise during
our sleep give us a clear
vision, clear perceptions
of our own desires—these
are what are called
' dreams.""

If we give a little
thought to the matter we
shall see that our innu-
merable dreams are but
the result of what we
have said, heard or ex-
perienced within the pre-
vious week or two. Some
are sure to be the result
of our earlier physical
and mental activities And
having made a through
investigation, we may take
it that those dreams which
do not appear tc be con-
nected with our present
life are the results of the
activities of our previous
lives.

In the stream of cons-
ciousness whioh for endless
births, has been flowing
along with our life, and
which in fact is another
name for life, any colour
that once finds a place,
at whatsoever time, does
continue as an influence,
if not in grosser, at least
in subtler forms. • The
mind is influenced . by

(Continued on page 3 ) '