Are dreams important?

Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh,Thay answers questions. University of Nottingham, UK, April 2012.

(Half bell)

(Bell)

Dear Thay,
dear Sangha,

My question is about consciousness.

I wonder if you could tell us something

about the relevance or the importance
of dreams in our sleeping time?

About dreams?

If we remember the dream,

it might be very helpful.

Because some dreams
are like other events,

it has a meaning.

Sometimes we are surprised

because during the day
we did not think of that at all.

And yet, during the night,
it appears like that as a surprise.

Maybe our body, our mind, our ancestors
are trying to show us something.

Maybe an ancestor wants us
to look into some bad matter.

Suppose you live in a country
that is in a war.

People, children enjoy peace.

Whole day long, you speak about peace and
you help people to practice in peace.

And yet, during the night,
you saw yourself in a war situation.

And you run up to the bomb.

And you are forced into the army
and you wake up.

You cannot imagine that.

So if you remember the dream,

you see that there must be a cause
that makes the dream comes today.

Maybe you enjoy the peace in the country

but you ignore what is going on
outside of the country.

And people continue to run
under the bombings.

Children and adults continue to die.

So, we should not only enjoy peace

but we should be doing something.

We should suffer a little bit.

So that has the kind of energy,

we need some mud
in order to grow lotus flowers.

And that is why I think
each dream has its own message.

We can receive the message
from our dreams.

And also during the time
while we are not sleeping,

images can come like that,
very suddenly.

All of them come from the depth
of our consciousness.

There must be a cause.

They may want to remind us
of our suffering.

In the practice of mindful eating,

when you stay in line waiting
for the time you are served the food,

you practice mindful breathing,

you look around

and you see yourself living
in a kind and beautiful environment.

You have brothers and
sisters in the practice

And you can practice mindful breathing,
mindful walking.

It is so beautiful.

And you enjoy the atmosphere
and the energy of peace.

And when you take some food
to put on your plate,

you say that: "My plate is empty now,

but in just a few minutes,
it will be filled with good food."

And at the same time,

you realize that children
in the third world, in a war country,

there are children who are holding
broken plates like this

waiting for hours and
do not have anything on it.

Suddenly compassion arises
and there is some suffering.

The happiness is that, in no time at all,
we have good thing out of it.

The suffering is that,
there are children on the streets,

waiting and will have nothing to eat.

That suffering is helpful,
makes us into a good human being.

So, getting in touch
with suffering is good.

And that is why, we speak
about the goodness of suffering.

And everything is like that,

a dream is made of non-dream elements.

And our suffering,
our happiness is the same.

(Half bell)

(Bell)