Buddhist dream interpretation: what your dream means

In Buddhism a dream above all shows the mind itself: what it clings to, what it fears and what it holds on to. The classical texts are sober about prophetic dreams, and the Tibetan tradition even uses the dream as a place of practice.

Dreams in the early stories

Dreams play a part at decisive moments in the Buddha's life. According to tradition, his mother, Queen Maya, dreamt before his birth of a white elephant entering her side. And the Anguttara Nikaya describes five great dreams the Buddha himself had just before his awakening, images later read as announcing his insight.

At the same time, that is the exception. Anyone looking for dreams in the Buddhist texts mainly finds a sober attitude: most dreams say more about the state of the dreamer than about the future.

Six causes of a dream

A well-known classical answer to why we dream is found in the Milindapañha, the Questions of King Milinda. It names six causes: a disturbance of wind, bile or phlegm in the body, the influence of a deity, habit and earlier experience, and finally a portent.

Only that last kind is seen as truly meaningful, and even that is rare. Most dreams therefore arise from the body and from what the mind is used to. That does not make them worthless: precisely because they show what the mind is used to, they can tell you something about attachment and fear.

The dream as a mirror of the mind

Buddhism teaches that suffering, dukkha, arises from attachment: holding on to what changes. A dream often shows exactly where that holding on lies. Someone who keeps dreaming of losing something can ask what they are gripping so tightly. Someone running in a dream can ask what from.

The Diamond Sutra, one of the best-known Mahayana texts, ends with an image many Buddhists know: all that is conditioned is like a dream, an illusion, a bubble and a shadow. In that reading the dream is not a message from outside, but a reminder of impermanence.

Dream yoga in the Tibetan tradition

In Tibetan Buddhism dreaming is also a practice. Dream yoga, one of the six yogas of Naropa, trains recognising the dream as a dream while you are dreaming. Those who learn this can stay clearly present in the dream, examine fear and experience that the images have no fixed reality.

This practice is linked with the bardo, the intermediate state after death. Whoever can recognise what is happening in a dream, so the thinking goes, can also do so in the bardo. Dream yoga is traditionally practised under the guidance of a teacher.

Many schools, one attitude

Buddhism has major schools, such as Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana, and in the Netherlands it is practised by people from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Tibet, and also by many Dutch people with no Asian background. Rituals differ greatly, for example in how the dead are remembered.

What the schools share is an attitude: look without judgement at what the dream stirs, and use it to let insight and compassion grow. Dreamkin describes how images are often read within the tradition. For personal guidance, a teacher or your own sangha is the right place.

Symbols in this tradition

Frequently asked questions

Does Buddhism believe in prophetic dreams?

Sometimes, but rarely. The Milindapañha names six causes of dreams, and only one of them is a portent. Most dreams arise from the body and from habit.

What is dream yoga?

A Tibetan practice in which you learn to recognise the dream as a dream while dreaming. It is traditionally done under a teacher's guidance.

What can I do with a bad dream?

Look without judgement at what the dream stirs. Many practitioners use such a dream to examine fear or attachment, and afterwards wish themselves and others well.

What did Queen Maya dream?

According to tradition, before the Buddha's birth she dreamt of a white elephant entering her side, an image read as the sign of a remarkable child.