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4 EASTERN HORIZON | LEAD ARTICLE

Dreams and

their Significance

By Ven K Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera

The late Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda is a household name in the
Buddhist world. In more than 50 years as incumbent of the Buddhist
Maha Vihara, Malaysia, he has brought the Buddha Word to countless
numbers of devotees who otherwise would have no access to the
sublime message of the Enlightened One.

Fondly known as Chief Reverend, he has been able to reach an even
wider audience through his publications which range from the
voluminous “Dhammapada” to little five-page pamphlets. He has been
able to reach all levels of readers from erudite scholar monks to young
school children. His whole approach to the exposition of the Dharma
is governed by his deep concern for giving the ancient teachings a
contemporary relevance, to show that the Sublime Message is timeless
and has a meaning that cuts across the boundaries of time, space, race,
culture and even religious beliefs.

‘Life is nothing but a dream.’

One of man’s greatest unsolved problems is the mystery of dreams. From
the very earliest of times man has tried to analyze dreams and has tried
to explain them in prophetic and psychological terms, but while there has
been some measure of success recently, we are probably no nearer the
answers to the baffling question: ‘What is a dream?’

The great English Romantic poet William Wordsworth had a startling
concept: that this life we live is merely a dream and that we will ‘awake’ to
the ‘real’ reality when we die, when our ‘dream’ ends.

‘Our birth is but a sleep and forgetting:
The Soul, that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.’

A similar concept is expressed in a charming old Buddhist tale which tells
of a deva who was playing with some other devas. Being tired, he lay down