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Fortune favors the virtuous: divine messengers, dreams

How to draw Birds Want freedom | Birds in cage drawing | Oil ...


It's well known (among serious meditators) that devas can communicate with meditators who have strong samādhi, while they are meditating, or even just as they go about in daily life. The communication may be as a voice they hear, thoughts that are communicated without voice, or sometimes even in visible form. Depending on the samadhi and class of deva and samadhi of the meditator. Devas also communicate with people in dreams. Some of the dream states of people (who don't normally meditate) can be quite similar to deep states of samadhi.

Are the things happening in the dream real or just imagination?

It's hard to tell. Especially when the dreams are so vivid they seem as real as the waking state. Here's one case, a student of Ajahn Nyanadhammo, a disciple of Ajahn Chah, where the ghost of an English girl who was killed in the 2004 Indonesia tsunami communicated with a Thai lady (student of Ajahn Nyanadhammo) in her dream.

mp3 audio, go to 24min:40sec, and the story goes about 10 minutes

The whole talk (about 60min) is worth listening to. There are several other stories on there where Devas communicate via dreams. Ajahn Brahm is a charismatic and entertaining story teller.

Whereas my storytelling skills are lacking

I can turn very exciting and dramatic events into drab, clinical and pithy summaries, as I am about to do now.

I've had experiences with most of the types of Deva communication I mentioned above, many times in my life. Some of the stories are quite interesting, maybe if I can muster up the motivation and if and when there is a relevant teaching point, I'll share them someday.

I do want to share this particular incident.
First, because I need to wrap up the article I started recently on sarira (cremation relics).
Second, it's highly relevant to my central point on karmic retribution, devas and guardian angels lending a helping hand.

In a very vivid dream I had, there was a beautiful black bird, inside a beautiful cage, inside a beautiful house. The dream was so vivid you'd think it was more vivid than reality. In some ways it is. In reality, I wear super thick glasses. If thick glasses were directly proportional to intelligence, I'd almost always be the smartest person in the room. In vivid dreams, I have 20/20 vision without glasses. 

 The bird in the cage was looking toward the window silently and calmly. As I watched it, I noticed the door to the cage was open! I tried to tell the bird, look over your shoulder, it's open! Why are you just sitting there? Go! Yes your cage is beautiful and comfortable, but freedom outside is even better. You don't have to sit there in your cage looking through a window to the outside. You can just go outside now.

I wasn't sure if the bird knew the door was open, or just attached to the cage. Then I woke up.

The meaning of the dream

I frequently have dreams similar to MN 23 , where the Deva gives a meditator a riddle to solve. After I woke up and thought about my riddle with the black bird, I arrived at a conclusion.

 My deva friend was telling me that I'm selling myself short. Unlike most people, who are living like a bird in a cage with the door locked and confined to (self imposed) life imprisonment, I have the great fortune having penetrated Dhamma to some extent that I can make great progress in this very life, and I have access to awakened teachers who can show the way. Yet, even though the door has already been thrown wide open, I'm acting like a dumb ass who's locked up with no way out.

 So the message is, get my act together and fully commit to the Dhamma. Fully and whole heartedly.

References

MN 130 Deva-dūta : Divine messengers (5 of them, lesson on karmic retribution in hells)

 MN 23 Vammika: Ant hill A deva gives a riddle to a monk: “Sir, what is the ant-hill? What is the fuming by night and flaming by day? Who is the brahmin, and who the sage? What are the sword, the digging, the bar, the bullfrog, the forked path, the box, the tortoise, the axe and block, and the piece of flesh? And what is the dragon?”

 ✴️SN 1 Devatā Saṃyutta: Deities: 81 suttas, 
✴️SN 2 Deva-putta Saṃyutta: deities'-sons: 30 suttas, 

https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/divine-messengers.pdf

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