I’m dredging up Western psychology’s use of the notion of the subconscious, especially as it relates to distressing dreams. (No worries – I’m not in distress as I compose this .)
In particular, from the rudimentary exposure I’ve had to Jungian theory over the years, I recall that a person’s dreams are simply a mirror-like reflection of whatever’s hiding out in the psyche. Anything and anyone that shows up in a dream is only that, no matter how distressing it might feel.
I found a couple of older SuttaCentral D&D threads sniffing around at dreams and the subconscious. I’m pulling quotes from one of them below:
Bhante (responding to someone’s question) goes on to cite the one place we might find a related term:
One can see in the Digital Pāli Dictionary (DPD) that the only time viññāṇasota occurs in the suttas is here. So from a dhamma perspective I can see why it’s hard, if not impossible, to talk to a term that occurs only once in the pāli suttas.
As a lay person, the Jungian notion helped me become curious about distressing dreams rather than dismiss them completely. Also, deeply motivated by my Buddhist practice now, I do this because I’d like to know what my awake mind is likely avoiding.
If a dream can tell me that, I feel like it’s a kind of special tool to counter the ignorance fetter. It’s not uncommon that a soft inquiry into a distressing dream becomes a contemplation object during meditation; sometimes it even transmutes into heart-radiating compassion and insight.
Still, I’m stymied by the recurrence of distressing dreams that keep generating the same emotional content. I’ve noticed on multi-day meditation retreats that these types of dreams dissipate or go away completely; however, once I’m back in the thick of things (as they say), I find myself working with this again.
Also, some of the content in distressing dreams feels so old – it has been showing up for as long as I can remember – that I wonder if it is, in part, related to viññāṇasota from past kamma. (How far back does this stuff go?)
Wouldn’t this put a premium on working a bit with distressing dreams (or just dreams in general)? If there’s any validity to the Jungian notion of the psyche – if there’s any compatibility with the dhamma, why does it seem so nowhere in the suttas? Maybe that’s actually the question.
Truly, I’m interested in your kind feedback!