Body-mind, mind and psychology
Q : In your opinion, what is the Buddhist view on unconsciousness ?
R : A very deep view, a view which is deeper and much older than Freud’s. It is realizing that we inherit our karma, not only since birth, but since an infinite time. That’s why unconsciousness from Buddha’s point of view is not only unconsciousness when it comes to the Oedipus complex. It’s unconsciousness of all the causes we have provoked in the past, which are like buried seeds and which will produce effects one day. One of the important functions of zazen is to enable these grains to become purified, to let all causes and unconscious conditions, emotions, the most secret desires of our being, to appear at the surface, and to shed light on them with the hishiryo consciousness of zazen, which sees things just as they are.
Q : And dreams? What is Buddhism’s point of view, what do you think?
R : Dreams are a particular form of illusion, it can be said that they are even the prototype for illusion. In life, we often wee reality through our desires, we live as if we are in a dream. We consider ourselves to be something, that’s the fundamental dream, the greatest illusion. In the practice of the Buddha Way, all phenomena can be observed as if they were dreams. Awakening is exactly coming out of these dreams.
Tags: Roland Yuno Rech