duhkha (suffering)
193b) asserts that it is the mind and its concomitant dharmas, which during sleep take on the shape of the mind's respective objects, and which, on the basis of remembrance, can be related to others after waking. It is clear that this definition of dreams can easily be extended to nondream states of mind. Accordingly, the Vibhasa points to the role of volitional activity, and emphasizes that its range of influence is restricted to this realm of desire (kamadhatu).
Dreams as images of the mind
All beings dream except for the Buddha, the awakened one, who clearly must be liberated from both the seductive and the haunting images of dreaming. This point serves as the focus of the use of the dream image in the Mahayana tradition, where dreams are no more than phantasmagorical visions, visitations within the confused karmic consciousness. While dreaming, one sees that which does not actually exist, or at least is other than perceived by the dreamer. Accordingly, the Yo-gacaratreatise Chengweishi lun (Vijnaptimatratdsiddhi-idstra [Establishing the Exclusivity of Vijnana]; T1585: 31.46b) states that "all dharmas arise within the mind as if deceptive images, a flurry of sparks, a dream image, a reflection in a mirror, shadows, an echo, the moon in water, magical beings generated through transformation. Though they seem to, they do not actually possess [substantial] existence." Similar formulations are found in many scriptures, emphasizing that the relationship of the dream to the waking state is like that of the waking state to an awakened state. But it is important to understand, as Vasubandhu argued in the fourth century c.e., that the thing glimpsed in a dream, while it does not in fact fulfill the function it appears to fulfill in the dream, is nevertheless definite in respect to space and time. The dream thus serves as an emblem of the ordinary waking state of mind.
Dreams as paths to liberation
But "if it is so that on awaking from a dream one recognizes everything purely as projection, why does one then not also recognize on awaking that the actual material realm is nothing more than cognition?" In answering this question, Vasubandhu emphasizes that only after awaking can one recall the dream as a dream. In analogy, only when one has truly awakened can one recognize, or recall, that whatever one perceived previously as the waking state had been more like a dream than a true state of wakefulness. Although dreams usually represent an obstacle to liberation, dreaming itself can become the site of liberation. Since the dream is
considered to be of the same nature as the waking state's projection of the world, the wakeful dreamer can dream himself or herself into the border between phenomena and emptiness. Thus, the difference between the dream and the waking state is actively erased, and the dream is assigned a privileged status.
See also: Bodhi (Awakening); Koben; Meditation Bibliography
Bodiford, William M. "Chidö's Dreams of Buddhism." In Religions of Japan in Practice, ed. George I. Tanabe, Ir. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Brown, Carolyn T., ed. Psycho-Sinology: The Universe of Dreams in Chinese Culture. Washington, DC: Asia Program, Wood-row Wilson International Center for Scholars; Lanham, MD: Distrib. University Press of America, 1988.
Eggert, Marion. Rede vom Traum. Traumauffassungen der Literatenschicht im späten kaiserlichen China. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1993.
Tanabe, George J., Ir. Myöe the Dreamkeeper: Fantasy and Knowledge in Early Kamakura Buddhism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
Alexander L. Mayer
DUHKHA (SUFFERING)
Suffering is a basic characteristic of all life in this world, and is the first of the four noble truths taught by the Buddha and recorded in the various Buddhist canons. Along with anitya (impermanence) and anatman (no-self), suffering is one of three fundamental characteristics of life in this world.
Duhkha (Pali: dukkha) is most often translated as "suffering," although the word encompasses a wide range of things that cause pain. It is commonly defined in Buddhist texts as birth, old age, disease, and death; as sorrow and grief, mental and physical distress, and unrest; as association with things not liked and separation from desired things; and as not getting what one wants (as in, for example, the Samyutta-nikdya [Book of Kindred Sayings], volume 5, verse 410 ff.). Buddhist texts summarize what suffering is by referring to a group called the "five aggregates of grasping." The five aggregates of grasping refer to the five things that people cling to in order to think of themselves as independent and enduring beings: the physical body, feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.
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Holding on to each of these five things produces suffering because there is no permanent existence in the world. If a person clings to things whose nature is im-permanence, with the hope that those things will remain stable and unchanging, then that person will continually suffer when faced with the inevitability of change. According to Buddhist teachings, suffering is an inescapable characteristic of all life and cannot be alleviated except through enlightenment.
See also: Anatman/Atman (No-Self/Self); Path; Pra-tltyasamutpada (Dependent Origination); Psychology; Skandha (Aggregate)
Bibliography
Anderson, Carol S. Pain and Its Ending: The Four Noble Truths in the Theravada Buddhist Canon. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1999.
Strong, John. The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations, 2nd edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Press, 2002.
Carol S. Anderson
DUNHUANG
Dunhuang, on the far western border of the Han empire, was founded as a garrison commandery in 111 b.c.e. Some twenty-five kilometers southeast of the town, a long range of barren rocky hills meets a group of high sand dunes. A small stream, running from south to north, has cut the gravel conglomerate to form a cliff one and a half kilometers long, and irrigates a grove of trees and a few fields. Here, from the fourth to the fourteenth centuries, there was almost continuous cutting and decoration of cave sanctuaries, most of which have survived intact. Now a World Heritage site, Dunhuang was thrust into international prominence at the beginning of the twentieth century with the discovery of a sealed library and the removal to several institutions worldwide (British Museum in London, Musee Guimet in Paris, National Museum in New Delhi, State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, etc.) of thousands of Buddhist manuscripts and hundreds of paintings on silk and hemp cloth.
During the millennium of activity at the site, however, it would seem that the caves at Dunhuang served a number of very different purposes, whether Buddhist or secular, official or private, and that they represent the hopes and fears of many individuals, be they rich
or poor, local residents or passing travelers. Traditionally, the first caves were opened in 366 by the Buddhist monks Yuezun and Faliang for the purpose of meditation. The lonely situation of the site, then known as Miaoyan or the Wonderful Cliff, perhaps implying that it possessed a reputation as a sacred site even in its pre-Buddhist phase, was admirably suited to the scriptural requirement that places of meditation be located well away from centers of population.
The earliest caves extant today, near the middle of the cliff and high above ground level, date from the fifth century. Elements of style and iconography originating somewhat earlier in Kizil, on the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert, blend with typically Chinese architectural features in these early caves. In most there is a square central pillar, with the main image facing the entrance. The walls and ceilings were coated with clay plaster on which were depicted both narrative scenes from the previous lives of Sakyamuni and the legends of his historical life, and the three thousand buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa in serried rows of seated figures.
Dunhuang was not only the gateway to the Western Regions beyond Chinese territory, but it was a site of such magnificence that its fame spread rapidly throughout the region and the Chinese empire, especially after the unification under the Sui dynasty (589-618).
See also: Bianwen; Bianxiang (Transformation Tableaux); China, Buddhist Art in; Silk Road
Bibliography
Dunhuang Research Academy, ed. Chugoku Sekkutsu: Tonkb Bakkokutsu (Chinese Cave Temples: The Mogao Caves at Dunhuang), 5 vols. Tokyo and Beijing: Heibonsha and Wenwu Press, 1982.
Dunhuang Research Academy, ed. Dunhuang shiku yishu {The Art of the Dunhuang Caves), 20 vols. Nanjing, China: Jiangsu Fine Arts Press, 1994.
Dunhuang Research Academy, ed. Dunhuang shiku quanji (Complete Collection of the Dunhuang Caves), 28 vols. Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1999.
Gies, Jacques, ed. The Arts of Central Asia: The Pelliot Collection in the Musie Guimet, tr. Hero Friesen. London: Serindia, 1996.
Wang, Eugene Y. Shape of the Visual: Imagining Topography in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Art. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.
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