Last night I dreamt I was walking in a foreign city at night. I became lost and I encountered many people on the streets. Some were good, some bad. When the bad ones appeared I found myself silently reciting Amitabha Buddha and this kept my mind calm and somewhat free from fear. In my younger years when I would be confronted with demons in dreams I would resist and fear them, and if they attacked me I would counterattack. When I learned new spiritual principles and tried to practice them the final exam always took place in dreams. If I could practice the rules of wisdom in a dream I knew I could practice in the physical realm, and in most cases practicing these rules is easier in the physical realm than in dreams, for in dreams is where the deepest roots of my psyche manifest. And so it is quite startling to be confronted with demons in a dream and in reply to them I continuously recite Amitabha Buddha. I began to practice this method of meditation only a week ago and to have it already manifest in a dream is a positive sign because most of my wisdom practices took years to manifest in the dreamworld.
The dream manifestation of Amitabha Buddha encouraged me this morning to take up the meditation technique called "Following One's Inclinations", and so upon getting out of bed I bowed 48 times to Amitabha Buddha, and seven times each to the Bodhisatva Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisatva Mahasthamaprapta, and the Ocean-Wide Assembly.
