Dreams play a powerful role in the sacred biographies of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: they foretell the births of religious figures, describe their accomplishments, and reveal esoteric teachings.
In this fascinating study of the Buddhist dream experience, Dr. Serinity Young explores the complex functions of dreams in the sacred biographies of the Buddha and other central Buddhist figures, and reveals the ever-changing nature of dreams in Buddhist thought and practice.

Dreaming in the Lotus: Buddhist Dream Narrative, Imagery & Practice , Serinity Young, Wisdom Publications,320 pages, $18.95

Serinity Young received her PhD from Columbia University and is an adjunct assistant professor at Queens College, where she administers the Himalayan Studies minor. She is also a research associate in the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, where she works on Tibetan artifacts and iconography. She has been awarded two Fulbrights, two Asian Cultural Council grants, was a research scholar in the History of Science and in Archaeology at �cole des Hautes �tudes en Sciences Sociales, and has been elected to the Hunter College Alumni Hall of Fame. Her research focuses on gender issues in Buddhist texts, material culture, and rituals; shamanism; sacred biography; pilgrimage; healing and medicine; dream theory; and archaeology. She has done fieldwork in India, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, and Russia. She is the author of Courtesans and Tantric Consorts: Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Ritual, & Iconography (Routledge, 2004) and Dreaming in the Lotus: Buddhist Dream Narrative, Imagery, and Practice (Wisdom, 1999); editor-in-chief of The Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion (Macmillan 1998); editor of An Anthology of Sacred Texts By and About Women (Crossroads & HarperCollins, 1993); most recently she has published Body & Spirit: Tibetan Medical Paintings, (AMNH Publications and University of Washington Press, 2009) and has several electronic publications on the AMNH website (www.amnh.org/our-research/anthropology/collections/highlights).

List of Illustrations	ix
Foreword	xi
Acknowledgments	xvii
Abbreviations	xxi
Introduction	1
Indo-Tibetan Dreaming
Dreams, Religion, and Sacred Biography	7
Dreams in World Religions	7
Dreams in Buddhist Sacred Biography	8
Elite versus Popular Views of Dreaming	15
The Psychoanalytic Study of Dreams	18
Dreams in the Biographies of the Buddha	21
Queen Maya's Dream	21
The Dreams of the Buddha	24
The Dreams of Others	33
Early Buddhist Dream Theory	43
Pali Texts	43
The Asokavadana	47
The Sardulakarnavadana	50
Buddhist Understandings of the Self and Consciousness	51
Dreams in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism	55
Indigenous Practices	56
Buddhist Influences in Tibet	59
Medical Texts	65
Continuity of Dream Material
Conception Dreams	75
Shared Dreams	87
Dreams as Signs of Spiritual Accomplishment	95
The Buddha	96
Milarepa and His Disciples	97
The Ability to Interpret Dreams	108
Innovations in Dream Material
Dream Yoga	117
Dreams and Religious Innovation	117
The Six Yogas	120
Practice in Tibet	125
Ritual Dreaming	129
Sought Dreams	129
Rituals to Counteract Bad Dreams	135
Dream Rituals from the Kangyur and Tangyur	137
Gender in Indo-Tibetan Dreaming	147
Women and Female Deities in Men's Dreams	148
Women Dreamers	152
Dreams, Death, and Women	160
Conclusions	163
Lucid Dreaming	167
Notes	173
Bibliography
Texts and Translations	245
Secondary Sources	253
Index	279