Does anyone have an experience of visions of the future?

[Epistemes]

Does one even really need visions or dreams to predict the future? I mean, we Americans knew a recession was in store long before it ever happened. Likewise, astute analysis of current trends and demographics often leads to some very likely scenarios.

[Jikan]

Does one even really need visions or dreams to predict the future? I mean, we Americans knew a recession was in store long before it ever happened. Likewise, astute analysis of current trends and demographics often leads to some very likely scenarios.

well, that's karma for you. If you understand the relation of causes to effects, then you have something useful to guide your actions by

[YesheDron'May]

I have dreams/visions about the future but there really pretty useless , in fact im noticing all the gifts ive been blessed with are basically useless . Oh sure fun for palor games and to impress those innocents among us , but really what good does it do to know the future , who are you going to tell ? Who will beleave you ? and if you can see ghosts , so what ? Thats just more proff that your crazy lol...Seeing Auras yeah sooo who cares lol...Personaly Im sick of all these useless gifts . I want something thats going to be of some practical purpose . I want to walk into the casino and WIN because I knew what was next . I don't want to walk in and see all the ghost of the people that went there before they died . And I don't want to see the auras of the people who are playing and losing just like me . I want to win !! Then I want to fly home , now thats practical ! The real reason to have gifts and skills is to impress others and inspire them to follow you so that you can set a good example and lead them to enlightenment . Gifts are the tools of Bodhisatvas . In the right hands gifts and skills are a real blessing but there just a waste of time if you haven't achieved enlightenment yourself and have no place to lead anyone to . No sence in flashing around gifts if you are not ready willing or able to lead others wisely . I guess what im saying is don't worry about gifts , worry more about becoming someone worthy of being followed .Yeshe

[catmoon]

The Buddha (it is said, goodness knows by whom) was once travelling along the river looking for a way across. Along the way he came across a meditator sitting in perfectly composed lotus position, practically glowing with happiness and contentment. The yogi heard the Buddha coming, and left his meditation to ask why he was wandering so far from the towns and villages. And the Buddha said, "I am looking for a way across the river".

"It is done thusly", said the yogi, who then arose and walked across the river and back. But when he returned, the Buddha was in tears.

The Yogi was distressed and kindly asked,"Friend, why do you weep so?" and the Buddha replied,

"I am thinking of all the good you might have done, had you not wasted your life learning to walk on water."

[Madeliaette]

sometimes my sleeping dreams are phophetic - but usually only 1-2 days ahead and for me or close to me people - never had any experience of seeing the future of the whole world or beyond.
I have had a vision of my next life - so that I know where and to whom i will be reborn - but once again, that was not predictive of the population in general and came as a result of my studying karma pre meditating...
I dont think it really matters what becomes of the planet if there are many more inhabited planets and if things come and go over and over - to me, anyway. we are just at the now of it all whatever lies ahead.

[nirmal]

When we do a lot of chanting and meditation, dreams and visions will be there.If we get attached to them, then there is a problem because every time we sit for meditation, we hope and wait to see something.This is a great distraction and progress will be slow.Just let them come and go.When wisdom has developed,then we can interpret them and fully understand what they mean.Developing our wisdom is above all.

[Jikan]

When I have dreams that point to the future, it's always trivial stuff. Night before last I had a dream of making a wrong turn and having to drive on a steep highway overpass in the rain, and the car started to act up. The next day, I made a wrong turn and consequently drove over a steep highway overpass in the rain, and the car started to act up... and everything was fine.

[nirmal]

When I have dreams that point to the future, it's always trivial stuff. Night before last I had a dream of making a wrong turn and having to drive on a steep highway overpass in the rain, and the car started to act up. The next day, I made a wrong turn and consequently drove over a steep highway overpass in the rain, and the car started to act up... and everything was fine.

Hi Jikan
I always have visions that point to the future.In one of them, I saw my wife having a bad fall in town.On the next day, she went to town and had a bad fall.All of the visions come true. I told my Master about them and he advised me to do more chanting so that what I see in my visions could be avoided and changed for the better.That really helped.Last month I saw my son drowning in the sea. On the next day he rang me that he was going to Langkawi Island with his friends.He's an average swimmer. I started chanting right away. I chanted for about four hours and passed the merits onto him.He came back alive.Doing extra chanting(repetition of mantras) helps if we want something that we see in our visions not to happen even for trival stuff.

[Paul]

These very banal prophetic dreams, especially when in a hypnogogic or hypnopompic state seem to be very, very common. I'd bet nearly everyone experiences them at least one in their life. Given how easy it is to forget dreams and other experiences that happen near sleep I wonder how many things like this we experience and then forget.

[kirtu]

I told my Master about them and he advised me to do more chanting so that what I see in my visions could be avoided and changed for the better.

This is the exact advice that my Sakya lama gave me when I called him up about a prescient dream I had. Normally I would not have bothered him except that I had a highly symbolic dream about a cataclysmic event that happened just a few years before.

I chanted for about four hours and passed the merits onto him.He came back alive.Doing extra chanting(repetition of mantras) helps if we want something that we see in our visions not to happen even for trival stuff.

Kirt

[nirmal]

One who's skilled in seeing Buddha may obtain
The heaven-eye power and can see all things.
One who's skilled in preaching Dharma may obtain
Ear-power and at far places hear others sing!

One who's skilled in controlling one's mind,
May know that which another's thinking.
One practicing the Six Remembrance,
(Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Sila, Alms, God)
May know in the past lives of all things!

One renouncing all the dirts of evil,
May do everything at one's Will!
One practicing all kinds of good Dharma,
May get Asrava Kasaya-Jnana! (A supernatural consciousness of the Waning of Vicious Propensities)
http://www.yogichen.org/cw/cw30/bk058.html

[Jesse]

I've never heard of monks seeing the future, but according to science -- there is no reason why we should be able to experience the 'present', but not the future.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... uture.html

I've had weird experiences meditating but nothing even close to premonitions or other such stuff. The most memorable one appeared in multiple meditations and was a very clear image of a tree, with blue sky behind it.
The clarity of what I was saw was remarkable, but that's about the extent of things I've experienced.

[PadmaVonSamba]

Does anyone have an experience of visions of the future? I am planning to....real soon.

[nirmal]

The clarity of what I was saw was remarkable, but that's about the extent of things I've experienced.

It is like watching television with your eyes closed with the screen right in front of your face.And if you are flying to a certain holy destination, then you are in control. You may turn right, left or even reverse to take a closer look at the a certain place that you have just passed by.These are the minor interesting possiblities of our meditation.Chanting has to be balanced with meditation.Opening up our wisdom is still above all.

[IshNavaya]

Though time is a construct of this specific reality, samsara, I would think that visions of things that happened in "the past" or "the future" can occur. I have experienced such things during meditation, sleep, and awake. All states are relative.

I feel like the entire thing is a paradox, an oxymoron, a conundrum. Understanding is an inadequate word. The ever-spiraling wave of samsara engulfs us. However, a state of compassion will supersede suffering. This is my focus on my spiritual path, and I understand that now.

When the visions occurred in the beginning, I was frightened. I thought I was going crazy. After much deliberation, I have decided that I was being very selfish to worry that I was going crazy or to worry about whether everything I was experiencing was true. "True" is a silly word. (Imagine a good natured laugh here.)

English is a very binary language, and I feel that we have parsed and mangled the language to construct false dichotomies that do not, in reality, exist. I do not mean that everything is nothing. I am merely pointing out that the entire point of my visions and dreams were to teach me.

For most, I do not believe that such a terrible experience is necessary. I may laugh about it now because I have come to terms with my personal path, but I experienced three solid months of technicolor. It was psychologically, physically, and spiritually draining. The experiences led me to my path, and thus it was useful.

[Nosta]

Last saturday i had another dream that happened right in the next day. It was a precise dream about an improbable thing.

Amazing!

I think thats related with Clear Light. One can practice Dream Yoga in order to achieve that. Try to read the Namkhai Norbu books about that.

[gregkavarnos]

I don't know if deja vu is exactly visions of the future, coz they may be visions of a past which he happen to be "reliving".

Personally, during meditation sessions, my experiences of visions of my past stupidity are more than enough to deal with right now anyway!


PS Getting hooked on meditative experiences is a major obstacle to enlightenment. Get over it!

[Aemilius]

I don't know about future, I have meditated the past epochs, eras and periods in Geology. They form fascinating material for contemplation. You get some sense of the vastness of time in a concrete way, and other important insights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_timescale

[nirmal]

I don't know about future, I have meditated the past epochs, eras and periods in Geology. They form fascinating material for contemplation. You get some sense of the vastness of time in a concrete way, and other important insights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_timescale

Mahayana Meditation

These are the possibilities for our own meditations but nobody has given instructions like this before. One might well ask, why? To me it is very wonderful. There have been so many "Bodhisattvas" but they have not set forth such meditations. Mr. Chen laughed at this strange circumstance and then repeated: Yes, wonderful. And difficult to understand. There was, as we have mentioned, the sutra and shastra study school for the Prajnaparamita but not one devoted to its practice. Such a state of affairs is very extraordinary and I am sorry to have to report that it is so. Therefore, we must set up such practices for the real practitioners who wish to follow this way.
http://www.yogichen.org/cw/cw31/bk069.html

[Aemilius]

766

Mahayana Meditation

These are the possibilities for our own meditations but nobody has given instructions like this before. One might well ask, why? To me it is very wonderful. There have been so many "Bodhisattvas" but they have not set forth such meditations. Mr. Chen laughed at this strange circumstance and then repeated: Yes, wonderful. And difficult to understand. There was, as we have mentioned, the sutra and shastra study school for the Prajnaparamita but not one devoted to its practice. Such a state of affairs is very extraordinary and I am sorry to have to report that it is so. Therefore, we must set up such practices for the real practitioners who wish to follow this way.
http://www.yogichen.org/cw/cw31/bk069.html

It is not quite like that. If you practice the ordinary Ngondro meditations, they include the idea that you have been reborn in this world, or somewhere in the six lokas, innumerable thousands and millions of times. You can't really understand reincarnation before you start to meditate on it, i.e. that you have taken birth, lived and died thousands and millions of times. This idea is included in the 1., 3., and 4. of the Ngondro contemplations. At the same time we have the world view that is taken for granted in education, in TV etc... that includes all the eras and epochs in Geology. When you start doing the Ngondro meditations you have to somehow fit these ideas in the same picture. It can also happen automatically as you keep going with these meditations for any considerable time. This means that if you really do them, it is bound to happen some way. In plain language: Where were you during these eras? What kind of picture do have of it? This also brings up the yugas and kalpas of buddhism, do you feel and experience them as real? How do you fit them in the same picture with geological eras and epochs?