Grasping in a dream?

Buddhism is now embraced by many Westerners in the US in particular South California. Quite a number of Buddhist podcasts originated from there. From these Buddhist talks I observe that they downplay the concept of reincarnation whilst promoting Buddhism as a practical philosophy of achieving happiness and skilful living. They approach 'karma' the law of cause and effect more from a scientific perspective and focus on the basic Buddhist tenets of dukha (sufferings arising from desire, aversion and ignorance), impermanence and non self.

At one of the talks a teacher used a metaphor when someone in the audience remarked that it is difficult to accept the fact that we cannot remember our past lives. The teacher described reincarnations as dreams. Just as we are not able to remember our dreams likewise we fail to remember our past lives.

Whilst I was having some quiet time, I reflected on this metaphor of dreams. On the hypothesis that there is reincarnation and our past lives are like the multitudes of dreams that arise and fade away, then one can see there is really nothing to hold onto so tightly in this life. Dreams can be very vivid and whilst in the dreams we do not know we are dreaming. They always seem so real. Yet most times we cannot remember them the next morning or may remember them only as fuzzy fragmented stories. If we see this life as one dream out of thousands we may not grasp onto it as if it is the be-all and end-all.

In the historical TV drama 雍正王朝 which depicts the life of emperor Yungzhen, there is a scene which remains imprinted in my mind. The scene shows the emperor in his study late at night. Earlier on he had received news about the passing of his eighth brother. This brother was his greatest rival for the throne whom he defeated. Before his death, he wrote Yungzhen a letter. As the emperor read the letter in his study, the ghost of his brother appeared pacing the text of the letter. In the letter the brother told Yungzhen he was holding on too tightly and should learn to let go. It did not matter whether one won or lost for everything is transient as a fleeting cloud. 过眼云烟 The scene was so well done with images of mist and candles blowing out, a true representation of life.