Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte and#8220;The Golden Drum,and#8221; by Sangharakshita, is an excerpt from the talk and#8216;The Bodhisattva’s Dreamand#8217;. The Bodhisattva Ruchiraketu dreams of a golden drum radiating golden light which fills a totally transformed worldand#8230; Talk given in 1976. This talk is part of the series and#8216;Transformation of Life and World in the Sutra of Golden Lightand#8217;.
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
The Golden Drum
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you, and happy listening. [music] This week we are concerned with the dream itself. And once again, there's no question of a detailed explanation. Once again, we can give only a few hints, a few pointers. To begin with, the dream is a dream. That is to say, on the level of the literal meaning of the sutra, it is a dream. It represents a state of consciousness other than the waking state. But on the level of the real meaning of the sutra, this state is not just a different state, it's a higher state. So what happens in the dream, therefore, is to be understood as pertaining to a higher order of reality. Secondly, dreams, ordinary dreams or dreams in the ordinary sense are the product of the activity of the subconscious mind. Or of the unconscious mind. They represent an influence that operates below the threshold of consciousness. Rushurikator's dream therefore represents the working out of his spiritual experiences at a deeper level of his being, not just the mental level. In other words, if seeing the mandala of the four Buddhas represents, for Rushurikator, the path of vision, the dream represents the path of transformation. It is better to say the path of transformation by having a margar in the full technical sense. Rushurikator's total being is beginning to be transformed. And the symbol and the center of the total transformation is the drum, the golden drum which he sees at the beginning of his dream. But why a drum? Why drum of all things? There is perhaps a reason for this, or at least a thin thread of connection, a thin thread of connection with the previous chapter. You'll remember that the Buddha that appeared on the Lotus throne in the direction of the north was Dundu Bismar. And Dundu Bismar means Lord of the drum. And the drum is a very ancient symbol in Buddhism. Shortly after his enlightenment, the Buddha declared that he would go through Benares to Kashi, and he would there proclaim the Dharma. An expression he used for proclaiming the Dharma, for teaching the Dharma was to beat the drum of the deathless, the drum of Nirvana, the drum of the Absolute. And the words for drum which he used here is the same word Dundu Bismar. So perhaps, as I said, there is a thin thread of connection. We cannot be sure, because after all we're dealing with a dream. Perhaps the Rushurikator's dream was sparked off by vague reminiscence of the Buddha of the north, Dundu Bismar, the Lord of the drum. Perhaps that is why the drum appeared to him as he slept, and with it all the traditional associations of the drum. Be that as it may, we can at least be sure of one thing, which is that the drum does not have one single, assignable meaning in Rushurikator's dream. Like all true symbols, it has many meanings. And at the same time, it is more than its meanings, more than all its meanings. The drum is the Absolute. If you like, it's the truth. It's ultimate reality. Of course, it's circular in shape, the drum is circular in shape, and in many spiritual traditions, the circle or the sphere symbolizes perfection. The jewel, the round jewel, the pearl for instance, has the same general significance. But the drum is also the Buddha, the Buddha himself, the historical Buddha, who proclaims the Dharma even as the drum shines with its golden light. And the drum is not only the historical Buddha, the drum is also the eternal Buddha, the Buddha of the Mahayana, who is the son, as it were, of the spiritual universe. Also, the drum is the Buddha who occupies the center of the mandala, the missing Buddha, the fifth Buddha, the Buddha in the middle. And then, of course, the drum is rutura-kato himself, as mentioned earlier. Not the old rutura-kato, the new rutura-kato, the rutura-kato, who is in process of being completely transformed. And again, the drum is the son, and associated with the drum as the son is the rich, solar imagery of the Indian tradition, going back to Vedic times. It's imagery that reminds us at times of the hymns, of the so-called heretic Egyptian pharaoh, Archonator. The drum is rut. It's golden in colour. It's made of gold, and it radiates golden light. The colour gold is itself significant. Gold is the colour of incorruptibility, the colour of immortality, the colour of eternity, the colour if you like, of eternal life. It's the colour of the absolute. And finally, the drum is the sutra itself. The drum is the sutra of golden light, especially the nucleus of the sutra, later to say, this third chapter, these verses of confession. Now, there's much more that could be said about the symbolism of the drum as it appears in rutura-kato's dream. But I think I've said enough to give at least some idea of its significance, to give perhaps some feeling of its significance, a significance that is not confined to words. In any case, it's time we passed on to other things that rutura-kato saw in his dream, and then we must think of concluding. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at FreeBuddhistAudio.com/community. And thank you. [music] [music] [music] [music] [ Silence ]