King Pasenadi's sixteen dreams and the dreams in the Buddha's life
Dreams have an important place in Buddhism and in Thai belief, from before the Buddha's birth to a king's dreams that Thais still quote as a moral warning. This page retells the key dreams in the texts in our own words, with the meanings the texts give them.
Queen Maya's dream
In the account of the Buddha's life in the Jataka commentary (the Nidānakathā), on the night the future Buddha entered her womb Queen Maya dreamt that the four guardian kings carried her couch to the Himalaya, where a splendid white elephant holding a white lotus in its trunk circled the couch three times and entered her right side. The brahmins foretold a son who would become either a universal monarch or a Buddha. This is why Thais treat Dreaming of an elephant, above all a white elephant, and the lotus among Dreaming of flowers, as the most auspicious dreams.
The five great dreams of the future Buddha
In the Aṅguttara Nikāya (the Great Dreams discourse) the Buddha recounts five dreams he had before his awakening, while still a bodhisatta, each a sign of what later came true.
| The dream | Its meaning |
|---|---|
| The earth was his bed, the Himalaya his pillow, his left hand in the eastern ocean, his right in the western, his feet in the southern | He would attain full awakening |
| A grass grew from his navel up to the sky | He would proclaim the Noble Eightfold Path to gods and humans |
| White worms with black heads crawled up from his feet to his knees | Many white-clad householders would take refuge in him |
| Four birds of different colours flew from the four directions, fell at his feet and all turned white | People of all four castes would go forth and reach the same liberation |
| He walked up and down on a mountain of dung without being soiled | He would receive many requisites yet use them without attachment |
The last is a fine example of a repellent image with a good meaning, much like the Thai “reversed dream” that reads Dreaming of feces as luck.
King Pasenadi's sixteen dreams
The Mahāsupina Jātaka (story 77) tells how King Pasenadi of Kosala dreamt sixteen dreams in one night and woke terrified. His brahmins declared them omens of disaster and urged a great animal sacrifice. Queen Mallikā persuaded him to ask the Buddha instead, who told him the dreams held no danger for him but pictured a distant age when rulers and people would fall from virtue, and read them one by one (summarised in our own words):
| No. | The dream | The Buddha's reading |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Four black bulls enter the royal courtyard as if to fight, then leave without fighting | Under unrighteous rulers, clouds will gather and thunder but no rain will fall |
| 2 | Saplings barely a span high already flower and fruit | People will marry and have families too young, and lives will grow shorter |
| 3 | Cows suckle from calves born that same day | Elders will depend on the young, and the young will not respect the old |
| 4 | Young steers are yoked to carts while strong oxen stand by | Rulers will hand affairs of state to the inexperienced instead of the wise |
| 5 | A horse with a mouth on each side eats from both | Judges will take bribes from both sides |
| 6 | People hold out a golden bowl for a jackal to urinate in | The noble will have to marry their children to unworthy people who hold power |
| 7 | A man twists a rope and lets it trail under his bench, where a she-jackal eats it | Wealth earned with hardship will be squandered carelessly |
| 8 | A full water jar stands at the gate among empty ones, yet people keep filling the full one | The poor will labour to enrich those who already have plenty |
| 9 | A pool muddy in the middle and clear at the edges | Oppression will drive people from the centre to the borderlands |
| 10 | Rice in one pot cooks unevenly: raw, soggy and well done | People of every class will fall from virtue, and the rains will not come in season |
| 11 | Precious sandalwood is traded for buttermilk | Valuable teachings will be traded for small gains |
| 12 | Empty gourds sink in water | The worthy will be pushed down |
| 13 | Huge rocks float on water | The unworthy will rise to prominence |
| 14 | Small frogs chase and eat cobras | The world turned upside down: people ruled by their desires |
| 15 | A crow is attended by golden swans | The incapable will hold power while the good must serve them |
| 16 | Goats chase and devour panthers | The lowly will dominate the noble until they must flee |
Many of the dreams feature animals that Thai dream books still use, such as Dreaming of a cow or water buffalo, Dreaming of a horse, Dreaming of a frog or toad, Dreaming of a snake, Dreaming of birds and Dreaming of a goat, but in the Jataka their meaning is about society, not personal fortune.
Dreams in the Milindapañha
King Milinda asks the monk Nāgasena what a dream is, who dreams and when. Nāgasena answers that there are six kinds of dreamers: those who dream because of wind, bile or phlegm in the body, those inspired by a deity, those who dream from their own habits, and those who dream an omen. Only the last is true. The omen arises in the mind by itself, like a reflection in a mirror; the dreamer neither seeks it nor knows its outcome. And dreams come in light “monkey sleep”, not in deep sleep or when awake.
Reading the dreams in the texts today
The dreams in the texts share one thing: their meaning lies not in personal luck but in conduct and morality. The Buddha did not teach people to fear dreams; on the contrary, he stopped the sacrifice the brahmins proposed to ward off a bad dream. The Buddhist use of dreams is to reflect, do good and not panic. To see how Thai books read your own dream, try the dream interpretation tool.
Frequently asked questions
Where do King Pasenadi's sixteen dreams come from?
From the Mahāsupina Jātaka, Jataka story 77 in the Khuddaka Nikāya. King Pasenadi of Kosala had all sixteen dreams in one night, then went to ask the Buddha on Queen Mallikā's advice.
Are the sixteen dreams a prophecy of the end of the world?
No. The Buddha told the king the dreams would bring him no harm; they picture a distant age when rulers and people fall away from virtue. Thais often quote them as a moral warning about society.
How do the five great dreams differ from the sixteen?
The five great dreams were the future Buddha's own, before his awakening, recorded in the Aṅguttara Nikāya, and they foretell the awakening and the spread of the teaching. The sixteen were King Pasenadi's and picture the decline of society.