9/11/2009
While I was away, I dreamed early one morning that I was wandering alone in the house or apartment of a monk who had, as I understood it, hung himself. I didn’t seem to know the monk, at least not well, but I did seem to know that I was involved (as a close friend or romantically) with his teacher or Master. I wasn’t sure why I was there, but I had a sense that the “Master” might not be pleased that I was there, as there seemed to be some kind of shame attached to the monk who had killed himself, and a sense that the Master was saddened and disappointed in the monk for reasons beyond his suicide.
At one point as I dreamed, I saw spelled out very clearly in my mind, “ado.” I also heard or saw something about the Last Supper, and I remember thinking that the word “ado” sounded a little like “Judas”; I’m not sure why I thought that.
At the time, I was reading a book about the life of Buddha Gotama, about whom I knew next-to-nothing. Later that day, I came to a passage in the book about Buddha’s brother-in-law, Devadatta (the last part of the name also sounded like “ado.” I thought), who became one of his disciples/monks:
As for Devadatta, the scriptures…assign him a role that is similar to Judas in the Gospel story.
I understood right away that this was what my dream had been about. I kept reading, and came to the story. Devadatta had become (or had always been) egotistical and ambitious, and wanted to take control of the Sangha from Buddha. He plotted to kill him, but that didn’t work.
The book described how Devadatta then “decamped” with 500 or so of Buddha’s monks, whom he had convinced that Buddha had become “given over to luxury and self-indulgence.” As I read that part, my lip began to twitch quite violently (one of his ways of getting my attention), and I saw, again, “Last Supper.”
Devadatta’s plan, however, failed, and the monks returned to Buddha. The next thing I read stunned me:
Some texts tell us that Devadatta committed suicide; others that he died before he was able to be reconciled with the Buddha.
(Later, as I read more, I found that there was another “last supper” in Buddha’s life, and that he may have been intentionally or accidentally poisoned after being invited to dine with a man named Cunda. But it was pretty clear that the dream was about Devadatta’s betrayal and suicide.)
