ABSTRACT
Eight accounts of these extended dreams are found in the autobiography, dateable to the years 1481, 1485, 1499, 1501, 1505, 1508, 1510 and 1516.100 Only those of 1485 and 1499 break the pattern set by the others: on those occasions Pemalingpa did not experience a dream journey. Instead, in 1485, he was approached by a local demon in the form of an aged yogin
who told him to clear off, threatening to "pound up some demon poison and pour it into your mou th" . Pemalingpa scorned the demon in verse, claiming a higher power. In the dream of 1499 he met with a group of mad monks, the disciples of the famous Holy Madmen of Ü and Tsang. The monks per formed various "mad acts" with their hats, inspiring Pemalingpa to sing a song in which he pronounced even the illusions experienced by sentient beings to arise from the play of the dharmakāya. Similar philosophical asides making the same point in different ways are found in the other dreams. The main purpose in narrating them, however, seems to be to tell the adventure of the dream journey itself and to point out its signi ficance for Pemalingpa rather than to indicate general religious truths, which are introduced only in a sort of incidental manner. Since the dreams are all much the same, each following a similar paradigm, a single example will suffice to convey their structure and flavour.101
