Great Peacock Queen and Avalokiteshvara

Today 2 strange things happened when I woke up this morning.

1. I remembered the dream I just had. I dreamt that I had gone to a dharma friend’s house and I think there was a visiting Lama. Either him or the visiting Lama gave me a nice looking “sword” – much like Manjusri’s sword. I held on the handle of the sword. But looking further to the “blade”, I realized that there was no blade at all. Instead, it was a long statue of Thousand Armed Avalokiteshvara. This statue is special because it is made of green jade with a handle at the base of the lotus. That’s what made me think I was holding a sword. But the 4 heads at the end, piled one on top of the other, was in their respective colours as depicted in Tibetan Buddhism (i.e. I am sure you know that jade is available not only in its traditional light green colour but also in red, yellow, orange and dark green jade). It was a really beautiful statue. After I got out of his house, I dreamt that I went home happily. I know dreams are just that - DREAMS. But the statue is still beautiful. And also that's one of the clearest dream I had ever had of Avalokiteshvara.

2. I woke up with the Chinese name of the Great Peacock Queen Bodhisattva in my mind – reciting it mentally. That was strange because just a few days ago I had tried to recall her name but cannot remember. Moreover, I do not recite her name at all. Rather I recite her mantra. Furthermore I did not repeatedly recite her mantra before I slept. But I did read some Tibetan Buddhist verses on “The Peacock’s Neutralizing of Poisons”. Thus it was strange for me to wake up repeating her name over and over in my mind. And in Chinese? Why would I be repeating “….Da Gong Que Ming Wang…” over and over? That was right after I dreamt of the Thousand Armed statue. But there was no dream of the Great Peacock Bodhisattva. How strange!