We’ve concluded our fellowship on how to deal with eye twitching, but how should people handle the matter of dreaming in their daily lives? For instance, if you dream one night that your teeth fall out, your mother might ask, “Did it bleed when your teeth fell out?” If you ask, “What will happen if it did?” your mother might tell you that it could mean that someone in the family will die, or some other unfortunate event might occur. I do not know what the specific saying behind this detail may be, one family will say one thing, another family a different thing. Some might say it predicts the death of a close relative, like grandparents or parents, while others might say it signifies the death of a friend. In any case, dreaming about losing teeth is generally considered a bad thing. Because it is bad, and it relates to matters of life and death, this makes people very concerned. Whenever people dream about losing teeth, they wake up feeling uneasy. They have an underlying sense that misfortune or something bad is about to happen, which makes them anxious, fearful, and terrified. They want to rid themselves of the feeling but can’t, they want to find people to address this matter or smooth it over, but there is no way of doing it. They are, in short, held captive by this dream. Especially when the dream involves their teeth bleeding, their worry intensifies. After having such a dream, people are often in a bad mood for many days, they feel uneasy, and don’t know how to cope. For those who aren’t familiar with these things, they might remain unaffected, but for those who have already adopted certain thoughts and viewpoints or have heard more alarming and sensational sayings related to this matter passed down from their ancestors, they tend to be even more concerned. They fear having such dreams and whenever they do, they quickly resort to prayers like, “Oh God, please protect me, comfort me, give me strength, and prevent such things from happening. If this is meant for my parents, please keep them safe and free from any accidents.” Clearly, these attitudes are influenced by their thoughts and viewpoints or by traditional sayings. Regarding traditions, certain families or individuals might have special ways to alleviate such things, or might eat and drink certain things, recite certain incantations, or do certain things to resolve or prevent bad outcomes. There are certainly such practices in folk traditions, but we won’t delve into them. What we are going to fellowship about is how to approach and understand the matter of dreaming. Dreaming is a human instinct in the flesh or a part of the phenomena of the survival of the flesh. In any case, it is a mysterious occurrence. People often say, “The day has its thoughts, the night its dreams.” However, people do not usually think about things like losing their teeth in the daytime, nor are these things that people envision in their desires. No one wants to encounter such matters, and no one obsesses over these things day and night. Nevertheless, these occurrences often happen when people least expect them. So, this has nothing to do with the saying, “The day has its thoughts, the night its dreams.” It’s not something that happens because you think about it. No matter what interpretations Freud in the West or the Duke of Zhou in China have about dreams, or whether the dreams ultimately come true or not, in short, the matter of dreaming is related to certain unconscious sensations and awareness in the human body, and constitutes a part of its mysteries. Scientists who study biology and neuroscience in the West have been researching this, and ultimately, they have failed to fully understand the origins of human dreams. They can’t figure it out, so should we try to do research on it? (We shouldn’t.) Why shouldn’t we? (Researching these things is pointless, and we won’t understand them either.) It’s not that it’s pointless or that we won’t understand; it’s because it doesn’t involve the truth, it’s that simple. What can you achieve by studying and understanding it? Does it involve the truth? (No, it doesn’t.) It’s just a phenomenon that occurs over the course of the body’s survival, and it frequently takes place in people’s lives. However, people don’t know what it means. This is a part of the mystery. There’s no need for people to research or explore it because it doesn’t involve the truth, and it doesn’t pertain to the paths people take. Whether you dream at night about losing your teeth or not, whether you dream about having a grand feast or going on a rollercoaster, does it have anything to do with how your life is during the day? (No, it doesn’t.) If one night you dream about fighting someone, does it mean you’ll definitely fight someone during the day? If one night you have a pleasant dream, a happy dream, and wake up from happiness, does that guarantee everything will go smoothly and as desired during the day? Does it mean that during the day you can understand the truth and find the truth principles when you are doing things? (No, it doesn’t.) So, dreaming has nothing to do with the truth. There’s no need to research it. Does dreaming about losing your teeth and bleeding have any connection to the death of a close relative? (No, it doesn’t.) Why do you always say such ignorant things? You’re being ignorant again, aren’t you? You lack insight. The human body is a mystery, and there are many things you can’t explain. Can you resolve it all with a simple “no”? In the past, prophets and people chosen by God also had prophetic dreams. These dreams had significance. How do you explain that God used dreams to reveal things to people? Then how did God enter their dreams? These are all mysteries. God also used dreams to tell people certain things and enlighten them about certain matters, allowing them to foresee certain events before they happened. How do you explain this? Are you ignorant of these things? (Yes.) Now, the point is not to have you blindly deny various unexplainable phenomena that occur in everyday life involving mysteries you cannot unravel, but to understand and approach them accurately. It’s not about constantly negating these things, saying they don’t exist, there’s no such thing, or they’re impossible, but rather to have you treat them correctly. What does it mean to treat them correctly? It means not to approach these matters with superstitious or extreme thoughts and viewpoints like worldly people do, nor to approach them like those who are atheists or lack any faith. It’s not to have you go to these two extremes, but to take the correct position and viewpoint to consider these things that happen in everyday life, not the viewpoint of worldly people, nor that of nonbelievers—but the viewpoint that a believer in God should have. So, what viewpoint should you have regarding these matters? (No matter what happens, submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement—don’t research it.) You shouldn’t research it, but should you have some understanding in this regard? Suppose someone says, “So-and-so dreamed that their teeth fell out and there was blood, and within a few days, I heard that their father passed away.” If you immediately deny it and say, “Impossible! That’s just superstition, a coincidence. Superstition is believing in something because you’re obsessed with it; if you weren’t obsessed with it, it wouldn’t exist,” is this a foolish thing to say? (Yes.) How should you view this matter then? (We should recognize that there are many mysteries of the physical body, and dreaming about teeth falling out and bleeding might indicate something unpleasant happening. But regardless of whether it happens or not, we should submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangement.) You just learned something from eye twitching, so how should you deal with dreaming about teeth falling out and bleeding? You should say, “This matter is beyond our comprehension. In real life, this phenomenon indeed exists. We cannot determine whether it will come true or whether it forebodes something bad will happen, but bad things like this really do happen in real life. Matters in the spiritual realm are beyond our comprehension, and we dare not make random claims. If I have such a dream, what should my attitude be? Regardless of the dream, I won’t be constrained by it. If this dream genuinely comes true as people say it will, then I thank God for giving me mental preparedness, for letting me know that such a thing may happen. I’ve never thought about whether I would be affected if a family member died, if my parents passed away: whether I would feel struck, whether my performance of duty might be affected, whether I would feel weak or complain against God—I’ve never thought about it. But today, this occurrence gave me a hint of it, making me see my actual stature. When I think about my parents’ death, I feel a deep pain inside; I would be constrained by it and feel depressed. Suddenly, I realize my stature is still very small. I have too little of a heart of submission to God, and too little faith in God. From today onward, I feel that I should equip myself with more truth, submit to God, and not be constrained by this matter. If there really is a close relative who dies or departs, I won’t be constrained by it. I’m prepared and I ask God for guidance and to increase my strength. No matter what lies ahead, I won’t regret choosing to do my duty, nor will I give up on choosing to expend myself with my whole body and mind for God. I will persist, and I will continue just as before to willingly submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements.” Next, you should pray often in your heart, seeking God’s guidance and asking for Him to increase your strength so that you are no longer constrained by this matter. Whether a close relative will die or not, you should equip your stature for it, ensuring that when such an event occurs, you won’t become weak, won’t complain against God, and won’t change your determination and desire to expend yourself for God with your body and mind. Isn’t this the attitude you should have? (Yes.) When it comes to things like dreaming about your teeth falling out, you shouldn’t deny their existence or set them aside and ignore them, and you certainly shouldn’t use any strange or defensive methods to deal with them. Instead, you should seek the truth, come before God accepting His orchestrations; don’t make pointless sacrifices or foolish choices. Ignorant and stubborn people, when faced with something they haven’t experienced before and cannot comprehend, tend to say, “There’s no such thing,” “It’s nothing,” “It doesn’t exist,” or “It’s just superstition.” Some people who believe in God even say, “I believe in God, I don’t believe in ghosts,” or “I believe in God, I don’t believe in Satan. There’s no Satan!” They use these statements to prove their genuine faith in God, saying they believe in God but not in ghosts, evil spirits, possession, or even the existence of the spiritual realm. Aren’t they just nonbelievers? (Yes, they are.) They don’t accept those sayings of traditional thoughts of the world of unbelievers, nor do they accept superstitious explanations or any facts associated with superstitions. Not believing in these things doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Right now, it’s not about asking you not to believe, or to escape or deny these things. Rather, it’s about teaching you to have the correct thoughts and viewpoints when facing these matters, to make the right choices and have the right attitude. This will be your true stature, and this is what you should enter in. For example, someone dreams about losing their hair. Losing one’s hair in a dream is also considered inauspicious. Regardless of the corresponding interpretations or fulfilled events, in short, people have negative explanations regarding such dreams, and believe that they indicate something bad or unfortunate will happen. Except for the ordinary dreams that don’t involve significant issues, there are certain interpretations for those special dreams, and these interpretations forecast certain events, providing people with certain foresight, warnings, or predictions, letting them know what’s going to happen in the future or giving them a certain awareness, which tells people what is going to happen so that they can prepare themselves mentally. Regardless of what might happen, for you, you shouldn’t adopt attitudes of avoidance, rejection, defense, or resistance, or even an attitude of using human methods to resolve these situations. When you face such situations you should come before God even more readily and ask Him to lead you, so that in the face of impending events you may be able to stand firm in your testimony and align your practice with God’s will, rather than rejecting and resisting it. Asking you to practice this way does not mean you are required to focus on these things; it teaches you what kind of attitude, when they inevitably occur, you should adopt to face them, and what kind of approach you should use to resolve them. This is what you should understand. Tell Me, you’ve been asked to not focus on these things, but don’t these things happen in everyday life? (Yes.) If you say they don’t exist, and then they do happen, you might consider it and think, “Oh no, I have to believe this, it really did come true!” Without prior preparation and the right attitude, when these things occur, you’ll be caught off guard, you won’t be prepared in any way, you won’t know how to pray to God or how to face the situation, and you won’t have genuine faith in God or genuine submission. All you’ll feel in the end is fear. The more afraid you become, the more you’ll lose the presence of God; when you lose God’s presence, you can only seek help from other people and you’ll think of every human method imaginable to escape. When you can’t escape, you’ll start to believe that God is no longer trustworthy or reliable; instead, you feel that people are reliable. Things will continue to deteriorate; not only will you no longer believe it to be superstition, but you’ll see it as something terrible, a situation that is out of your control. At that point, you might say, “No wonder unbelievers and those who believe in Buddhism and burn incense to worship Buddha are constantly going to temples, burning incense, praying for blessings, fulfilling vows, being vegetarian, and chanting Buddhist scriptures. It turns out these things really work!” Not only will you lack genuine submission to and faith in God, but you’ll develop instead a fear of evil spirits and Satan. After that, you’ll feel obligated to obey them to some extent and you’ll say, “These evil spirits are nothing to mess with; it’s no good for you not to believe in them, you have to tread carefully around them. You can’t say whatever you want behind their backs: There are taboos. These evil spirits are not to be trifled with!” Behind these events, you’ll suddenly realize that there are powers at work beyond the material world that you hadn’t anticipated. When you start to sense these things, your heart will be filled with fear and an avoidance of God, and your faith in God will diminish. So, when it comes to matters like dreaming about teeth or hair falling out, you should adopt the right attitude. Regardless of the specific interpretations or predictions associated with these events when they happen to you, you only have to do this much: Believe that everything is in God’s hands and be willing to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements—this is the attitude you should adopt when facing all these matters. This is the stance you should take and the testimony you should bear as someone who follows God, isn’t it? (Yes, it is.) Believe that all these things may happen and that everything is in God’s hands; this is the attitude you should uphold.

Some people have taboos about certain numbers or special days. For example, some people who are engaged in business for many years attach great importance to making a fortune, so they particularly like and value numbers related to making a fortune in business, and abstain from numbers that they believe will bring bad luck to their business. For example, the numbers 6 and 8 are particularly favored by a certain person, the door number of their shop is 168, and the shop is called “Yi Lu Fa,” meaning getting rich all the way, the pronunciation of which in Mandarin is similar to the numbers 1, 6, and 8,^[a] which are lucky numbers in Chinese folklore. On the other hand, the numbers 4 and 5 are considered bad in Chinese tradition, as 4 means death and 5 means nothing, lack, or emptiness, which implies that one may fail to recover their original investment or to make money. Even the license plates of some Chinese people’s cars have all 6s, and if you see a row of 6s, it’s basically always going to be a Chinese person. Who knows how much wealth they might have accumulated using so many 6s? One time in a parking lot, almost all parking spaces were occupied except for one, which carried the number 64. Do you know why no one parked in that space? (64 may mean death and is considered unlucky.) 64 means death on the road. At that time, I didn’t know why no one parked in that space, but later I heard about it from unbelievers and understood. 6 sounds like “road” and 4 sounds like “death,” 64 sounds like “death on the road” in Mandarin, so people didn’t park there. I guess they probably changed the number of that parking space later to 68, which sounds like “getting rich all the way” in Mandarin. People are so obsessed with money that they are completely fixated on money. Can a number really change anything? Chinese people’s sayings about these numbers have even influenced foreigners. When we were looking at houses, a real estate agent asked us, “Do you have any taboos about certain numbers? For example, if the house’s door number is 14, is that bad because of the 4?” I said, “I’ve never thought about it. I didn’t know about this saying.” He said, “Many Chinese people refuse to consider a house because it has a 4 in the door number.” I said, “We don’t have any taboos about numbers. We only consider the positioning, location, lighting, ventilation, house structure, quality, and other things like that. We don’t care about the numbers; we don’t have any taboos.” So, do you think that something bad will definitely happen if unbelievers have taboos about certain numbers? (Not necessarily.) We don’t know about other countries outside of China, such as South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, or some Southeast Asian countries, what their particulars about numbers may be. In short, every country’s people are particular about certain numbers. For example, Americans are very uninterested in the number 6. Westerners don’t like 6 due to a kind of religious culture, as the number 6 mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible has negative connotations. There is also 13, which Westerners do not like either. Many elevators do not have that floor because they consider the number unlucky. Chinese people, on the other hand, believe that 6 and 8 are lucky numbers. So, which saying is the truth? (Neither of them.) Do you care about any specific numbers? Do you have your own lucky number? (No, we don’t.) Well, that’s good. Southern Chinese people pay particular attention to things like whether a number is lucky or not, choosing the right date for whatever they do, and following dietary restrictions during festivals—they are especially particular about this. But the matter of numbers certainly cannot explain anything. People’s avoidance of certain numbers is to some extent related to their beliefs, imaginings, and thoughts and notions. These are all foolish thoughts and viewpoints. If your family has instilled such thoughts and viewpoints in you, you should let go of them and not believe in them. These ideas are even more absurd—they aren’t even superstitions—and they constitute the ridiculous and nonsensical sayings of those money-crazed people in society.

Some people attach great importance to zodiac signs, and this matter involves superstition. Nowadays, even Westerners talk about zodiac signs, so don’t think that only Asians know about them. Westerners also know about the rabbit, ox, rat, and horse. What else? Snake, dragon, rooster, and sheep, isn’t that right? For example, ancestors and parents pass down the belief that people with the Sheep zodiac sign have doomed lives. If you are a Sheep, you might think, “My life is doomed, I always encounter misfortune. I have a bad partner, disobedient children, and my job is not going well. I never get promoted, and I don’t receive any bonuses. I am always unlucky. If I have another child, it won’t be in the Year of the Sheep. There is already one family member with the sheep zodiac sign whose life is doomed enough; if I gave birth to another with a Sheep zodiac sign, that would make two of us. How could we live like that?” You consider the matter, thinking, “I definitely can’t have a child in the Year of the Sheep, so which year should I aim for? Dragon? Snake? Tiger?” If you were born in the Year of the Dragon, does that mean you are actually a dragon? Can you really become an emperor? Isn’t that nonsense? Do you want to have these zodiac signs? Some people say, “People born in the Year of the Rabbit and the Year of the Rooster don’t get along with each other. I am a Rabbit, so I should avoid interacting with someone who is a Rooster. Our zodiac signs are incompatible, and our destinies clash. My parents say that people like us are not compatible to marry and won’t get along with each other. It’s best to have minimal contact with them, to not talk or interact. Our destinies clash, and if we are together, I won’t be able to overcome them, and my life will be shortened, won’t it? I need to stay away from such people.” These people are influenced by these sayings. Isn’t that foolish? (Yes, it is.) In short, regardless of whether your destiny clashes with someone of a certain zodiac sign, will it really have an impact on your fate? Will it affect you walking the correct path in life? (No, it won’t.) Some people are only willing to work, collaborate and even live with someone who is compatible with their zodiac sign. Subconsciously, deep down they are affected by these sayings, and these sayings passed down by their parents or ancestors hold a definite place in their hearts. You see, Eastern people care about zodiac signs, while Western people care about astrological signs. Now, Eastern people keeping up with the times have also started talking about astrological signs, such as Scorpio, Virgo, Sagittarius, and so on. For example, a Sagittarius person learns what their personality is like and that they tend to get along with people who have a certain astrological sign. When they find out that someone has that astrological sign, they are willing to interact with them, they think that they’re pretty great and have a good impression of them. They have also been influenced by the traditions of family conditioning. Whether it’s Eastern zodiac signs or Western astrology, whether clashes in destiny or the compatibility of signs have a factual existence, and whether these have any impact on you, you should understand what viewpoint to hold concerning them. What should you understand? A person’s birth time, the decade they were born in, the month and time they were born—these are all related to a person’s destiny. No matter what fortune tellers or face readers say about your destiny, your astrological sign, or if your zodiac sign is good or not, no matter how accurate they are—so what? What does this explain? Doesn’t it further prove that your destiny has already been arranged by God? (Yes.) What your marriage will be like, where you will live, what kind of people you will be surrounded by, how much material wealth you will enjoy in your life, whether you will be rich or poor, how much suffering you will endure, how many children you will have, and what your financial fortune will be—all of this has already been ordained. Whether you believe it or not, whether fortune tellers calculate it for you or not, it will be the same. Is it important to know these things? Some people are particularly eager to know, “What will my future fortune be like? Will I be poor or rich? Will I meet advantageous people? Are there any people whose destinies will clash with mine? Will I encounter any contrary people in my life? At what age will I die? Will I die from illness, exhaustion, thirst, or hunger? How will I die? Will it be painful or embarrassing?” Is it useful to know these things? (No.) In summary, you just need to be certain about one thing regarding this matter: Everything is ordained by God. Regardless of your zodiac or astrological sign, or the time and date of your birth, everything has already been determined by God. Precisely because everything has been ordained, the prosperity and wealth you will experience in your life, as well as the environment you will live in, were already determined by God before you were born, you don’t need to approach these matters with superstition or from the perspective of worldly people, adopting certain methods to avoid unlucky moments or taking certain measures to preserve and maintain lucky moments. This is not the way you should deal with destiny. For example, if it is destined for you to contract a serious illness at a certain age, and face readers point it out to you based on your astrological sign, zodiac sign, or birth time, what will you do then? Will you feel afraid, or will you try to find a way to resolve the matter? (Let nature take its course and submit to God’s orchestration.) This is the attitude that people should adopt. Regardless of what is or isn’t in your destiny, all of it has already been predetermined by God. Whether you like it or not, whether you are willing to accept it or not, whether you have the ability to face it or not, in any case, all of this has already been ordained by God. The attitude you should uphold is that of accepting these facts as a created being. Whether it has happened or not, whether you are willing to face it or not, you should accept and face it as a created being, rather than putting effort or seeking advice from others concerning things like astrology, zodiac signs, or face-reading, or searching for various resources in order to know what will happen in your future and avoid it as soon as possible. It is wrong to treat the fate and life that God arranged for you with such an attitude. Some people’s parents find them a fortune-teller, who tells them, “According to your astrological sign, as well as your Chinese zodiac sign and birth time, you cannot allow fire into your life.” After hearing this, they remember it and believe in it, and later it becomes a normal taboo in their daily life. For example, if someone’s name contains the character for “fire,” they will not interact with that person, and even if they do, they will not get close to them or have any close contact with them. They will be afraid of this and avoid it. For example, if someone’s name is Li Can, they will turn this over in their mind, thinking, “The character ‘Can’ contains one ‘fire’ radical and one ‘mountain’: That’s bad, there’s the ‘fire’ radical in it, so I can’t interact with them—I have to keep my distance.” They will be afraid to interact with this person. As far as they are able, they will avoid the kitchen stove at home, they won’t participate in candlelit dinners, attend bonfire parties, or go to houses with a fireplace, because these all involve fire. If they want to go on a trip, and they hear that a certain place has a volcano, they won’t go there. When they go somewhere to spread the gospel, they have to inquire about the surname and name of the person with whom they are sharing the gospel, and make sure their name does not have the character for “fire” in it, but if that person is a blacksmith who casts iron at home, they absolutely won’t go. Although they believe in their consciousness that everything is in God’s hands and they know they shouldn’t be afraid, as soon as they encounter such taboo matters, they begin to feel concerned and fearful, and they dare not break the taboo. They are always afraid of accidents and disasters happening that they would not be able to bear. They do not have true faith in God. They can be obedient, endure hardship, and pay the price in other aspects, but this matter is the one thing they cannot tolerate. For example, if someone tells them, “You can never cross a bridge during your entire life. If you cross a bridge, an accident will happen. If you cross several bridges, that will be even more dangerous, and your life will be at risk,” they will remember these words, and afterward, whether going to work or meeting up with friends, or even attending gatherings, they will avoid bridges and take a detour, fearing that they might break the taboo. They don’t believe that they will necessarily die just like that, but they are troubled by this matter. Occasionally, they have no choice but to cross a bridge, and after crossing, they say, “I believe everything is in God’s hands. If God doesn’t allow me to die, I won’t die.” However, their heart is still troubled by this saying, and they can’t shake it off. Some people say that water runs contrary to their fate, so they avoid going near streams or wells. There was a sister who had a swimming pool in her yard, so they didn’t go to her house for gatherings, and when they changed to another host who had a fish tank at home, they didn’t go there either. They wouldn’t go to any place with water and wouldn’t touch water whether it was flowing or stagnant. In daily life, these absurd sayings from family conditioning involve traditional culture and superstition. To some extent, these sayings affect people’s views on certain matters and impact their daily customs or lifestyles. This, to a certain extent, binds people’s thoughts and controls their principles and correct methods of doing things.

Footnotes:

a. The original text does not contain the phrase “meaning getting rich all the way, the pronunciation of which in Mandarin is similar to the numbers 1, 6, and 8.”