I had a dream this morning just before waking up – very vivid and clear. I was at some sort of meeting. It was very crowded with very interesting people – very cosmopolitan, with lots of arty types. There were so many that the room was crowded to the doors and there was no room. I decided to go off and do something else. Then someone came up to me and said that I was one of the speakers. I felt very annoyed. No one had told me, or asked me and I did not even know what the subject was. I walked up and down the corridor. It had a highly polished wooden floor and the sun was pouring in from the windows. I began to work out what I was going to talk about. This part was particularly lucid.
Now it is not so clear, though I can remember the main point. I would begin by explaining why I was unprepared and then I would go on to talk about involvement in human affairs. I am not quite sure how I got to this topic though it flowed quite logically in the dream. I think it is partly the result of the thinking I am doing about myself and what I am doing with my life. The only part that is clear now is using the example of Christ who was involved deeply with people and yet not involved with the factions, religious and political, of the times. At the back of my mind is that Buddhist poem
Bending neither to the rain
Nor to the wind
Nor to snow nor to summer heat,
Firm in body, yet
Without greed, without anger,
Always smiling serenely
Eating his four cups of rough rice a day
With bean paste and a few vegetables.
Never taking himself into account
But seeing and hearing everything,
Understanding
And never forgetting.
In the shade of a pine grove
He lives in a tiny thatched hut:
If there is a sick child in the east
He goes and tends him:
If there is a tired mother in the west
He goes and shoulders her rice sheaves:
If there is a man dying in the south
He goes and soothes his fears:
If there are quarrels and litigation in the north
He tells them, ‘Stop your pettiness.’
In drought he sheds tears.
In cold summer he walks through tears.
Everyone calls him a fool.
Neither praised
Nor taken to heart.
That man
Is what I wish to be.
Also at the back of my mind is the problem of being a Christian and being involved. There are always factions and to be in favour of one is to be opposed to others. The problem for the Christian is to be for others, to be with them in their hopes and aspirations for all that is good but to avoid being caught up in what divides people. There are some things, however, which cannot be avoided, some causes which are so important that whatever the opposition one cannot but be involved.