Tolstoy’s dream.
In The Book of Job, Elihu tells us that God speaks to man in two ways, one of which is in his dreams (this was one of your study questions for Job). Do you recall the other way?
Pain and Suffering -- Pain is God’s megaphone as
C.S Lewis put it. So pain can have good purposes like withdrawing your
hand
from a fire before you are seriously burned. Pain and suffering show
the
impermanence and imperfection of the world, thus lessening your ties to
it, so
you reach out for that which is perfect. God cannot withhold physical
evil
until His creatures are morally ready to live in such a world.
What do you think is being communicated in this dream? In your mind, what does it seem to be saying? And what is it about the dream that leads you to think that?
I would think that this dream was in
the context of the metaphor of a three story universe, heaven above,
hell
below, and an unsettling position on earth in the middle. In the dream,
as
Tolstoy’s material supports were removed from under him he was
frightened, understandably
so. So he looks towards heaven with hope, and since he focuses on it,
he finds
that he is being supported. As he gains comfort that he will not fall
into the
abyss he looks about to see what is supporting him. He discovers an
ingenious
mechanism which hold him up, and a voice, of which I would guess is
divine providence,
says ‘See that you remember.’ I would interpret this as meaning that
divine providence,
since he placed his hopes in heaven, held Tolstoy up from falling into
the
abyss (and that it is not material things which can do this) and this
fact he
should remember.
Toward the end of this dream a voice says: "Mark this, this is it!" What exactly do think the voice is telling Tolstoy to pay special attention to?
That he was being supported from falling into the abyss by hoping in heaven. ‘I look more and more into the infinite above me and feel that I am becoming calm…I was saved from fear by looking upwards. And I ask myself: Well, and now am I not hanging just the same?’
The last line in the dream (and in the book) tells Tolstoy: "See that you remember." What exactly do you think he is to remember?
I would
interpret this as meaning that divine providence, since he placed his
hopes in
heaven, held Tolstoy up from falling into the abyss (and that it is not
material
things which can do this) and this fact he should remember.