As I was praying one day, I saw a barren desert in front of me. Above this desert I saw an intense punishing sun. This was not a desert of the world but a spiritual desert. The sun above it was burned with such intensity that it felt as if one would go mad under its heat.
I looked at the expanse of this desert and realised that I was looking at Europe. The sun above this desert was the pressures of life and the world around, the media, money, temptation, societal pressure and other worldly pressures.
I realised that anyone born into this desert could not possibly make it to adulthood without having their value system seriously distorted and warped. The heat from this sun was unbearable even for a short few years but to try to grow to maturity in this culture would be intense painful and confusing.
I saw there was no where to escape from the heat all notions of faith and even alternative value systems were almost completely gone and people were born into this culture with no sense of anything but the desert itself.
I then looked east.
I saw the same intense unbearable sun beating down on what I recognised as South East Asia. This was not the sun of our solar system but an oppressive over powering spiritual and cultural force that beat down upon the earth.
As I looked I saw in the midst of this desert a vast Banyan tree spread out across the desert providing some shade and respite from the heat.
I wondered what this tree could be. I began to understand that this was the teaching of the Buddhists in South East Asia which provided some respite from the intensity of the diabolical sun.
I realised that the people of South East Asia still clung to the teaching of the Buddhas, which provided them with some sense of the world beyond this one. Whilst the people in Europe had abandoned all notions of the divine and had no where to take refuge from the intensity of life and its demands.
