Note: I'd been saddened by the news of actor David Carradine's death, remembering his work fondly. "Kung Fu" was a particular favourite and was responsible for many in the U.S. taking up meditation and the martial arts back in the '70's. I know I benefitted from discovering tai chi and yoga thanks to the series. This may explain the following dream, although I'm not sure what those that study dreams and/or the sub-conscious mind might make of all these metaphors. I'll add though that the 'temple dog' described below is itself from an earlier lucid dream. I've interpreted it to be a personal symbol for becoming assimilated into eternity and the universe...
Dreamt I went to a Chinese restaurant to see David Carradine perform as a magician. An old friend had rather unenthusiastically provided transport. I remember only that we enjoyed the show and afterwards I went up to Carradine to thank him. He said nothing, looked at me with his head tilted for a moment then produced a fuzzy little ball out of nowhere and tossed it at a bank of apothecary drawers on the wall as if prescribing something for me. He nodded to the proprietor and the contents of the drawer was made into a bowl of tea which I drank. Given the bowl to keep I followed him to another room to thank him yet again and return the ball, asking "didn't he want a souvenir?" At first he looked pleased, then disappointed when he realized I was only returning his own magic toy. He declined and told me "you keep it. "
When he saw that I was sorry that he had not accepted the gesture, he bade us and all the staff and crew who were starting to pack up the show to sit down again. He would perform one last time for us and his co workers. The special effects crew obliged him, reanimated a huge glittering golden prop sitting in the middle of the restaurant/theatre at the center of a streaming fountain. It arranged itself to be a huge temple dog with one forepaw atop a ball. I thought to myself that this signified the dog's guardianship of our experience of the world. The orb's shape reminded me of the toy still in my pocket. The dog bobbed, shivered and bared its teeth menacingly all pomp and ceremony glittering in a play of multi-coloured lights and sparkling water. Carradine took a long, running dancer's leap, arching gracefully into the air, arms flung wide flying over and past us into the lights, looking supremely happy. He disappeared face first dissolving completely into the body of the dog. It threw its head back and roared triumphantly, then went silent and still as the mere statue that it had seemed to be before. The lights faded and only the waters of the fountain still moved.
As we were gathering up our things to leave after this last encore, some of the waitresses went around tying a friendship(?) bracelet made of a stalk of grass or reed around each person's wrist, then rested a common pearl button on the forearm above it. One of them said something in Chinese that I did not understand but that I took to mean that the memory would last as long as one kept the button balanced there.
I was complaining to my friend that this was difficult to do whilst awkwardly carrying my coat and the suddenly huge and unwieldy tea bowl back to her car. The button must have slipped from my arm because I suddenly found myself awake.
