I was getting the pugatory/hell vibe from that dream sequence with Goodspeed. I seem to recall several mythological characters punished in a similiar manner. I've got no clue on names but one guy had his guts eaten out by birds every day and another guy had to push a boulder up the side of a mountain, only to have it roll down the other side. In fact, isn't Atlas supposedly holding the world, literally, on his shoulders?

Point being, the three examples above were all being punished, for all eternity, by some higher power that they had offended. To me it looked like he was chopping that tree forever and ever and ever... Locke just happened to venture into the trippy dream world Goodspeed was locked into. Of course Locke has been know to take psychedelics...