Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream ...
Perhaps you've heard this story, a dream within a dream attributed to the Daoist sage Zhuangzi, who lived in China in the fourth century BC(E). Zhuangzi's butterfly dream, as it's often called, is likely the most well-known of his writings.
A literary genius, contemplative ecologist, and master of the mind's musings, Zhuangzi's prose seamlessly weaves together vivid images from nature and philosophical reflections, amalgamating the meditative and the mystical. Zhuangzi's butterfly dream blends each of the qualities for which he is best regarded.
Here we dive into the dream with Zhuangzi and the butterfly, teasing apart its possible meanings, examining Zhuangzi's butterfly dream from within the dream itself. Please join us in these contemplations as we examine what it means to be awake within a dream.
Dreaming or Awake
Zhuangzi's butterfly dream sequence occurs in a section called "Discussion of the Equality of Things" (齊物論) within a larger collection of contemplative material. We can perhaps envision Zhuangzi waking from a dream and recording his recollections, meanwhile meditating on the question of whether he's still dreaming.
We offer here a translation of Zhuangzi's butterfly dream from the original Chinese, dating back nearly 2,500 years.
昔者莊周夢為蝴蝶，栩栩然蝴蝶也，自喻適志與，不知周也。俄然覺，則戚戚然周也。不知周之夢為蝴蝶與，蝴蝶之夢為周與？週與蝴蝶則必有分矣。此之謂物化。
Once, Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, so vividly a butterfly, following his every wish, not knowing he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly, he became aware, distressed, that he was Zhuangzi. He didn’t know whether he was Zhuangzi dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. There must be a difference, then, between Zhuangzi and the butterfly. This is to speak of the transformation of things.
Do you know whether you're dreaming or awake? Such an inquiry appears to cause Zhuangzi some existential anxiety. While most other translations don't account for this, the presence of the term 戚戚 suggests distress. It is a duplicate of the character 戚, which consists of the radicals (i.e., parts) for "younger brother" (尗) and "axe" (戈), translated either as "relative" if emphasizing the familial reference, or "sorrow" if emphasizing the death of a loved one through injury, a visceral possibility.
Perhaps Zhuangzi's reflections prompt us to ask the same painful question of our "reality," namely, is this a dream? While this may not evoke grief, pain, or existential anxiety for everyone, and in fact may be a stimulating philosophical reflection for others, there may nonetheless remain a deep sense of profound uncertainty in response to it. How would I know? Who even am I, this "I" who is asking?
Transformation of Things
Oddly, Zhuangzi's reflections end somewhat abruptly by referencing the "transformation of things" (物化). Immediately beforehand, the characters Zhuangzi and the butterfly are deemed separate or distinct, divided, different (分). No further explanation is given, although several interpretations can be derived.
Perhaps that which is supposedly separate is nonetheless capable of transforming in an instant into the same sort of being as me. Each is simultaneously distinct from others yet transforming, shape-shifting into other forms, morphing as would a caterpillar to chrysalis, then butterfly, cycle upon cycle. Dreaming and waking epitomize this ecological cycle, as do birth and death.
Possibly, Zhuangzi's butterfly dream may further allude to birth and death and the transformations undergone not only at these existentially salient points, but also in the interim.
Typically, often subconsciously, we might assume that we are selves of some sort, fixed entities, identities that persist across our lifespan and perhaps even into the afterlife. However, even on a moment by moment basis, we constantly change roles, shuffle between identities, fluctuate in our physiology and psychology, hence the "transformation of things" Zhuangzi references in his reflections, which applies equally on the individual level as it does ecologically. One moment a butterfly, the next Zhuangzi, he realizes the shape-shifting nature of beings and the minds that underlie them.
A distinction is also drawn between waking and dreaming, but perhaps for Zhuangzi, they are not all that different after all. Waking and dreaming are fluid states in a similar sense to how birth and death are fluid, not fixed demarcations of an activity or identity cut off from all else.
We ordinary beings tend to assume that what we call our "selves" either cease at death or persist in some post-mortem state, whether eternally in another land or until the next birth. Zhuangzi suggests these identities of ours are constantly shape-shifting, even during the course of a night's sleep as the mind plunges into the deepest of its transformations. Perhaps in waking up from one dream, Zhuangzi has entered another. A dream within a dream within a dream, he questions his experience of the world, which in turn shows him the transforming nature of his own mind.
There is nothing guaranteeing that the so-called reality we experience is fixed in any way. Instead, it has a fluid character allowing for transformation (化). Of paramount importance in this transformation is the mind that gives rise to our experience of so-called reality.
Lucidity
In the course of his reflections, Zhuangzi cultivates some degree of lucidity, a clarity of discernment that enables him to question whether he is still caught in a dream-web of his own spinning. Perhaps all we've ever tasted is the fabric of our own minds, a fabrication passed off as reality. Such a fabric, a tapestry, a web comprised of intersecting threads with some viscosity to them holds the potential to catch and confine the butterfly.
What does that mean for us? While Zhuangzi's reflections on the butterfly dream end here, we can perhaps continue the inquiry by asking, what can be done to free ourselves, the transforming butterfly, from the web-like illusion spun by the spider of our own minds?
We're certainly curious to hear your reflections on dreaming, waking, birth, death, and the transformation of things. Please feel free to leave us a comment below. Safe travels in all you do, whether dreaming or awake.
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