Skip to content


Dreams

Chuang Tzu, ancient Chinese Taoist, once experienced a dream in which he was a butterfly fluttering to & fro. In the dream he had no awareness of his individuality as a person; he was simply a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found that once again he was a human laying in bed. But then he thought to himself, “Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?”

Posted in Philosophy.


One Response

Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.

  1. Apurba Sen says

    Wow..Thanks for sharing this great daoist anecdote from “The Book of Master Zhuang”.I guess its in the chapter “On the Equality of All Things” .Are you reading this book now??? :D

    You must be knowing butterfly is a universal symbol for intense transformation, usually for the better. An adult butterfly flying in the air indicates sharing, or the need to share, your ideas with the world.

    Hope now you know the meaning of Zhuangs dream :D


« Basho