Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream 庄周梦蝶

There is a Chinese saying that life is like a dream and a dream is like life. This is illustrated vividly by Zhuangzi with the following story:

‘Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a fluttering butterfly. What fun he had, doing as he pleased! He did not know he was Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and found himself to be Zhou. He did not know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly had dreamed he was Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction. This is what is meant by the transformation of things.’

The story probably also sums up much of Zhuangzi’s thought. How do we know when we’re dreaming, and when we’re awake? How do we know if what we perceive is “real” or a mere “illusion” or “fantasy”? Is the “me” of various dream-characters the same as or different from the “me” of my waking world? How do I know, when I experience something I call “waking up” that it is actually a waking up to “reality” as opposed to simply waking up into another level of dream?

It is interesting to note that he used butterfly as the thing in his dream. The butterfly is a symbol of transformation; it follows the breeze yet arrives at the flower; its actions are spontaneous and free. Thus it doesn't wear itself out fighting the forces of nature.

Once fully awakened, if one can tell, one may distinguish between what is a dream and what is reality. Before one has fully awakened, such a distinction is not even possible to draw empirically.

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华人有句俗语说：人生如梦，梦如人生。庄子的一下故事就很好的说明了这一点：

“昔者庄周梦为蝴蝶，栩栩然蝴蝶也，自喻适志与，不知周也。俄然觉，则蘧蘧然周也。不知周之梦为蝴蝶与，蝴蝶之梦为周与？周与蝴蝶则必有分矣。此之谓物化。”

这个故事可能概括了庄子大部分的思想。我们如何知道我们何时在做梦，何时清醒？我们如何知道我们所看到的是‘实在’或者只是‘幻觉’或‘幻想’？在梦中许多个体的‘我’与醒后世界里的‘我’是否是相同的还是不同的‘我’？我如何知道，当我经验我所谓的‘醒来世界’是真真实实的清醒‘现实’，或只是相对于另一个层次的梦境？

很有趣的，我们注意到他用蝴蝶作为梦境之物。蝴蝶是变换的符号，它随着和风找到花朵，它的行动自然与自由。所以在与自然斗争中，它不会疲惫。

一旦完全清醒 -- 如果我们能知道的话，我们可以分辨清楚梦与现实。在我们还没有完全清醒之前，以经验来作出这个辨别根本就不可能。