The Dream of the Butterfly

Ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi (also known as Chuang Tzu) has a famous story of having a special dream about being a butterfly that illustrates the idea of the transformation of things and quietly poses the question about the nature of existence.

In the dream, Zhuangzi dreams that he is a butterfly, gently fluttering his butterfly wings and flying around plants and trees, and feeling free. In the dream, he is completely convinced that he is a butterfly having a butterfly’s existence. Then he wakes up and feels his ordinary human existence at which point Zhuangzi was left wondering if he was a man who dreamed he was a butterfly, or if he was a butterfly dreaming it was a man. The Daoists were masters of using the imagination. In my dream about this very topic, a question arose: What if the whole of human existence is the dream of but a single magnificent butterfly?  

Zhuangzi’s famous dream provides the background for what he called the "transformation of things," a concept that can be used to perceive and organize what is happening all over existence at any given time. The fact is, there is a difference between the man and the butterfly. However, there is also a difference between the ideas the person thinks and the life a person leads. The story of a person thinking, dreaming and believing he was a butterfly, and then awakening to the reality of being human is an illustration of a conscious awareness: humans have an innate capacity to have ideas and profound and meaningful experiences of those ideas. The illusions and dreams appear as real and can teach us things. So Zhuangzi wakes up and recognizes that he had been lost in an illusion. It is a great moment that shows the power of the mind, but also the power of recognizing the mind and its movements at any given moment. It is about being self-aware. I imagine Zhuangzi laughing at the thought of being a bug. More importantly, the story and the concept of the “transformation of things” speaks to the experience humans have of not believing every thought, being willing to question, and observing change occurring all around and sometimes within. It is like a breath of fresh air to have this sense of your mind. Personally, it feels like the space where you can rest and have your existence.

The concept of the transformation of things is everywhere, and if we care to look we can see it in action. An idea transforms into action when I, at once seized by feelings of hunger, begin thinking about food and walk into the kitchen to make a sandwich. Wood turns into furniture in the hands of the carpenter. Thoughts become things with a little effort and direction. The mind can wander and think freely and maybe come up with something entirely new and useful. In nature, caterpillars become butterflies. The leaves die and fall off the tree during the winter. In consciousness and world literature, men can become insects like butterflies in a dream or like workers and drones in a metaphorical hive that is the workplace. There is a change of category when one thing changes into another, and this leads to new ways of thinking of those very things. To know that things transform constantly is the hallmark of spiritual knowledge that characterizes Daoist meditations on nature and purity described by Daoist scholars.

So, Zhuangzi’s butterfly story may also be an invitation to find comfort in the mystery of things constantly changing in existence, so that we may learn to resist change less and seek instead to understand it. Change is happening and will continue to happen all around us and within us throughout time. This made me think of the difference between change and transformation. Consulting the dictionary revealed that change is about something specific: you swap out one thing for another, and it involves observable things that can be evidence of change. Transformation, on the other hand, is defined as a shift in perception and organization that can be gradual, because it involves systemic and relational shifts and adjustments that take time. Change can be sudden and incidental, while transformation can be weighty and significant. Nature can be both—sudden and gradual, superficial and deep. It depends on how and where you look.