Mind Fluttering By

Once Chuang-tzu dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Chuang-tzu. Suddenly, he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang-tzu. But he didn’t know if he was Chuang-tzu who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang-tzu. Between Chuang-tzu and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the transformation of [one’s perspective about] things.

This year, it seems there are fewer butterflies appearing in our garden. Maybe it is an annual fluctuation. I do not know. But I miss the California tortoiseshell, swallowtail, Oregon checker, and many others. They never cease to tease my mind. How can something so light and delicate survive the wind? Of course, this is a silly question.

It is not a matter of surviving the wind. It is a matter of dancing with the currents—discovering the path that allows for the flight of a delicate creature. It is a perspective thing. I always wonder why Chuang-tzu’s dream did not include the butterfly’s perspective. We always look thought the lens of our own species. What if we were to imagine what the butterfly thinks?

Chuang-tzu lived from 369 BCE to 286 BCE and his dream has been interpreted and re-interpreted ever since. I know my own interpretation is through the filter of Vajrayana Buddhism as housed in the body/mind of a white guy raised in the West. But I do have a strong affinity for how nature wants to speak to us. To me, this dream is about waking up from the dream and recognizing things as they are–while negotiating the wind currents of life.

Maybe I am simultaneously the butterfly and Chuang-tzu. It seems the most likely meaning as they both occupy my mind at the same time. What is the difference? 

Butterflies are dancing in our garden right now. I will ask them.