Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Between a man and a butterfly there is necessarily a distinction. The transition is called the transformation of material things.”
\nThis short story points to some exciting and much-explored philosophical issues, stemming from the relationship between the waking state and the dream-state, or between illusion and reality:<\/p>\n
How do we know when we\u2019re dreaming, and when we\u2019re awake?
\nHow do we know if what we\u2019re perceiving is \u201creal\u201d or a mere \u201cillusion\u201d or \u201cfantasy\u201d?
\nIs the \u201cme\u201d of various dream-characters the same as or different from the \u201cme\u201d of my waking world?
\nHow do I know, when I experience something I call \u201cwaking up,\u201d that it is a waking up to \u201creality\u201d as opposed to merely waking up into another level of dream?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: https:\/\/www.learnreligions.com\/butterflies-great-sages-and-valid-cognition-3182587<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi. 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