The Chinese philosophy of Taoism plays an important role in understanding Chuang Tzu’s parable “The Butterfly’s Dream.” The story begins when a philosopher dreams he is a butterfly. His is disoriented by this transformation until other butterflies welcome him into their group and he begins to behave as the other butterflies in accordance to his appearance. He takes in their sensual pleasures and carefree way of life. He comes to enjoy his life as a butterfly until he wakes from his dream and is startled by reality. But, upon reflection, he realizes that his waking life could be for others a butterfly’s dream.
The parable follows many of the precepts of Taoism. Taoists believe that humanity lost its way when it was led astray from this harmonization, and for the dreamer in the parable, this is a return to this harmonic accord. There is no division between dream and consciousness, between human and animal, for they are all a part of one. The dreamer realizes that in order to be one with natural creation he must break down these artificial barriers. When he wakes he “is bitterly tormented” because “[b]utterfly life is so carefree” (Martin 23). This divisive understanding between human life and butterfly life is defined earlier by the dreamer’s reduction of human life by its complete opposition to the Great Way, or the natural harmonization of creation. Butterflies, as he comes to realize in the dream, “did not appear to him to have a warlike nature, worries of life, fears of death, and complicated feelings such as jealousy” (ibid). These aspects of human nature, the Taoists believe, have come about precisely because humanity has strayed from this harmonization. The parable, therefore, reveals that humanity is ignorant of the ways of creation and thus behave in ways that disrupt that harmonization.
A harmonization with personal will or egotism to creation is also an important aspect within Taoist beliefs and within the parable. The dreamer accepts his identity as a butterfly only when he harmonizes his physical appearance and his natural order within the ecosystem with his ego. After the other butterflies coax him into accepting the fact that he is a butterfly, the dreamer “behave[s] then as befitted his appearance and, bit by bit, really became a butterfly” (22). Here, his behavior is harmonized through the environment around him and his relationship with that environment. He competes with the chameleon over their multi-colored appearances, he becomes inebriated from “the lily, the jasmine, and honeysuckle” (ibid), thus enveloping him within this ecosystem and harmonizing with all of creation.
The butterfly’s identification and harmonization of his personal will to the spiritual awareness of creation or the Tao is what Taoists believe is the mode of non-action. By adopting non-action, the dreamer is able to become one again with this spiritual awareness. When the dreamer emerges from his dream, this spiritual awareness does not differentiate between dream and consciousness or human and butterfly because they are all a part of the same “Heavenly Equality.” As the dreamer realizes: “[w]ho knows, maybe my life is only a butterfly’s dream” (ibid). The divisions that humanity places before it and creation has been broken down. This follows the Taoist beliefs in a relativist universe, one in which all aspects of human life are harmonized within creation. As Tzu writes in “Discussion on Making All Things Equal,”: “Forget the years; forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!” (24). When the dreamer realizes the distinctions that divided him from his waking life and dreaming life, his human life and butterfly life are artificial boundaries and is able to see the equality in all these aspects, thus harmonizing him to creation and the Taoist faith.
Reference:
- Martin, Wendy. The Art of the Short Story. Houghton Mifflin: Boston. 2006.
