Zhuangzi's Butterfly Dream: Taoist Art & Meditation
A man dreams he is a butterfly.
Butterfly Blue
(Available original)
I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming that I am a man.
- Zhuangzi (c.369-286 BC)
. . .
Once upon a time, I 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 myself. Soon I awaked, 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.
Zhuangzi's parable does not resolve the question—it invites us to live inside it. The boundary between dreamer and dream, between self and transformation, dissolves not into confusion but into a deeper stillness, where identity itself becomes as light and transient as a butterfly's flight
- Zhuangzi, The Butterfly as Companion: Meditations on the First Three Chapters of the Chuang Tzu (SUNY series in Religion and Philosophy)
The Tao Te Ching Journal: A Path To Inner Quiet
Zen Mountain Journal blends Taoist hermit poetry, contemplative art, and reflections drawn from a lifetime shaped by wilderness, solitude, and decades doing creative work on the outer boundaries of our culture. These journals are companions for seekers — guides in the reconnection with inner quiet, beauty, and the “soundless music” of a life lived with simplicity and meaning.
• Size: 9.25 × 8.5 inches — convenient size for desk or lap.
• Hardcover — the book can be written in without a table or desk.
• Double wire-o bound to lay flat.
• Printed on Mohawk Superfine, a premium uncoated paper for a beautiful writing surface.
• 160 pages.
