The Tricky Dream

Chuang Tse was a realised soul and a great zen master. Like other zen monks and masters, Chuang Tse helped many spiritual aspirants gain enlightenment.

But one morning when Chuang Tse came to deliver his sermon and discuss subjects based on questions raised by his disciples, he sat quiet. Initially, the disciples thought he was contemplating something and would soon start speaking. But when Chuang Tse doesn’t utter a word, they realised that he was contemplating something serious. They also saw his eyebrows furrowing, which was an odd sign. For, here was someone who dispelled doubts that not only his disciples raised, but answered the innumerable questions thousands came to him for.

‘Is something troubling you, master?’ one of the disciples broke the silence.

‘I am wondering…’ Chuang Tse began, still lost in thoughts. ‘Look, I had a dream last night. I saw I had become a beautiful butterfly, flying among the most beautiful of flowers…’

As Chuang Tse trailed off, his sentence sounding incomplete to the disciples, they wondered what he was aiming at by telling them about his dream.

‘But that’s natural,’ another disciple prodded him. ‘I have dreams every other night.’

‘Yes,’ Chuang Tse nodded. ‘But there’s a question that the dream raised which I’m unable to answer.’

Now this was a googly to the disciples. Chuang Tse unable to get an answer? This was unheard of.

‘The thing is I wanted this mystery solved,’ Chuang Tse began after a pause.

‘What’s the mystery in this dream, master?’ a disciple asked.

‘I was simply wondering,’ Chuang Tse looked at his disciples. ‘Am I Chuang Tse who became a butterfly in his dream?’

The disciples gaped at him. They had no clue what he was saying. They knew there must be something more coming from the master. They waited.

The master didn’t disappoint them, as he began, ‘Or am I the butterfly and in its dream it became Chuang Tse?’