The Butterfly

I, Chuang Tzu, once dreamed that I was a butterfly, one fluttering here and there, without worries and desires, unconscious of my humanity. Suddenly, I awoke; and there I lay, again “myself”. Now I did not know if I was thus a man who dreamed he was a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who is dreaming that he is a man. Between man and butterfly is a boundary. The crossing over is called transformation.

Da: I and Tao. Martin Buber’s encounter with Chuang Tzu, by Jonathan R. Herman, State University Of NY Press, 1996