I dreamed I was a butterfly, flitting around in the sky; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?
~Zhuangzi
I believe there is no more fitting metaphor for our human existence. We are the butterfly who is dreaming he is a human. Most of us will not come to this realization nor be able to experience being that butterfly again until we pass and leave our human existence on this planet.
There are those who become enlightened while still in human form and can move back and forth between the dream of being a human and the dream of being a butterfly but those are few and far between.
It is said that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Coming from being a spirit (butterfly) to dreaming you are a human, to once again going back to the beautiful dream we came from where we are butterflies again. Returning to spirit.
All thought is creative. We are here and having this human experience and sometimes (most times) we do not realize it is as if it is a dream and we are creating our experience. There are those who may be able to have some small glimpses of this while here and call that manifesting.
We can not manifest anything that doesn’t already exist. We simply get out of the way of letting it show up in our lives. Because all is here and all is part of this amazing dream we call life.
The best example I can think of (following the dreaming metaphor) is when you try to go to sleep. If you have ever tried to go to sleep; I mean, really willed it to happen. Thought about making it happen, then you probably did not fall asleep easily.
It is when we release and surrender to going to sleep that the wonderful slumber comes to us.
It is the same with our lives and finding that spiritual experience (going back to being that butterfly). When you consciously try to achieve something, whether it is accomplishing your goal or attaining another state of being, you will find that it doesn’t show up easily.
When you release from the outcome; when you know it will happen. That is when things begin to show up in your life. In their time, on their terms.
So, why not enjoy this beautiful dream we have been invited to participate in and make it a dream you would not like to wake up from?
Rumi said that Silence is the language of God. All else is poor translation.
Take a moment every day and sit and find that silence. As you surrender to the silence and to the knowing that you are a beautiful butterfly having a dream you are a human, then you can touch what it is to be truly alive.
