Merrily, Merrily, Merrily...

[poliphilo]

Once you realise that Life's a Dream you notice there are signs up everywhere telling you it is. Funny how you overlooked them before.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Please tell us what signs you have noticed. Or better still, list them in a poem...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Row, row row your boat...

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces...

A boat beneath a summer sky...

That's off the top of my head. The Bronte novel I read the other week- Villette- was liberally sprinkled with such intimations...

I caught another in one of Leonard Cohen's new songs...

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Still, waking up presents a certain challenge.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

You think?

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Chuang Tzu seemed to think so.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I favour Peter Pan's view of it as an "awfully big adventure".

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

"He who dreams of drinking wine may weep when morning comes; he who dreams of weeping may in the morning go off to hunt. While he is dreaming he does not know it is a dream, and in his dream he may even try to interpret a dream. Only after he wakes does he know it was a dream. And someday there will be a great awakening when we know that this is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe they are awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling this man ruler, that one herdsman - how dense! Confucius and you are both dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too. Words like these will be labeled the Supreme Swindle. Yet, after ten thousand generations, a great sage may appear who will know their meaning, and it will still be as though he appeared with astonishing speed."

"Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn't know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou. Between Chuang Chou and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things."

-- Chuang Tzu