DaPhatConductor
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OK, this is an unfinished essay for my Chinese Philosophy course. It's a page short because of the way I write tho so any suggestions on what to elaborate on would be appreciated.
I Object to the Subject, So Don’t Subject Me to Your Object!
"Once I, Zhuang Zhou, dreamed that I was a butterfly and was happy as a butterfly. I was conscious that I was quite pleased with myself, but I did not know that I was Zhou. Suddenly I awoke, and there I was, visibly Zhou. I do not know whether it was Zhou dreaming that he was a butterfly of the butterfly dreaming that it was Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction. [But one may be the other.] This is called the transformation of things.
(The Zhuangzi Ch.2)"
This passage taken from the Zhuangzi encapsulates many central aspects of the spirit of Taoist philosophy; the arbitrariness of belief, rejection of all distinctions, the inherent duality of all thought, supreme skepticism, the ideal of becoming one with nature, and the simplicity and elegance of writing in the Taoist style. This passage also has great personal meaning for me because I have been similarly touched by a different dream, which I will elaborate upon later.
The most obvious aspect of the butterfly dream is that it illustrates the inherent arbitrariness of the distinctions between subject and object in a simple and rationally flawless way. No argument can ever possibly be made that could convince the dreamer of such a dream that they are unquestionably one way or the other. This shows that there is a layer of assumption beneath every belief that is inescapable within the realm of language and concept.
When Rene Descartes sought in his Meditations on First Philosophy to obtain a firm grounding for his epistemology he threw himself into a state of great doubt and skepticism, from which he said:
“I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming”
(Meditations On First Philosophy, Meditation 1).
This shows thinking parallel to Zhuangzi, but Descartes falls short when he later asserts that being a thing that thinks is enough to prove that one exists. Both thinkers realize that one cannot ever be certain one is not dreaming, but Zhuangzi goes a step further. Zhuangzi learns much more from this state of doubt than does Descartes, and he demonstrates the implications of this learning in chapter 25 of The Zhuangzi:
"That there is some first cause (of the universe), or that no first cause would make it, these are the ultimate presuppositions our doubt could arrive at. When I look for its origin, the past is without limit; when I look for its end, the future is without stop. Without limit and stop, it is the absence of words, because words share the same principle as things. That there is some first cause (of the universe), or that no first cause would make it, these speculations were based upon words, which begins and ends with things. "
(The Zhuangzi, Ch.25)
When Zhuangzi refers to words and things here he is referring to the categorization necessitated by concepts. All concepts have a beginning and an end, but the universe does not. Zhuangzi’s doubt has led him to a very meaningful conclusion: the absolute cannot be encapsulated by concept or language.
In the early twentieth century the renowned philosopher of education Jerome Bruner centered his teachings around the very Taoist formula “To perceive is to conceptualize, to conceptualize is to categorize.”. Zhuangzi would commend him. All conception, as categorization, necessitates the division of the universe into that domain which is within the concept, and that which is beyond. Language is an extension of concept and follows the same law. To Zhuangzi there is only the Tao, which gives rise to the One, the Great Ultimate. It is the indivisible absolute, and goes on without limit or stop. Conceptualization is dividing, and can therefore only ever lead to relative truth and not the absolute truth of Tao. In order to have thought one has to accept a position on one side of a division or the other, making all truth or falsehood gleaned from thought necessarily rest on an assumption at some level. Categorization does not allow for paradox, nor does it allow for any thought outside of the paradigm of the divided, thus conceptualization and language are completely inadequate tools for trying to understand Tao.
To understand the Tao is to know nature and act in accordance with it, wu-wei, to take no unnatural action. Zhuangzi’s dream of becoming the butterfly is a perfect example of this ideal. The butterfly represents a pure, natural existence, a state which we can only guess at using concept. What can we really know about the butterfly? Could the butterfly act against nature, or is it truly practicing wu-wei ? How do we know that it is truly one with nature? Surely it is a dramatic assumption to assert that it does not conceptualize at some level? How is it supposed to find food without dividing the universe into the categories of edible and inedible? Can it know that it is hungry without a concept of interiority and exteriority? What is it like to be the butterfly? What is it ‘like’ to be anything?
This brings me to my own, somewhat similar dream, a beautiful and simple experience with profound and far reaching implications, it shattered my conception of reality: Once I, Dylan Lane, dreamed that I was my VCR. During the period of the dream in which I was wholly the VCR I had no identity, no perception of time or space, no human senses. There was only sense of being, an is-ness of VCR. A subtle reality filled my being and there I was, or rather, there “I” was not, there was simply experience. Later in the dream I began to vibrate between the mind of Dylan and the is-ness of my previous state. It seemed that my legs and feet were those of a man, yet my torso and head were still a VCR. It is at this point that I realized that I ‘was’ a VCR and the tyranny of conceptualization, which abhors a paradox, tore us apart. This bizarre moment of being half-Dylan and half-VCR was extremely foreign to me and I was sharply awakened by its alien touch. When I try to remember what it is like to be the VCR that paradoxical moment is as far as I can go as a man, yet there undoubtedly exists an experience of being a VCR. This simple dream made it abundantly clear to me that there is experience beyond perception.
I was unsettled by this strange experience and it has forever changed me. Before the dream I had always known that there was reality beyond conceptualization, but I only knew it in an abstract and conceptual way. This level of reality is truly beyond all conceptualization and is unquestionably as real as any other experience. Even if it were attained by my mind merely imagining what it would be like to be the VCR, this experience of being a VCR without any perception of being a VCR was real, although it was only perceivable from the paradox that forced me to awake. The immediate question posed by the VCR dream is about the distinction between animate and inanimate consciousness, as opposed to the butterfly dream, which questions the subject/object distinctions, but the underlying message is the same: that there is an inherent arbitrariness to all belief in a universe without limit or stop.
So yea, there it is... any advice would be wicked. Thanks for reading.
I Object to the Subject, So Don’t Subject Me to Your Object!
"Once I, Zhuang Zhou, dreamed that I was a butterfly and was happy as a butterfly. I was conscious that I was quite pleased with myself, but I did not know that I was Zhou. Suddenly I awoke, and there I was, visibly Zhou. I do not know whether it was Zhou dreaming that he was a butterfly of the butterfly dreaming that it was Zhou. Between Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction. [But one may be the other.] This is called the transformation of things.
(The Zhuangzi Ch.2)"
This passage taken from the Zhuangzi encapsulates many central aspects of the spirit of Taoist philosophy; the arbitrariness of belief, rejection of all distinctions, the inherent duality of all thought, supreme skepticism, the ideal of becoming one with nature, and the simplicity and elegance of writing in the Taoist style. This passage also has great personal meaning for me because I have been similarly touched by a different dream, which I will elaborate upon later.
The most obvious aspect of the butterfly dream is that it illustrates the inherent arbitrariness of the distinctions between subject and object in a simple and rationally flawless way. No argument can ever possibly be made that could convince the dreamer of such a dream that they are unquestionably one way or the other. This shows that there is a layer of assumption beneath every belief that is inescapable within the realm of language and concept.
When Rene Descartes sought in his Meditations on First Philosophy to obtain a firm grounding for his epistemology he threw himself into a state of great doubt and skepticism, from which he said:
“I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming”
(Meditations On First Philosophy, Meditation 1).
This shows thinking parallel to Zhuangzi, but Descartes falls short when he later asserts that being a thing that thinks is enough to prove that one exists. Both thinkers realize that one cannot ever be certain one is not dreaming, but Zhuangzi goes a step further. Zhuangzi learns much more from this state of doubt than does Descartes, and he demonstrates the implications of this learning in chapter 25 of The Zhuangzi:
"That there is some first cause (of the universe), or that no first cause would make it, these are the ultimate presuppositions our doubt could arrive at. When I look for its origin, the past is without limit; when I look for its end, the future is without stop. Without limit and stop, it is the absence of words, because words share the same principle as things. That there is some first cause (of the universe), or that no first cause would make it, these speculations were based upon words, which begins and ends with things. "
(The Zhuangzi, Ch.25)
When Zhuangzi refers to words and things here he is referring to the categorization necessitated by concepts. All concepts have a beginning and an end, but the universe does not. Zhuangzi’s doubt has led him to a very meaningful conclusion: the absolute cannot be encapsulated by concept or language.
In the early twentieth century the renowned philosopher of education Jerome Bruner centered his teachings around the very Taoist formula “To perceive is to conceptualize, to conceptualize is to categorize.”. Zhuangzi would commend him. All conception, as categorization, necessitates the division of the universe into that domain which is within the concept, and that which is beyond. Language is an extension of concept and follows the same law. To Zhuangzi there is only the Tao, which gives rise to the One, the Great Ultimate. It is the indivisible absolute, and goes on without limit or stop. Conceptualization is dividing, and can therefore only ever lead to relative truth and not the absolute truth of Tao. In order to have thought one has to accept a position on one side of a division or the other, making all truth or falsehood gleaned from thought necessarily rest on an assumption at some level. Categorization does not allow for paradox, nor does it allow for any thought outside of the paradigm of the divided, thus conceptualization and language are completely inadequate tools for trying to understand Tao.
To understand the Tao is to know nature and act in accordance with it, wu-wei, to take no unnatural action. Zhuangzi’s dream of becoming the butterfly is a perfect example of this ideal. The butterfly represents a pure, natural existence, a state which we can only guess at using concept. What can we really know about the butterfly? Could the butterfly act against nature, or is it truly practicing wu-wei ? How do we know that it is truly one with nature? Surely it is a dramatic assumption to assert that it does not conceptualize at some level? How is it supposed to find food without dividing the universe into the categories of edible and inedible? Can it know that it is hungry without a concept of interiority and exteriority? What is it like to be the butterfly? What is it ‘like’ to be anything?
This brings me to my own, somewhat similar dream, a beautiful and simple experience with profound and far reaching implications, it shattered my conception of reality: Once I, Dylan Lane, dreamed that I was my VCR. During the period of the dream in which I was wholly the VCR I had no identity, no perception of time or space, no human senses. There was only sense of being, an is-ness of VCR. A subtle reality filled my being and there I was, or rather, there “I” was not, there was simply experience. Later in the dream I began to vibrate between the mind of Dylan and the is-ness of my previous state. It seemed that my legs and feet were those of a man, yet my torso and head were still a VCR. It is at this point that I realized that I ‘was’ a VCR and the tyranny of conceptualization, which abhors a paradox, tore us apart. This bizarre moment of being half-Dylan and half-VCR was extremely foreign to me and I was sharply awakened by its alien touch. When I try to remember what it is like to be the VCR that paradoxical moment is as far as I can go as a man, yet there undoubtedly exists an experience of being a VCR. This simple dream made it abundantly clear to me that there is experience beyond perception.
I was unsettled by this strange experience and it has forever changed me. Before the dream I had always known that there was reality beyond conceptualization, but I only knew it in an abstract and conceptual way. This level of reality is truly beyond all conceptualization and is unquestionably as real as any other experience. Even if it were attained by my mind merely imagining what it would be like to be the VCR, this experience of being a VCR without any perception of being a VCR was real, although it was only perceivable from the paradox that forced me to awake. The immediate question posed by the VCR dream is about the distinction between animate and inanimate consciousness, as opposed to the butterfly dream, which questions the subject/object distinctions, but the underlying message is the same: that there is an inherent arbitrariness to all belief in a universe without limit or stop.
So yea, there it is... any advice would be wicked. Thanks for reading.
...hee hee. Oh the Cheese! 
