Chuang Tzu once told the following story...
Once I dreamt that I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. Suddenly I awoke and there I was. Now I do not know if I was a man dreaming I was a butterfly or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man...
Makes you think doesn't it? This is what he had to say on the subject of dreaming and reality...
"Those who dream of the banquet may weep the next morning, and those who dream of weeping may go out to hunt after dawn. When we dream we do not know that we are dreaming. In our dreams we may even interpret our dreams. Only after we are awake do we know that we have dreamed. But there comes a great awakening, and then we know that life is a great dream. But the stupid think they are awake all the time and believe they know it distinctly"
Do we truly know our own reality? Or are we all dreaming? Will we ever find out the truth? Or is the truth simply a mere construction of our beliefs and perceptions?
I was reminded of this philosophical issue when watching the recent blockbuster "Inception". At the very end, we see the spinning top on the table, spinning very fast. BUT it is moving without stopping, smoothly with no hint of a tilt. At the start of the film, Leo says he can never get it to spin smoothly like that but his wife could...and she's supposed to be locked in his unconscious. So if it is spinning like that at the end, is he still within the dream? Or is he awake? Is the camera simply panning out before we see it begin to tilt, or does it continue spinning in that way? How can he ever know? How can we ever know?
Something to chew on, indeed!
[You really do need to watch the film to understand my specific case in point above!]
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