The Transformation of Things

A Man sleeping …
A Butterfly flitting… 
Zhuangzi, dreamer of Butterfly,
ponders what joy there might be
in that tiny Butterfly brain, so subtle,
too subtle to be perceived by I or eye
Is it dreaming me? he asks.
Imagine the Universe engaged,
he thinks to himself, inside that flutter.
– thunder, a Cosmic Belly Laugh –  Ho! Ho!
Then Zhuangzi knows: He is silent,
flitting from flower to flower in eternal spring.
– coming and going, going and coming –
This is called the Transformation of Things.

I love this allegory from The Book of Zhuangzi, one of the two greatest books of the Chinese mystical Tao. (The other book is the I Ching.) The allegory is about chi (qi), the energy of creation, which some might call God. 

©2011, poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved; illustration courtesy of About Qigong.