The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another. But the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty to the ear, or to the mind.
ZhuangziRead
During our dreams we do not know we are dreaming. We may even dream of interpreting a dream. Only on waking do we know it was a dream. Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the nature of dreams and reality, suggesting that true understanding comes only after a profound awakening.
Zhuangzi's quote suggests that while we are engulfed in our experiences, particularly dreams, we often lack awareness of their true nature. It challenges our perceptions of reality and encourages us to seek deeper understanding, implying that just like dreams, our waking life may also be an illusion until we achieve a greater level of awareness or awakening.
Themes
DreamsRealityAwakeningPhilosophyAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a philosophical discussion about the nature of reality.
More from Zhuangzi
All quotes →Either in conflict with others or in harmony with them, we go through life like a runaway horse, unable to stop.
ZhuangziRead
When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is known as ignorance.
ZhuangziRead
The true man of the past waited upon Heaven when dealing with people and did not wait upon people when dealing with Heaven.
ZhuangziRead
The mind remains undetermined in the great Void. Here the highest knowledge is unbounded. That which gives things their thusness cannot be delimited by things. So when we speak of 'limits', we remain confined to limited things. The limit of the unlimited is called 'fullness.' The limitlessness of the limited is called 'emptiness.' Tao is the source of both. But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness
ZhuangziRead
All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.
ZhuangziRead
Similar quotes
For what we call illusions are often, in truth, a wider vision of past and present realities - a willing movement of a man's soul with the larger sweep of the world's forces - a movement towards a more assured end than the chances of a single life.
George EliotRead
The guest of our soul knows our misery; He comes to find an empty tent within us - that is all He asks.
Therese Of LisieuxRead
Say what you want about it, Hell is story-friendly... The mechanisms of hell are nicely attuned to the mechanisms of narrative. Not so the pleasures of Paradise. Paradise is not a story. It's about what happens when the stories are over.
Charles BaxterRead
The existence of any evil anywhere at any time absolutely ruins a total optimism.
George SantayanaRead
All societies wrestle with the scourge of prejudice, but validating that prejudice in statute makes a virtue of oppression.
Ephraim MirvisRead
The darkness which clings to every personality is the door into the unconscious and the gateway of dreams, from which those two twilight figures, the shadow and the anima, step into our nightly visions or, remaining invisible, take possession of our ego-consciousness.
Carl JungRead