Relax, You’re A Rainbow

“We see a rainbow, but what we have is drops of rain and light—a process. Similarly, what we ‘see’ is a self; but what we actually have is a whole lot of thoughts going on in consciousness. Against the backdrop of consciousness we are projecting a self, rather than a rainbow. If you walk toward the rainbow you will never get there.” David Bohm, Thought as a System “Relax, you’re a rainbow” is my favourite new personal mantra. It’s a powerful reminder that this “self” at the heart of my experience is really just as illusory as a rainbow. It’s truly enlightening to consider how the processes behind the formation of a rainbow are analogous to the processes behind the formation of the self. Instead of taking my emotional reactions for granted as I have in the past, this understanding is helping me observe and process them in an entirely new way. It is helping me form a new relationship with my thoughts and emotions, and ultimately, my self. What is this “self” that so many of us protect so vigilantly? Like a rainbow, it’s the result of disparate elements converging to form something that is seemingly unified and singular. And also like the rainbow, its existence is totally contingent on perception. Without the combination of vision and mind to perceive the rainbow, the rainbow cannot exist. In a very real way, our perception creates the rainbow. And just as our perception creates the rainbow, it also creates the self. Without perception, there is no self. While the natural elements behind the formation of a rainbow may be material, the rainbow itself is an illusion. Water and light (or lens and light) are the basic ingredients that form what we perceive as being a rainbow. Thought, sensation and memory are the basic ingredients of what we typically perceive as self. The next time you notice your self reacting in an unpleasant way to a given situation, perhaps you can find a moment to examine the situation and inquire into the internal processes behind your reaction. When we are threatened or challenged in any way, we tend to blindly jump into the role of protector; as a result of our conditioning, we automatically defend anything that we identify as being core to our identity, including (of course) the almighty self that is apparently at the heart of it all. If you can observe these defensive processes as they are unfolding, I encourage you to try and locate the “self” that they are defending. To your amazement or horror, you may find that it is not actually there. Observe with a keen awareness, and you may see that the thing you are defending in those moments is actually a construct of the defense processes themselves. In the middle of that storm of thought and emotion, there is… nothing. But don’t despair, that emptiness isn’t just any emptiness- it’s pure consciousness. It’s a place of deep inner peace that you carry with you at all times, and if you so choose, it can be the ground for forming a beautiful new relationship to self. This new understanding can enable you to take situations much less personally. You might see that your reactions, as well as the so-called self that you are defending, are all the result of processes rooted in the past. Instead of truly relating to your experience in the present, you’ve been relating to it through the lens of past experiences, and needlessly complicating it by assigning it a great deal of psychological weight. That weight is probably dragging you down or eating away at your heart and soul, whether you’re aware of it or not. Every time you identify personally with these experiences, with these processes, you let them define you. And as you accumulate further definitions of self based on conditioned reactions to external situations, you continue to construct a self that grows further and further from the ground of your being which is your true self. Consider that you are indeed like a rainbow; perhaps you can start identifying the basic ingredients that make up this illusion you’ve come to perceive as “self”. Instead of simply taking your self so seriously, you can begin nurturing a much more dynamic and flowing relationship to your experience. You can, hopefully, move towards a way of being that isn’t painfully caught up in the push and pull of cause and effect, challenge and response, action and reaction. Perhaps you can then begin living a life that is truly, fundamentally, free. So… Relax, you’re a rainbow.