Imagine a multidimensional spider's web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image.
—Alan Watts
Leroy bet me I couldn't find a pot of gold at the end, and I told him that was a stupid bet because the rainbow was enough.
—Rita Mae Brown
Inside The RainBow
A few days ago on my return trip from town I saw a rainbow stretching over the South Pacific. This is a regularly occurring spectacular event following afternoon showers but as I got closer to my home, I saw the rainbow ending in my front yard. I didn't wait for the taxi to completely stop but the driver was saying something about a pot of gold. I jumped out of the taxi, dropped my groceries on the ground and ran to the rainbow and stepped inside and looked out. I had thought they were flat, one dimensional, but they are cylindrical. A similar experience might be when a woman sprays perfume into the air and walks into the droplets of spray. I stepped inside, not through, and for a few seconds before it disappeared, I saw my world through the colors of the rainbow. How amazing is that? It was magical. This is the life I am living here. The everyday magic of being alive.
It was only later when I had recovered from this mystical experience that I remembered a lecture years ago on Indra's Net by Alan Watts. That is how it looked being inside the rainbow. There were an infinite number of tiny droplets of moisture each one reflecting a color and each one reflecting the colors of the other droplets. The colors were not in a line the way we see a rainbow from the outside but were formed in textures of light similar to the photo above except it was more translucent. I could see through the patterns of light to my home which now appeared in this kaleidoscope of colors. I then turned to look at the sea but by this time the rainbow was disappearing. I went back to pay the driver and pick up my groceries.
"Did you find the pot of gold?" he asked.
"No," I said, "but the RainBow was enough!"
After entering my home, I just sat on the floor with the groceries for a while, in my still damp clothes. I wanted the fragrance of such wonder to soak in a little longer.
Photo Credit I: Dewy Spider Web
Photo Credit II: Rainbow's End by pareeerica.