An unfathomable sunrise

My fellow seekers

A couple of months back we had a retreat at the heart of the ring of mountains. Believe it or not, a meditation retreat isn’t as calm and quiet an event as one would expect it to be…at least not what’s happening behind the scenes. However, there are moments that capture your heart. This is a story about one such moment.

One morning we were arranging breakfast for our meditators in the cabana. The sun was just about to rise above the mountain at the distance. The glowing ball of energy had an unusual beauty from the glimpses of it that I could see through the trees. Curious, I walked towards the steps of the cabana and gazed at the rising majestic beast of the sky.

A few minutes passed by and then I noticed a middle-aged nun had joined me. It was very pleasant to have her stand by my side because she was as mesmerized as I was to see the beauty that was present before our eyes. She started to talk to me and told me about how she prays to the sun every day. She had such a soothing voice and she voiced such loving verses about the sun. It was a moment that was so indescribable, as though poetry itself had come to life. After having been looking at the sun for some time she asked me what colour the sun was. ‘Green’ I replied feeling taken back by my own answer.  The word that came out of my mouth was quite odd to myself and probably the same to anyone else who might have heard it. She began to speak again and told me that it looks green for her as well, and that when you send your love to the sun it turns into a shade of green.

Hmmm…Do I believe that the sun turns green when you send your love to him? Honestly, I have no idea. It truly did look green. I pondered over this particular sunrise for some days, if not months…and after all that time I still wonder…so, here are my thoughts on it.

I feel that each colour may carry the inverted version of itself. Or perhaps the eye carries a negative likened to that of a roll film. Have you ever starred at some object and then seen an inverted afterimage floating about in your vision? Especially visible when you blink? One of the best examples of this that I can recall is the image of an inverted Jesus that was circulating amongst people via social media some years ago.

Below is an image that you can use to experiment with and see for yourself on how an afterimage forms when you stare at the dot in the centre for about a minute.

After wondering about this mysterious incident, I did a bit of research on afterimages. Apparently, there is a theory called ‘The opponent process theory of colour vision’. I found an article that explains how we see colour. Here’s a link to it if you are interested in reading more about this : 

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-opponent-process-theory-of-color-vision-2795830

So, maybe this whole affair about the sun going all green with love is simply an optical illusion. Now, let me go on a bit of a tangent here. Being a part of the spiritual commune, one thing I constantly hear is that we are living in a dualistic world, that everything has an opposite or that one thing exists in relation to the other. For instance, Good and bad, day and night, black and white etc…But it never really hit me that each subtle colour variant has its own direct opposite. Here is a colour wheel that will hopefully illustrate this point. 

As you can see every colour on this wheel has an opposing colour. Every single shade, no matter how tiny the degree of change in the colour…it has its own unique ‘opponent’, so to speak.

When we go about our daily life we are immersed in this world of colour, an endless play of hues that hold the same truth; the dualistic nature of life. Hmmm…Who knows…. Maybe all our other senses have direct opposites as well and we just don’t take the time to notice such minute details. High-pitched sounds and their contrasting low-pitched sounds. Smells that give a sense of coolness and sharpness, such as fresh notes like aquatic or citrus smells, and their counterparts being the base notes, which give off a warm and soft feeling, such as sandalwood. There seems to be so many things that try to show us the reality of our so-called world but perhaps we are too caught up in running after things that we have forgotten to pause and see what the things we are running after are made up of. Well, I guess I’ve rambled on for too long now.

So, my fellow seekers…let me know about your own experiences and thoughts about this green sunrise. Have you ever seen one? And if so, do you think its just an optical illusion? But more importantly, whether the sun is green, blue or pink, do take the time to witness the sun coming up in the morning, and say thank you for all that he has given to us regardless of whether he wants to change his outfit or not. Take care my fellow seekers. Have a good day!