Rainbows in 7 Words

Many of us feel to be somewhat divided. Somehow, we don't quite reconcile the various parts of our nature, and feel pulled in different directions all the time. Perhaps like me, you could say yes, I am patient - but also I am impatient; yes I am restless - but also I am calm; yes I am this - but also I am that. Far from being schizophrenic, in other words unwell, we are normal. It is totally normal to have apparently contradictory aspects to personality, because the personality is an outer expression of the inner truth: that we embody 7 different types of behaviour, each asserting itself at the same time to differing degrees. 7 essential characteristics and only one personality to squeeze them all into!

Our lives are the theatre of this drama, our circumstances the stage, our friends and enemies the cast - and the plot is "how do I create my ideas?" Saying No, I draw the line; saying Hello, I expand my reach; Thanks builds my love-family...and so on...Goodbye keeps me moving, Please directs my path, Sorry refines my self-awareness, and Yes allows me to enjoy it all. Every aspect of life's mysterious workings is here, within these 7. As we try to understand that better, the mind has to develop, so we become more intelligent. As we try to feel the beauty of that more deeply, the heart has to soften, so then we become more lovely.

One way to understand 7-ness is to look at a rainbow. First let's acknowledge that the colour spectrum is actually a continuum, which we have trained ourselves to see as if it were 7 discrete colours. Secondly, the 7 has arisen out of the singularity of a pure white light that has been passed through something physical - a prism or a water droplet. The analogy is inescapable isn't it! Humanity sees beauty in the division of unity into 7. The rainbow symbolises diversity - that we all have our own path, own message and our own truth; 7 is a statement of the uniqueness of individual life, and we see that as a high ideal of beauty.

Some spiritual teachings would have us believe that the ultimate attainment is beingness, and that we should stop pushing against the river and allow it all to unfold. Perhaps that is truth - and yet it is surely only one of 7 truths, actually Yes-ness. Goodbye teaches us of another - that we should push against the flow and refuse to join in. This is why druids honour the salmon, and indeed the stag and the boar, because they struggle - and through this become strong. It is the spirituality of the warrior path.

We are each a part of something so vast and wonderful that we will never be able to get more than an inkling of the whole story. Yet for all that, our part is important, as we ourselves are important; our own special message adds to the beauty of the rainbow. That message needs to be demonstrated rather than explained; it is demonstrated by how we interact with others, and by how much we have - when we present our point of view - of the self-confidence that comes with faith.

If it conce
s us to expand our awareness so that we can perceive more of the bigger picture, then we take it upon ourselves to develop the personality. This process stimulates a deeper and broader consciousness of oneself, and therefore of everything else that exists. At the higher levels of awareness, we have faith that all we experience is nothing other than a reflection of who we are. Therefore all of the distress that we see can be softened as we soften. This is achieved as we take more and more responsibility for what's going on around us, trying to make good.

Resistance is not futile, because what resists persists. It's not futile at all, it establishes clearly that which we choose to persist. However, that said, when we trust in life, give up resistance and relax our control strategies, then we start to get lucky. Life's essential mystery is to do with luck, good fortune, joy and general happiness, if only we would let it come to us, if only we could let it come to us! Saying Yes to unexpected developments is evidence of an abundance of life-force - as we see in children and so seldom in the dying - and this life-force is the essence stuff of all joy. We need to trust it.