Double Rainbows, and Sticks
On January 8th, 2010 a video was posted on YouTube of a man in Yosemite National Park witnessing a complete double rainbow.
As of today it has 33,396,614 views!
(click the picture above to view it)
Many of you have probably seen a double rainbow, and may wonder, what’s the big deal? Other than the fact that at one point the rainbow was complete, going all the way from one side to the other, it was the man’s reaction to the experience that resulted in the video’s wild popularity. He exclaims “Oh my god” over and over, crying and laughing in ecstasy, asking “what does it mean?!”
The responses to the video range from rude, crude and ridicule, with accusations of him being sexuality stimulated or being high on drugs, with commands to “take a pill” or to come down, to awe and appreciation. Mostly, they are the former group.
There are confused comments from people who wonder how he could be so ecstatic, and who just cannot understand his response. That is no wonder to me, in a world where we have been raised to believe that things or people make us happy. We have been conditioned to think that we can only feel good when we get some candy, a new toy, a new lover, a new baby, a new house, and that the degree of joy is dictated by the object, and that most objects are mundane.
For instance, you can only feel so good while eating candy, which is a different level of pleasure from being with a lover. So not only do we need something or someone outside of ourselves in the first place, but even when we get them, we limit our degree of happiness based on the object or person. Everything else in life is “normal” and unremarkable. People have been lulled into a dull, boring, mundane, needy, attached existence in the very midst of awe-inspiring mystery and freedom.
There is nothing “normal” or mundane about every day life. Existence, of anything, is in itself a miracle. People do not know how we came here, what we are doing here, or what happens after here. Neither scientists***, nor religious leaders can explain consciousness and experiencing. At least not to the mind. No one even knows how a tiny bud comes into existence.
There are no ordinary moments – Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior
I discovered that everyone is capable of such joy, and that it has nothing to do with drugs or sex, although it can seem quite orgasmic. In a sense, you could call it a spiritual orgasm. And mind cannot comprehend it, thus perhaps the questioning “what does it mean?” That is about all mind can do with it because “direct seeing,” Being, cannot be grasped by mind. Mind is blown away, and bliss remains. One experience of mine was quite similar; causeless, infinite joy was awakened, and I can attest that the intensity can include crying and laughing at the same time. It’s rapture can be sudden and explosive; all consuming.
There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle or you can live as if everything is a miracle. – Albert Einstein
What does it mean?
It means this man quit limiting how good he can feel based on a thought that came from someone else. It means he quit seeing the world with mundane, dull eyes, but saw directly and clearly the miracle of experience. It means he stopped controlling, he let go, and he got out of the way of himself. As this man discovered, he is capable of much more love and joy than he lived–or imagined. Joy for the sheer joy of joy, and no other reason. You see, the double rainbow itself was not it. That was not the “cause” of his joy, which ordinary mind seems to need and seek in order to justify feeling good (thereby usually justifying feeling mundane, or even bad).
Mind wants to know, and with this question, it makes itself restless, creating suffering, until it either believes it knows or stops needing to know. What is the meaning of happiness? If you cannot find a meaning, should we dump happiness? If you cannot find a meaning, does it mean that you are not having the experience? Mind is so powerful it can actually discount, deny, degrade, distort, or even “delete” an experience, and it can do that to anything which it cannot understand but thinks it must understand. Mind’s loss. The people who gain a minuscule pleasure from devaluing such an experience do not know what they are trading it for.
Most people limit their potential, and their experience in and of this life, due to what? Fear of embarrassment, mostly. Who’s loss? When you start acknowledging the miracle, mystery and beauty around you, you will begin to know and experience the miracle, mystery and beauty within you.
The text posted below the rainbow video says “Look into the mirror, look into your soul!” In the video’s comments, there are (few) people who accept that the “double rainbow man” is having an experience of God, and there are people who deny God has anything to do with rainbows, that is it just natural science (and nature has nothing to do with God, right?) People can speak as if they have the authority of absolute knowledge, when they do not even know what the world, experience, themselves, God, or consciousness actually are. They speak merely from belief or conceptual parroting of learned words; learned knowledge mistaken for the wisdom of Knowing.
What is Consciousness?
***There is one man who I just discovered, who comes close to ratifying science with the inexplicable, with consciousness. Watch Peter Russell’s presentation on “The Primacy of Consciousness” below. (A must watch; just over an hour, and worth every minute.) But do not stop at intellectual understanding, because even Peter admits that knowing it as thought is not Knowing It. Knowing It, you know the joy of all experiences from the sublime to the ecstatic, the joy of all creatures great and small – and the joy of all things from a blade of grass to a double rainbow.
Comments 15
When I was in vacationing in San Francisco near the Cliff house and seal rocks, I was thinking of my deceased Dad remembering the last time I had been there, I was with him. I missed him terribly since Dad recently passed. I stood high on the cliff and happened to look up and saw a double rainbow….I never saw that before and marveled at the sight. I felt it was a sign from him. Nearly a decade after that I was vacationing in Florida with 2 friends. I was relaying that special story to them while we were all in a car…suddenly, I looked out the window over a vast stretch of land — and believe it or not — there was ANOTHER DOUBLE RAINBOW!! I could not believe my eyes and thought I was imagining it because I was talking about the experience which took place a decade ago. We stopped the car to get out and all of us saw it. Only one more time did I see that a few years ago, but I will always relate a double rainbow to my Dad saying ‘hello’ to me.
Ya it boggles me cause I lost a baby full term then had my princess we took he home and as we were headed to.the door talking about how the baby’s father is nervous her being so small or that he won’t do a good job then a rainbow appeared then we get to talking how Rita and Zoe my Angel in heaven would look histamine that’s when the second rainbow appeared want to talk about goose bumps…..
The evening my Son became an Eagle Scout, there was a double rainbow (directly up & over his head) !!! I have the moment captured on film… There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this was GOD. I also believe in my soul my Dad had a hand in it as well… He passed when my Son was a mere 6 mos. old.
I’m on a spiritual journey and one of my students share a photo of a double rainbow and I was full of JOY and AMAZEMENT. Transformation, and old things are dying and NEW things are entering. Its’ HARVEST TIME!!!!!
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“Amazement, joy,” what a celebration–keep it perpetual, Daphne ;-).
I was riding my bike this afternoon and saw a double rainbow. I thought wow this is really beautiful.
I then saw my neighbor, who had been away for a month or so. During our conversation, she told me her son had died of a heart attack a month ago. Then I told her about the rainbow, which I feel was for her, as if God was saying to her, It will be ok, your son is with Me.
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A beautiful message, Patty.
The day I had a scare I was having a miscarriage, I saw a double rainbow for the first time, as if to say “No worries love. Chin up!”. <3
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Yes, one can take it that way, which is much more useful than other optional ways. I hope you and the baby are well.
On the day my son was conceived, I saw a double rainbow in the sky for the first time. I took that as a powerful message of Divine blessing and miracle.
Brenda – the same thing happened to me! We had been trying for years, then I saw 4 double rainbows (had never seen one before in my life) while we were road tripping one day and I found out I was pregnant a few weeks later. Now I see them all the time and can’t help but say a little prayer of thanks.
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Wow, what a gift four double rainbows! Gratitude is the greatest gift you give to yourself 😉
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Brenda, to see things as a gift and feel appreciation is a miracle also. Enjoy the joy, just because you can 😉
Thank you, Cindy, for a perspective on how we should feel about life’s miracles…
Besitos!
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Thanks for reading MR, its a rare gift to get the message and live the miracle 😉