Breathing, colors, numbers
I've always wished I was synaesthetic. In a small way, I already am; I've always, for as long as I can remember, had very strong associations between colors and numbers, seeing specific colors with specific numbers. It hasn't helped my math skills, but that's beside the point. The associations have been consistent for as long as I can remember. My color sense is very precise; three isn't just yellow, it's a very specific shade of yellow, and the purplish hues of seven and eight are quite distinct.
In trying to meditate, I've attempted not to locate my awareness in any specific place, although I have found I am more successful when I am aware of my breath around the area of my center or hara. It gets me out of my head, and the thought loops are less persistent.
Since I am working with a generally Zen style of meditation, I am also counting breaths from one to ten. As you can imagine, that means that the colors come in, as well, whether I want it or not.
I realized something today while I was sitting: The number-colors I have roughly approximate the colors of the chakras and so, on a whim, as I did each count/breath, I focused my attention on that area. Here are the colors & areas that seemed to naturally associate:
[note: Scroll down for the rest ... for some reason, Blogger is inserting a huge amount of whitespace before the table. I have no idea why. Sorry.]
| Number | Color | Location |
| one | white | below me (initially, anyway) |
| two | dark red | base chakra |
| three | sun yellow | center |
| four | bright green | heart |
| five | royal blue | throat |
| six | rose pink | third eye |
| seven | maroon | top of head |
| eight | rich purple | surrounding body |
| nine | very dark pine green | physical surroundings |
| ten | black and white | expanding outwards & inwards simultaneously |
It was a very intense experience, but I don't want to get caught up in that intensity, however. On the other hand, I was able to remain very focused. My intention is to try working with this technique, and then eventually to drop the sensual focus, then (as much as I can) the colors, and eventually, the numbers, until only the breath is left.
I expect it will take some time ... like, years. Should I ever get a good teacher I can work with, I'd try their technique, although that option isn't open to me right now.
8 Comments:
Actually, that whitespace is showing up on LJ as well. Checked my friends page, and the post comment page under both the site layouts(XColibur and Dystopia)... and all of those pages show that way under both IE and FF.
I viewed source, and can't see anything that would account for that space.
So yeah, no idea what the problem is.
*nods*
Yeah, it showed up on Bloglines, too. I'm completely baffled. The only thing I can think of is something in the CSS template for the page, but I haven't gone digging yet, because that doesn't seem overly likely.
Is it of if I post a comment that's NOT in techspeak??
I find the concept fascinating. I read a book (can't now remember the title) that involved the characters linking the days-of-the-week colour thing to coded information. The book stated that the people who linked the days of the week and colours classified themselves into types, as seems to be implied by the site.
Recently on a board, one poster explained a technique of trancing that was similar. Even if you didn't already link numbers and colours (as I don't) you could set up an association that would facilitate trancing--like self-hyponosis.
Due to a bitter 10 years in Quaker schools as a reluctant non-Quaker participant in Meeting for Worship, I don't need a facilitator but I love associations between things anyway.
Of course it's ok!
It's just we were confronted by a technical puzzle. An iKoan, if you will.
I've always liked correspondences; my mind works at making connections & finding commonalities -- heck, in a lot of ways, that's just what human brains do -- they find patterns.
I hope, after 10 years, I don't need a facilitator, either. I don't actually like using one, but I see it as training wheels.
That's the thing -- I'm not trying for a self-hypnosis/trance experience. I'm just trying to be, to calm my mind & develop concentration.
Not that I know anything about Zen except the most widely disseminated precepts, but I don't think there's much difference. You have to be not-thinking in order to have Someone Else speak; sometimes one just trances into emptiness, if no-one's on the line.
Association with colours seems a much nicer way to achieve no-mind than being trapped in a snobbish Quaker boarding school--I think that in all of life's bitter lessons the positive outcome isn't really worth the pain, it just helps.
Heya,
I am a multiple synesthete, and, honestly, I don't think it's all that different than anything else. I don't have the number>color at all, though. I wish I did, I can see that one as being truly useful.
I find it interesting that your color choices don't follow the usual rainbow spectrum. I never felt comfortable with the rainbow spectrum and chakras, or the rainbow spectrum and music scale, or rainbow spectrum and the Qabalah.
Judith, in Zen there is no one else to speak, and nothing to say. It's just sitting, and seeing each moment clearly. I'm reading a book called One Dharma that's about an emergent Western Buddhism, and it recounts a great story involving Mother Theresa. The author, Jospeh Goldstein, says that he initially was very resistant to the idea of prayer, because he saw it as supplication or obeisance to an external entity. He softened considerably, and has learned the importance of prayer. He used this story to illustrate what prayer can be. A reporter asked Mother Theresa what she said when she prayed, and she said that she didn't say anything. She just listened. The reporter, somewhat puzzled by this reponse, then asked what God said to her. She replied that God just listens. Even more puzzled, the reporter didn't know what to say, and Mother Theresa said that if he couldn't understand what she meant, then he probably just wouldn't understand.
Noddy: I wish I could say the number>color thing was useful, but I haven't found it so. One would think it might be useful in math, but that hasn't been the case, for example.
What actually surprised me was that the colors associated as closely with the traditional chakra colors as they do; red, yellow, green, and blue are in their proper places. I'd never made the connection before, although I learned about chakras & their corresponding colors many years ago.
The rainbow spectrum doesn't really work for me with music or the Kabbalah, either. For one thing, indigo & blue are too close together (although my own associations for seven and eight are quite similar, yet don't present a problem.) And indigo is my favorite color. (I must be an Indigo Child!!! .... not.)
Colors are very potent for me, in general, but I don't let any traditional associations/correspondences rule me, because they're so intensely affecting for me.
Eh, I figured the colors would be useful since I have that brain damage from years of chemo. If I had more than one way to identify a number, I might even be able to balance my checkbook all by myself again. And my kids would stop teasing me about my mathlexia.
Then again, at my age, who cares if my checkbook balances?
Colors are important for me, too, and rarely in standardized meanings. That they come with other sensory information attached probably warps how I feel about them, which may account for the odd feelings about them.
Hehe - Indigo Child!
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