The Universe in Its True Colors

If you had different eyes, or were a different kind of animal, a butterfly might appear as a rainbow, iridescent and shining. You might glimpse something like that under a hallucinogenic substance.

The point of this recognition is to see that the world you live in, and the universe itself, appears one way to you because of the tools you have to measure, gauge, and experience it. That doesn't mean countless subtle things aren't happening at the same time. Had you the senses to detect them, you would see a different world.

This leads us to understand that the universe is so complex, with so many invisible layers, that we might stop trying to grasp it through our senses alone. Can we understand it in meditation instead? We quiet the mind. We relax. We move away from the images we store and all the memories attached to them.

It takes a lifetime of practice to see the universe in its true colors.