red

during my random peregrinations on the web, i came across this interesting site- spiritual cowgirl- the blog of sera beak- spiritual voyageur, mystic and writer. she is obsessed with the colour red and had some amazing quotes. i gleefully quote her quoting lalitha Devi, a tantric teacher from India.

“In Tantrism, there is fundamentally only one color: red. The color of the living heart, the color of blood, the color of fire, the color of roses and the tongue, the color of the open vulva, the color of the erect penis, the color of the sun that warms the hermits, the color of the circle of fire that must be crossed to attain consciousness.” (Tantric Quest, p. 45)

Here is sera's definition-

“To me, red is the intuitive pulse that beats between reason and blind faith. It’s the color of blood when given some air. It activates a passionate, feminized mysticism. It reminds me of a compassionate heart, transformative fire, mystical embodiment, boundless love, self-empowerment, Mary Magdalene’s hair, Kali’s tongue, my favorite purse, and belly laughs” (The Red Book, p. 90)

interesting right?. i started from doug mcgill's the journalist and the buddha blog and landed up in tantric conception of red. this is sort of like a visual version of something i used to love doing with a dictionary. start by looking up a word and follow random chains of words. of course my trail today was not as random as the trail is as follows-

i get an email from doug about tonight's sit. doug's signature leads me to his blog. in his blogroll is the link to ajahn punnadhammo's blog. this bhikku has written an interesting rejoinder to mark moford's provocative piece 'does your religion dance'. mark's outburst is on the ossification of religion and about how even a progressive religion like buddhism (this is his take not mine) is conservative about a lot of issues. in his article is a link to sera beak (whose blog i perused instead of filling out my yearly accomplishments which is due end of the year). you get the idea.

endnote: i have been fascinated by the colour red itself and the various english words for shades of red- carmine, blood, ruby, garnet, scarlet, crimson, vermilion, cardinal, maroon, coral and finally from the bard incarnadine.