Free Association of Red – Yellow – Blue, the Three Primary Colours

1. Magic Number “3” in Colours

Once, while writing to a friend about some things I had come to understand about painting, I paused when I got to the three primary colours of Red - Yellow - Blue to ponder this question: What should be the correlation of these 3 basic colours to the three cosmic characteristics, Zhen - Shan – Ren (Truthfulness – Compassion – Forbearance)?

Figure 1

Teacher talks about colours in Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, especially in Lecture Five. Since it is included in Zhuan Falun, Teacher is teaching us Law principles rather than the science of colours. As shown in Fig. 1 here, Red + Yellow = Orange, Yellow + Blue = Green, Blue + Red = Purple. In material pigment, Red + Yellow + Blue = Black while all none is White; in light spectrum, Red + Yellow + Blue = White while all none is Black. Among the colours, Yellow and Purple, Blue and Orange, and Red and Green are exclusive to each other and thus as Complimentary Colours to each other. It is written in Zhuan Falun that, “The golden colour is seen as purple in another dimension, as it has this inversion”. Thus I realise that the golden colour in another dimension is complimented to appear as yellow in this time-space. It seems easy to understand the Yellow colour.

Figure 2	Figure 3

In the Falun emblem, there are five srivatsa symbols from the Buddha School. The golden srivatsa symbol (Fig.2) reflects the Buddha School’s cultivating Shan and the golden colour gives people a warm feeling and so this colour manifests the characteristic of Compassion. Then, I continue to think, how about Red and Blue colours? In the Falun emblem, there are 4 Taiji patterns. Either Taiji of the Great Primordial-Dao School (Fig. 3) or Taiji of the commonly understood Dao has Red at the top. The Dao School emphasises the cultivation of Zhen. Chinese people say “red sincerity” or “red guts and truthful heart” as the Red colour gives people a truth worthy feeling. So the Red colour manifests the characteristic of Truthfulness. Meanwhile, Confucianism belongs to the Dao School and emphasises Ren. The bottom of the Taiji in the Great Primordial-Dao School is blue and the Blue colour gives people a cool feeling. Therefore, the Blue colour manifests the characteristic of Forbearance. If the Taiji pattern rotates speedily, the top and bottom red and blue colours will mix together to appear purple. From this I realise that the Dao School’s representing colour is Purple.

The centre of the Falun emblem is a big golden srivatsa. The Falun Dafa cultivation emphasises on Shan. Red – Yellow – Blue with Yellow in the middle corresponds to Zhen – Shan – Ren with Shan in the middle. Teacher teaches us to “Take the Middle Way”. So when we are not sure whether to be bluntly speaking or to seal our lips, we should take the Compassion way and do whichever is the best for others.

Zhen – Shan – Ren creates all and every thing while Red – Yellow – Blue makes the whole world magnificently colourful.

2. Magic Number “3” in Particles

I keep wandering about manifestation of Dafa in other things, now that colours can manifest the nature of Zhen – Shan – Ren. Does there exist this magic number “3” in every thing else?

Teacher mentions particles many times in Zhuan Falun. We learned from high school class that atoms are composed of Proton, Neutron, and Electron. The terminology is used in Dafa’s book and so they are Law principles. Fig. 4 is a simple atom model. Since the Red colour in Taiji is positive or Yang and the Proton is positive, I denote it with red colour. Thus Proton manifests Zhen in atoms. In the Taiji pattern, Blue is negative or Yin. The electron is negative so I denote it with blue colour so the electron can manifest Ren in atoms. Next, how about the Neutron? We already know that Taiji with Red and Blue is equivalent to a srivatsa symbol, while Proton + Electron = Neutral like the Neutron. Thus Neutron is like a srivatsa manifesting Compassion in atoms.

Figure 4

From this free association of colours, now I can visualise the Dafa’s regularity in the microscopic world of atoms and below to the macroscopic world of the universe and beyond. In the past, I was puzzled as to the essence of Lunyu. But now I have new understanding of the paragraph “From particles and molecules to the universe, from the even smaller to the even greater, the BUDDHA FA offers insight into all mysteries, encompassing everything and omitting nothing.”

In our dimension (time-space), all things and matter are composed of molecules from atoms. At my early stage of studying the Fa [the teachings of Falun Gong], it was not clear to me how could iron and steel manifest Compassion. Now it dawns upon me that “This nature, Zhen – Shan – Ren, is in the microscopic particles of air, rock, wood, soil, iron and steel, the human body, as well as in all matter. In ancient times it was said that the Five Elements constitute all things and matter in the universe; they also carry this nature, Zhen – Shan – Ren.” (Zhuan Falun)

Of course, Proton – Neutron – Electron is composed of more submicroscopic particles that also carry the nature of Zhen – Shan – Ren. As elaborated by Teacher in his article, “A Brief Explanation of Compassion (Shan),” “Shan is the manifestation of the nature of the universe at different levels and in different dimensions. It is also the fundamental nature of Great Enlightened Beings. Therefore, a cultivator must cultivate Shan and assimilate to the nature of the universe, Zhen – Shan – Ren. The vast cosmic body was born of the universe’s nature, Zhen – Shan – Ren. Dafa’s being taught in public demonstrates again the original nature of the universe’s living beings. Dafa is in perfect harmony: If one separates the three characters of Zhen – Shan – Ren, each still fully contains Zhen – Shan – Ren. This is because matter is composed of microscopic matter, which is in turn made up of even more microscopic matter – this goes on and on until the end. Therefore, Zhen consists of Zhen – Shan – Ren, Shan consists of Zhen – Shan – Ren, and Ren also consists of Zhen – Shan – Ren. Isn’t the Dao School’s cultivating Zhen the cultivation of Zhen – Shan – Ren? Isn’t the Buddha School’s cultivating Shan also the cultivation of Zhen – Shan – Ren? In fact, they only differ in their superficial forms.”

Since “matter and mind are one thing”, when our mind feels unbalanced, our body is certainly out of balance. Let’s take the human body as an atomic particle. When someone timidly bears the suffering and dares not to be against the evil force, then he should exchange his Electrons to Protons or cultivate for more Protons. On the other hand, on his dislike at seeing something, someone may burst into complaints, disregarding terribly hurting the feelings of others, and still thinking he is doing the right thing as voice of justice. Then, in this case, he should exchange his excess Protons with Electrons or cultivate for more Electrons so as to control his own quick temper. There is the third case that someone may appear to be well balanced from his outside, as he seldom has any conflict with others; but internally he is full of conflicts within. Then such a person should merge his Protons and Electrons for more Neutrons and become someone who can truthfully be responsible to himself and to others.

Now looking around at the whole world, Alas! “The Great Buddha Law is present everywhere”!

This is just my current personal understanding for your reference.