Autumn is a paradox. It is a season of beautiful color, yet a season of death. A season of loss — falling leaves, dying plants, the ending of green life — yet also a time of harvest and bounty. A season of warm colors, yet of cooling air. What a perfect setting for meditation.
Life is a paradox too. The moment we are born, though we appear to be growing and developing, we are also, in some sense, moving toward an end. We will not live forever, though we generally have many years, decades, and perhaps even a century to create and discover ourselves. Perhaps we believe we have a divine purpose, or maybe we believe we create our own purpose. Either way, we are here a relatively short time and we have a great many choices to make before moving on.
Meditation is a vital practice for many of us. We typically don’t discover it until we reach a certain age — an age of reason, of understanding, of contemplation. Some of us never find it. Maybe we are too absorbed in survival, or we find our meditation in experiences that don’t look like meditation at all. We shall not judge how another person works to understand their life.
Generally, we turn our thoughts to deeper things during times of significant change — moving to a new home, starting a new job, being diagnosed with an illness, losing a loved one, a significant birthday, a change in seasons. These moments can trigger deep reflection about our lives. We may become sad about the past or anxious about the future.
Meditation tends to bring us into the present moment. While the goal is not to stop thinking — this is not possible as long as the brain is alive and functioning — we train our minds to flow with whatever thoughts arise and to become mindful that the only thing that truly matters is the here and now. We let go of both the past and the future. We listen to our breathing and our heartbeat and realize that we are alive, right now, in this moment.
During the autumn season especially, we can take a walking meditation outdoors. We can take in all the senses — colorful leaves, cool breezes, rich earthy odors, the rustle of leaves underfoot, and yes, pumpkin spice everything. These specific sensations fire the nerves that tell us it is autumn — we’ve been here before and will be here again. We can take advantage of this time to contemplate what we have been through, how we have survived, and the good things we have done. We can look forward and plan for what we have yet to do. But most of all, through meditation, we can contemplate who we are and our aliveness.
I hope this inspires you to take advantage of this season of change and bring a little more mindfulness into your autumn days.
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