Written by: Josh Cohen
889 Living Yoga Faculty
@joshcohen
Every year in August, the angle of the sun’s rays noticeably change. Since the Summer Solstice the days have become increasingly shorter but perceptually it doesn’t register until now. The quality of light is different, not quite as intense and luminous. Although the calendar still reads four weeks until the end of summer, intuitively we sense that Nature is beginning to turn in again and return to her roots.
The expansion of spring and the abundance of warmth and light of summer are giving way to the cooler nights and shorter days that soon lie ahead. It is a time in nature where animals begin to prepare by gathering denser nutrients to build and store fat as a way to balance and adapt to the changes that lie ahead and we humans are turning our attention back to routine.
On this broader scale, it is easy to see how the only constant is change. The glory of summer gives way to the harvest of autumn which in turn gives way to the stillness of winter until the awakening of spring begins the cycle anew.
Much more difficult is to apprehend how the qualities that embody the seasons are inherent in our lives on much smaller scales. From the heat of anger to the chill of fear, and all the different shades of sensual and emotional experience in between, we move through cycles of change from year to year, month to month, day to day, hour by hour, moment by moment.
In mindfulness, the meditator learns to observe and move with the transient phenomena that form the quality of our experience, both external and internal. We learn how to dissolve our barriers and allow unpleasant experiences such as grief to be present and how to release our attachment to pleasant experiences such as joy. We do this because from our own direct experience we see how everything eventually changes even within the small amount of time we allocate to practice observing the present moment in our formal practice.
With time and practice we become less reactive to life’s ebbs and flows…taking each in stride while solidifying our sense of stability and wholeness regardless of what happens to be manifesting in our present-moment experience. Instead of identifying with a particular concept of who we are or what we should be, we come to know ourselves as that which is unchanging and unaffected amidst all the change that surrounds us and that occurs within us.
In doing so, we develop the faith that what is happening is happening because our life is unfolding (or folding as the case may be,) exactly the way it is meant to be and in harmony with everything else in the Universe from moment- to-moment.
Trusting the movement of life itself to lead the way.
As a wise old soul once said:
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
A cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
When the mind is quiet and completely in tune,
This is the best season of your life.
