First Taste of Snow and Discovery of Truth about Perceptions

Dec 18, 2021

As I have resolved to continue to sit in the Fairly Lake park for meditations during winter, weather snow, wind, rain or blizzard, this Saturday was the first encounter with the queen of winter elements: the snow.

What is snow? We don’t think much of what snow is as soon as we hear the forecast about it. We rather react with some trepidation, thinking of the wet and cold and bad roads. Our mind may visualize without our knowing of it the things we may need to do when it snows. It makes us shovel. It makes us plow. It makes us scrape, clear, brush, wipe off. It makes us do things and we don’t like that.

I sat in the park with an open heart and mind, with curiosity and non-judgment, without labeling anything as I felt the kisses of falling snow’s sandy touch on my cheeks, forehead, noxd and lips. Some of these grains trickled through my glovers and tickled the base of my thumb as they melted. How sweet is a touch, when you are open to it.

What is snow when you embrace it and befriend it; and not even give it a name. When you go beyond the names, the reality is different from what the mind congeals into concepts. How we so easily forget the ‘concepting’ is only a tool to navigate through the practicalities of life. How we miss to see the beauty of life that lies beyond words, conceptions and perceptions.

As it is said, when in hearing is just hearing; when in seeing is just seeing, when in feeling is just feeling, then you transcend the splits created by the congealing property of mind.

When I came back to my car covered with snow, how much pleasure was in gently sliding its fluffy gatherings down with the brush, as I would be combing the hair of someone I love.

Why I

Want to Meditate

in a Park in Winter

Dec 4, 2021

Being in nature gives us more than we seek.

In winter many of us tend to close ourselves off from nature. We dread snow and cold.

Truth is that all seasons have something to offer us. What winter offers is not only the visual wonders but also a challenge to come out of our comfort zone.

Stretching ourselves out of our comfort zone is known to strengthen us - in body or mind. Flexing our muscles strengthens our body; flexing our mind creates psychological flexibility which is essential for a more content life.

All that besides, from my own experience, there is something magical about sitting in the cold and wind and staying calm and collected. Some indescribable energies are activated which can only be experienced and not captured in words.

Try it yourself.

So I write this to share this treasure with you. Maybe you join me or do it on your own, but think about the possibilities.

As I prepared to go to the park for meditation, I looked out of the window of my apartment and was glad to see the sun peeping through the clouds. It is preponderance to say that the sun came out for me, but let me be preponderance for a moment.