When you think of meditation, what’s the image that comes to mind?
For many people, “meditation” conjures an image of a formal practice; sitting in stillness and silence on a cushion with your eyes closed.
To be sure, that’s one version of meditation.
But it’s not the only one.
Meditation is simply a practice of watching and noticing.
You can watch your breath, your thoughts, or the sensations in your body.
You can also direct your focus on things external to you: the flame of a candle, a piece of art, or the snow falling outside your window.
Watching the snow is one of my favorite forms of meditation.
In some ways, snow is like rain: it’s just precipitation coming from the sky.
In other ways, snow is vastly different from rain.
It reminds me of the sense of wonder I had as a child when it would snow — before the snow became another source of tasks like shoveling.
The Japanese term shinshin describes the unique silence of a snowfall.
The word means “the absence of sound where there was sound before.”
A snowfall interrupts our pace of rushing and commands us to pause to take it in. The snow reminds us of the nature’s beauty, even in the depths of winter.
In the silence of the snowfall time is suspended. We are forced to surrender to a higher order. As we look out, we can go within, connecting with and listening to our deepest truths.
Watching the snow invites us to open all our senses to what’s around us and what’s within. It invites us to reconnect with the sense of curiosity and wonder we naturally had as children.
This is what meditation is about.
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