It’s so beautiful to watch the thousands of leaves fall like slow motion snowflakes… finding their way to the forest floor and their temporary resting place there. Then comes the wind, and they’re off to the races; like a large gathering of tiny tumblers these leaves dash, rolling head over end, in a dead heat to places unknown.

The remarkable thing, and I have always wondered about it, is where are they all going? Because, truth be told (at least where I live), for all of the movement, I can’t see any difference in what remains before me. The leaves that the wind picks up and scatters down the hill are replaced, instantly, by the leaves moving up the hill from the other side! Something like a giant game of musical chairs, only there’s a spot for all of the players.

Everything moves, but nothing changes.

This is a near perfect metaphor for aspirants to understand with regards to their interior life, and their relationship with the world around them. The ground over which these leaves race remains the same; it provides the stage upon which an infinite number of characters interact with one another, yet never really change anything other than their places.

Within us — the heart of us, really — is a “ground” that is to our thoughts and feelings — our relationships with others and ourselves — as is the earth to the leaves that first race across her and then… no longer able to run… give themselves up to nourish her body so that she may give birth again come the spring.

Be here. Now is the ground. Remember yourself and you will know, without thinking, that while all around you everything changes, there lives in you something unchanging. Seek this.