As Winter Approaches
Original source: satipanya.org.uk
In this contemplative piece, Noirin Sheahan weaves together personal memories of her mother with profound Dhamma reflections on the changing seasons. Using November's transition into winter as a starting point, she explores how our dependence on physical conditions like warmth and light reveals our deep attachment to bodily experience. The essay offers an accessible introduction to the four elements teaching—earth (solidity), water (cohesion), air (movement), and fire (temperature/light)—showing how these fundamental aspects of our embodied existence provide a gateway to understanding the nature of attachment and aversion. Sheahan demonstrates how seasonal changes, particularly the 'November blues' many experience as daylight fades, can become opportunities for deeper practice rather than sources of suffering. She encourages readers to move beyond the mind's commentary and preferences to develop intimate awareness of direct physical sensations—the cold of toes, the warmth of hands—as a foundation for insight. The essay beautifully illustrates how embracing rather than resisting challenging conditions can lead to a 'welcome counterpoint to the unending chit-chat of the mind,' ultimately pointing toward our capacity to find peace even in darkness and discover the 'vibrant stimulation' in what we typically label as unpleasant experiences.
As Winter Approaches.
Traditionally, November is the month of the dead, the ‘Holy Souls’ in Christian
understanding. It’s a time to remember those we have lost. My mum died in January
and I am remembering her and how she used to love this time of year - closing the
curtains early and looking forward to long evenings by her fireside. For many people
November has the opposite effect. As the days get shorter and the sunlight fades a
gloomy depression mounts. Its humbling to see our dependence on physical basics
like daylight and sunshine for optimism and good humour.
It’s also an opportunity to reflect on the teaching on the elements – earth, water, air
and fire – the basis for bodily experience. Earth represents solidity; we sense this as
pressure, hardness, softness, weight. We experience the water element when it
spatters into our face as rain, lets eyelids skim over the delicate surface of the cornea.
The air element represents movement – we sense this when we turn our head, when
the legs swing forward while we walk. The fire element is responsible for the
November blues; changes in temperature and light tell us that this element, like the
others, is not to be taken for granted, not ours to have when we want it to discard
when we want something else.
We’re very attached to bodily experience! As a baby it was our main source of
pleasure and pain. Later the mental world became more prominent – the pleasure of
reading, socializing, achieving, the pain of misunderstanding, rejection, failure.
Delusion allows our mental life to take over the show; like James Joyce’s Mr.
Duffy, most of us live "at a little distance from our bodies".
The fading of heat and light at this time of year provides a wake-up-call. Warmth is
the vital sign of life while light has spiritual as well as physical significance – near
death experiences often report moving through a dark tunnel towards light. No
wonder we are so deeply attached! To go to the root of the problem we need to
rediscover the pleasure and pain of the embodied life, rest attention on cold toes or
warm hands. There’s the simple physicality of warmth or coolness; there’s also the
overlay of commentary, liking, disliking, desire & aversion. As we watch, the overlay
simplifies down, and when conditions are right, stops. What a relief! An easy
intimacy grows, but so delicate! It shatters with any grumbling for more heat,
brighter light … Slowly and painfully we learn to drop our preferences, be grateful for
whatever sensations the body offers. These sensations provide our footing in reality,
a welcome counterpoint to the unending chit-chat of the mind. With our feet planted
firmly in reality, our true nature can take shape.
I like to remember my mum’s November evenings when she gladly turned away from
the hustle and bustle of life to rest by her fireside, read her books. I can follow her
lead, retreat into my body, let it become my focus for winter evenings, curl up with
the book of Dhamma – the real-life one printed on direct experience. The chapter on
the elements is always a good place to start. What better way to greet the cold, dark
days of November than by learning to love the vibrant stimulation we term ‘cold’,
discovering peace in darkness?
Thanks for the memories, Mum.