try watching a leaf fall

It sounds perhaps a strange thing to do. But try it, try it.

Go to a wood, perhaps on an autumn day, when there's a slight wind or breeze. And sit and watch a leaf fall. Perhaps several leaves will be falling. And every leaf, as it falls from the tree to earth, follows its own path, its own way of falling: some drifting here and there; some dropping sharply like an arrow; some floating; some turning over and over. Every leaf is unique. And the way it falls to the earth is also unique.

There's no need for the leaf to follow a pattern. There's no need for our mind to see a pattern. There's no need for us to categorise, to classify. Just see the leaf in its individuality, the way it moves as it falls to the earth.

And when you have tried this, perhaps rather decisively as an exercise, afterwards, in future, allow yourself to be open. When you had not planned this exercise at all – you happen to be out walking and a leaf is falling – allow it to grab your attention. The movement will attract your attention anyway and allow it, allow yourself to be lost for a few seconds, in the dance of that leaf as it falls to the earth; a dance that has never been danced before, by any other leaf; a dance that will never be danced again in the entire eternity of existence. This is a one off happenstance. You are witnessing this particular leaf with its own individual flow from the tree to the ground. Allow yourself to be transfixed by this dance. Feel its beauty, its uniqueness. Allow yourself to be lost in it, for a few seconds at least.