South Bay Insight LA
Calendar
October Contemplation
"Autumn is a season of great beauty, but it is also a season of decline: the days grow shorter, the light is suffused, and summer’s abundance decays toward winter’s death. Faced with this inevitable winter, what does nature do in autumn? She scatters the seeds that will bring new growth in the spring — and she scatters them with amazing abandon.
In my own experience of autumn, I am rarely aware that seeds are being planted. Instead, my mind is on the fact that the green growth of summer is browning and beginning to die. My delight in the autumn colors is always tinged with melancholy, a sense of impending loss that is only heightened by the beauty all around. I am drawn down by the prospect of death more than I am lifted by the hope of new life.
But as I explore autumn’s paradox of dying and seeding, I feel the power of metaphor. In the autumnal events of my own experience, I am easily fixated on surface appearances — on the decline of meaning, the decay of relationships, the death of a work. And yet, if I look more deeply, I may see the myriad possibilities being planted to bear fruit in some season yet to come.
In retrospect, I can see in my own life what I could not see at the time: how the job I lost helped me find work I needed to do, how the “road closed” sign turned me toward terrain I needed to travel, how losses that felt irredeemable forced me to discern meanings I needed to know. On the surface it seemed that life was lessening, but silently and lavishly the seeds of new life were always being sown."
Parker Palmer in Autumn: To Cohere in Mysterious Unity
Read the entire essay here
Meditation Schedule
Our online and on location meeting information can be found below.
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October 2026
Thursday Morning Meditation Practice Group
October 1, 9:00 - 9:45 am
Teacher: Annette Lombardi
Topic: Mindfulness Meditation
Zoom Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/926255490?pwd=NVBEUUdVYVhvM0ozQmlrckRqU29oUT09
Dial in: (669) 900-6833 & Meeting ID: 926 255 490, Password: 628733
Tuesday Evening Meditation Practice Group - InsightLA Sitting Group
October 6, 7:30 - 9:00 pm
Teacher: Maureen Shannon-Chapple
Topic: TBA
Register: https://insightla.org/event/lmu-practice-group-3/2026-01-13-19-30/registration/
Thursday Morning Meditation Practice Group
October 8, 9:00 - 9:45 am
Teacher: Annette Lombardi
Topic: Mindfulness Meditation
Zoom Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/926255490?pwd=NVBEUUdVYVhvM0ozQmlrckRqU29oUT09
Dial in: (669) 900-6833 & Meeting ID: 926 255 490, Password: 628733
Tuesday Evening Meditation Practice Group - InsightLA Sitting Group
October 13, 7:30 - 9:00 pm
Teacher: Maureen Shannon-Chapple
Topic: TBA
Register: https://insightla.org/event/lmu-practice-group-3/2026-01-13-19-30/registration/
Thursday Morning Meditation Practice Group
October 15, 9:00 - 9:45 am
Teacher: Peggy Kersulis
Topic: Mindfulness Meditation
Zoom Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/926255490?pwd=NVBEUUdVYVhvM0ozQmlrckRqU29oUT09
Dial in: (669) 900-6833 & Meeting ID: 926 255 490, Password: 628733
Tuesday Evening Meditation Practice Group - InsightLA Sitting Group
October 20, 7:30 - 9:00 pm
Teacher: Maureen Shannon-Chapple
Topic: TBA
Register: https://insightla.org/event/lmu-practice-group-3/2026-01-13-19-30/registration/
Thursday Morning Meditation Practice Group
October 22, 9:00 - 9:45 am
Teacher: Annette Lombardi
Topic: "Mindfulness Meditation"
Zoom Link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/926255490?pwd=NVBEUUdVYVhvM0ozQmlrckRqU29oUT09
Dial in: (669) 900-6833 & Meeting ID: 926 255 490, Password: 628733
Tuesday Evening Meditation Practice Group - InsightLA Sitting Group
October 27, 7:30 - 9:00
Teacher: Maureen Shannon-Chapple
Topic: TBA
Register: https://insightla.org/event/lmu-practice-group-3/2026-01-13-19-30/registration/
Tuesday Evening Meditation Practice Group - InsightLA Sitting Group
October 29, 7:30 - 9:00 pm
Teacher: Maureen Shannon-Chapple
Topic: TBA
Register: https://insightla.org/event/lmu-practice-group-3/2026-01-13-19-30/registration/