Mountain Meditation For Strength, Calmness And Stability

This is the Mountain Meditation.

Ideally this meditation is done in a seated position,

But if that's not possible for any reason,

Then find a position that's best for you.

Always remembering your self-care during this practice and if your feelings or sensations become too intense,

Engaging or disengaging from the practice in whatever way you need to.

Just allowing yourself to become more settled now and ready for the practice.

If sitting,

Sitting with a straight back,

With your head held erect on your neck and shoulders,

Just allowing the shoulders to fully relax and placing your hands on your knees.

Closing your eyes if you're happy to do so or lowering your gaze if you prefer and just bringing your attention to the flow of your breathing.

Feeling each in-breath and each out-breath.

Just observing your breathing without trying to change it or regulate it in any way.

And as best you can,

Allowing the body to be still.

And sitting with a sense of dignity,

A sense of resolve,

A sense of being complete and whole in this very moment,

With your posture reflecting this sense of wholeness.

And as you sit here,

Picturing in your mind's eye,

As best as you can,

The most beautiful mountain that you know or have seen or can imagine.

It could be a mountain you've visited,

Or one you've seen in a picture,

Or one that's just in your imagination.

Try not to worry too much about imagining the perfect mountain,

But just trusting yourself that you've pictured the mountain that you need for this practice.

And just holding the image and feeling of this mountain in your mind's eye,

Letting it gradually come into greater focus.

Observing its overall shape,

Its lofty peak high in the sky,

And noticing is the peak clear or is it shrouded in clouds?

Are its sides steep or gently sloping?

Are its sides rocky or covered in trees and vegetation?

Just slowly building the picture of your mountain in your mind's eye.

Perhaps noticing the large base rooted in the rock of the earth's crust.

Noticing how massive it is,

How solid,

How unmoving,

How beautiful both from afar and up close.

Perhaps your mountain has snow at the top and trees on the lower slopes.

Perhaps it has one prominent peak or maybe a series of peaks or a high plateau.

Whatever its shape or appearance,

Just sitting and breathing with the image of this mountain.

Observing it,

Noticing its qualities.

And when you feel ready,

Seeing if you can bring the mountain into your own body so that the body sitting here and the mountain in your mind's eye become one.

So that as you sit here,

You share in the massiveness and the stillness and the majesty of the mountain.

You become the mountain rooted in the sitting posture.

Your head becomes the lofty peak supported by the rest of the body.

Your shoulders and arms become the sides of the mountain.

Your buttocks and legs the solid base rooted in the floor or the chair.

Experiencing the sense of uplift that this high mountain brings to your body.

And just gently inviting yourself to become a living,

Breathing mountain.

The strong and elevated form of the mountain formed deep within your own pelvis and spine.

With each breath as you continue sitting,

You become a little more a breathing mountain.

Unwavering in your stillness,

Completely what you are,

Beyond words and thoughts.

A centered,

Rooted,

Unmoving presence.

And now as you sit here,

Becoming aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky,

The mountain just sits.

The light and shadows and colors are changing virtually moment by moment.

Night follows day and day follows night.

A canopy of stars,

The moon,

Then the sun.

Through it all,

The mountain just sits.

Experiencing change in each moment.

Constantly changing,

Yet always just being itself.

It remains still as the seasons flow into one another and as the weather changes,

Moment by moment and day by day.

Regardless of all the changes,

The mountain just sits,

Still and calm and strong.

In summer,

There's no snow on the mountain,

Except perhaps for the very peaks.

It's covered in beautiful flowers and greenery.

There's birdsong on the gentle breeze and the mountain is warmed by the strong sun.

In the autumn,

The mountain may wear a coat of brilliant fire colors.

In winter,

A blanket of snow and ice may cover it.

Hot or cold,

Covered in summer vegetation or winter snow,

Throughout it all,

The mountain just sits.

In any season,

It may find itself at times enshrouded in clouds or fog or pelted by freezing rain.

People may come to see the mountain and comment on how beautiful it is,

Or on how it's not a good day to see the mountain.

None of this matters to the mountain,

Which remains at all times its essential self.

Clouds may come and clouds may go.

The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by the way people see it,

Or by the weather.

Seen or unseen,

In sun or clouds,

Day or night,

It just sits,

Being itself.

At times visited by violent storms,

Buffeted by snow and rain and winds of unthinking magnitude.

Through it all,

The mountain continues to sit,

Unmoved by the weather,

By what happens on the surface,

By the world of its appearance.

It sits,

Still and calm and strong.

And in the same way,

As we sit in meditation,

Holding this image in our minds,

We can embody the same unwavering stillness and rootedness in the face of everything that changes in our own lives,

Over seconds,

Over hours,

Over years.

In our lives and in our meditation practice,

We constantly experience the changing nature of mind and body,

And of the outer world.

We have our own periods of light and darkness.

Our moments of colour and our moments of drabness.

Certainly we experience storms of varying intensity and violence in the outer world and in our own minds and bodies.

We enjoy periods of darkness and pain,

As well as enjoy the moments of joy and uplift,

Just like the mountain.

Even our appearance changes constantly,

Experiencing a weather of its own.

By becoming the mountain in our meditation practice,

We can link up with its strength and stability,

And adopt it for our own.

We can use its energies to support our energy,

To encounter each moment with mindfulness and equanimity and clarity.

It may help us to see the weather of our own lives,

Like the weather on the mountain.

It may help us to see the weather of our own lives,

Like the weather on the mountain.

It may help us to see the weather of our own lives,

Like the weather on the mountain.

Sometimes good,

Sometimes bad,

But ever-changing and temporary.

It may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings,

Our preoccupations,

Our emotional storms and crises,

Even the things that happen to us,

Are very much like the weather on the mountain.

We tend to take it all personally,

But its strongest characteristic is impersonal.

The weather of our own lives is not to be ignored or denied,

It is to be encountered,

Honoured,

Felt,

Known for what it is and held in awareness.

And in holding it in this way,

We come to know a deeper silence and stillness and wisdom that we might not have felt possible right within the storm.

Mountains have this to teach us and much more if we can come to listen.

Mountains have this to teach us and much more if we can come to listen.

And just sitting now,

With a sense of stillness,

Calmness and solidity.

Your mind and body anchored and rooted,

Like the solid base of the mountain.

And feeling this in all parts of your body and mind.

And now turning your focus of attention back to the breath.

Noticing how it feels to breathe in and out,

One breath at a time,

In this moment.

And now expanding your awareness now to any sounds that you can hear.

Perhaps sounds inside the room,

Maybe further away.

And perhaps taking a few deep breaths.

On each out breath coming more and more back into the room.

And as we come to end this meditation,

Perhaps gently thanking yourself for taking the time to be settled and grounded and still.

And whenever you're ready,

Opening your eyes if they've been closed and bringing this practice to an end.