Mountain Meditation For this meditation,
Sitting on the floor on a firm cushion or on a chair,
Allow the bottom half of your body to be a stable base out of which the upper half rises with a straight back,
But not stiff,
And the head held direct on the neck and shoulders,
And allowing the shoulders to be fully relaxed.
You might try lifting the shoulders up towards the ears on an in-breath,
And then letting them drop on an out-breath,
Maybe taking a few breaths just like that,
And allowing the shoulders to let go and relax,
Placing the hands on your knees or in a comfortable way on your lap.
When you feel comfortable,
Allowing your eyes to close gently as you bring your attention to the natural 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,
Allowing the body to be still,
Sitting with a sense of dignity,
A sense of resolve,
A sense of being complete and whole in this very moment,
And with your posture reflecting this sense of wholeness.
So taking a few minutes to just bring non-judgmental,
Easy attention to the in-breath and the out-breath.
Just being aware of all the sensations associated with breathing at this moment.
And now as you sit here,
Bring into your mind's eye a picture of the most beautiful mountain that you've ever seen,
One that you know,
Or one that you can imagine.
Just holding the image and the feeling of this mountain in your mind's eye,
Letting it gradually come into greater focus.
Noticing its overall shape,
Its lofty peak high in the sky,
The large base rooted in the rock of the Earth's crust,
Its steep or gently sloping sides.
Noticing how massive it is,
How solid,
How unmoving.
Noticing how beautiful it is,
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 perhaps 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,
Noting its qualities.
When you feel ready,
Seeing if you can bring the mountain into your own body so that your 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 your body and affording a panoramic vista.
Your shoulders and arms the sides of the mountain.
Your buttocks and legs the solid base rooted to your cushion or your chair.
Experiencing in your body a sense of uplift from deep within your pelvis and spine.
With each breath as you continue sitting,
Becoming a little more a breathing mountain.
Unwavering in your stillness,
Completely what you are beyond words and thought,
A centered,
Rooted,
Unmoving presence.
More evenly,
All reversing and Now,
As you sit here,
Becoming aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky,
The light and shadows and colors are changing virtually moment by moment in the mountain's granite stillness.
Night follows day and day follows night,
The canopy of stars,
The moon,
And 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,
Day by day,
Calmness abiding all change.
In summer,
There is no snow on the mountain,
Except perhaps for the very peaks or in crags shielded from direct sunlight.
In the fall,
The mountain may wear a coat of brilliant fire colors.
In winter,
A blanket of snow and ice.
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 how it's not a good day to see the mountain,
That it's too cloudy or rainy or foggy or dark.
None of this matters to the mountain,
Which remains at all times its essential self.
Clouds may come and clouds may go.
Tourists may like it or not.
The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by whether people see it or not or by the weather.
Seen or unseen,
In the sun or in clouds,
Broiling or frigid,
Day or night,
It just sits,
Being itself.
At times the mountain is visited by violent storms,
Buffeted by snow and rain and winds of great magnitude,
And through it all the mountain just sits.
Spring comes,
The birds sing in the trees once again,
Leaves return.
Flowers bloom in the high meadows and on the slopes.
Streams overflow with the waters of melting snow.
Through it all the mountain continues to sit,
Unmoved by the weather,
By what happens on the surface,
By the world of appearances.
And in the same way as we sit in meditation,
We can learn to experience the mountain.
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 experience constantly the changing nature of mind and body and of the outer world.
We have our own periods of light and darkness,
Our moments of color and our moments of drabness.
And certainly we experience storms of varying intensity and violence in the outer world and in our own minds and bodies,
Buffeted by high winds and cold and rain.
We endure periods of darkness and pain as well as the moments of joy and uplift.
And 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 them 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 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,
Honored,
Felt,
And 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.
Let us have this to teach us and much more if we can listen.
And so if you find that you resonate in some way with the strength and stability of the mountain in your sitting,
It may be helpful to use it from time to time in your meditation practice to remind you of what it means to sit mindfully with resolve and wakefulness and true stillness.
And so continuing to sustain the mountain meditation on your own in silence,
Moment by moment,
Until you hear the sounds of the chime.
Okay.
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Just gently,
When you're ready,
Allowing your eyes to slowly open and letting the room around you come into focus.
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