Welcome to Pure Life Therapy.
Today we are going to explore the mindfulness meditation called the Mountain Meditation.
For the Mountain Meditation,
It is best to be in a seated position,
Either on the floor or in a chair,
Sitting upright with a dignified awareness,
Settling into your chair when you're ready,
Gently closing your eyes or softly gazing at a point in front of you,
Focusing in on your feet and contact with the floor,
Noticing your thighs and sit bones in the seated position,
Having an awareness for the sensation of your arms by your side and the contact of your hands where they are at,
Expanding the awareness for the body as a whole,
Bringing your awareness to the breath,
Feeling each breath as it flows in and out of your body,
Noticing how it flows into and out of your nostrils and the following sensation of the movement in the chest or abdomen,
Keeping the attention on the breath as it flows in and out of the body,
Letting the breath be just as it is,
A natural flow of rhythm,
Allowing the body to be still and sitting with a sense of dignity,
A sense of resolve,
A feeling of completeness,
Wholeness.
In this very moment,
Allowing your posture to reflect this wholeness.
As you are sitting here with your mind's eye,
Allowing the image of the most beautiful or magnificent mountain you have ever seen or can imagine,
Letting this image come into greater focus until it is the forefront of your mind.
If you can't create a visual image with your mind's eye,
Allowing the sense of this mountain to be there.
When you have the image of the mountain,
Feeling it's all over shape,
It's lofty peak or peaks high in the sky,
The large base rooted in the bedrock of the earth's crust,
It's steep or gently sloping sides,
Noticing how massive your mountain is,
How solid,
How unmoving,
How beautiful,
Whether from a far or up close.
Perhaps your mountain is covered in trees or boulders,
There may be streams,
Lakes,
Waterfalls,
There may be one peak or a series of peaks interspersed with meadows and high lakes.
Observing it,
Noting its qualities and when you feel ready,
Seeing if you can bring the mountain into your own body sitting here with your mind's eye,
Your body and the body of the mountain become one so that you share in its stillness and majesty.
You become the mountain.
Grounding in your seated posture,
Your head becomes the lofty peak,
Your shoulders and arms the sides of the mountain,
Your buttocks and legs the solid base rooted into the earth much like the mountain.
With each breath becoming a little more a breathing mountain,
Alive and vital,
Unwavering in your inner stillness,
Beyond words and thoughts,
A centered,
Grounding and unmoving presence.
As you are sitting as the mountain,
Becoming aware of the sun traveling across the sky,
The light,
Shadows and colors changing moment by moment.
The surface teems with light and activity,
Wildlife,
Plants,
Streams,
Rock slides,
Melting snow.
As the mountain sits,
Seeing and feeling how night follows day and day follows night.
The bright,
Warming sun followed by the cool night studded with stars.
Dawn and dusk in a continual cycle.
Through it all,
The mountain simply sits.
Experiencing this constant change yet always being itself.
It remains still as the day flows into seasons,
As the weather changes moment to moment,
Day by day.
The mountain remains calm.
The mountain simply sits.
In summer,
There is no snow on the mountain except perhaps for the very peaks or in the crag shielded from daylight.
Animals scamper.
The mountain thrives.
In the fall,
The mountain may wear a coat of brilliant fiery colors.
In winter,
The mountain may begin to wear a blanket of snow and ice.
In any season,
The mountain may be enshrouded with clouds or fog or 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 because it is too cloudy or rainy or foggy or dark.
Yet none of this matters to the mountain.
The mountain simply sits.
The mountain remains at all times its solid and natural self.
Clouds may come and go.
Weather will do its thing.
Tourists may like it or not.
The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by whether people see it in sun or clouds,
Boiling or frigid,
Day or night.
The mountain simply sits.
At times,
The mountain is visited by violent storms,
Buffeted by snow,
Rain,
High winds,
Or even fire.
Through it all,
The mountain simply sits.
Spring comes.
Plants start to push through the earth reaching for the sunshine.
Trees start to have birds singing in their boughs again.
Butterflies and bees flip from flower to flower.
And through it all,
The mountain simply sits.
The mountain is unmoved by weather.
Doesn't matter what happens on the surface.
Doesn't matter what the world of appearances are.
The mountain simply sits,
Remaining its natural self through the seasons,
The changing weather,
All of the activity ebbing and flowing on its surface.
In our lives and in our meditation practice,
We experience the constantly changing nature of mind,
Body,
And of the outer world.
We have our periods of light and darkness,
Activity and inactivity,
Our moments of vibrant color,
And our moments of drabness.
We experience weather of varying intensity and violence in the outer world as well as in our own minds and bodies.
We endure periods of darkness and pain as well as moments of joy and uplift.
It may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings,
Our preoccupations,
Our emotional storms and crisis,
All of the things that happen to us are very much like the weather on the mountain.
We tend to take it personally,
But the mountain remains impersonal.
Through it all,
The mountain simply sits.
The weather of our own lives is not to be ignored or denied.
It is to be encountered,
Honored,
Felt,
Known for what it is,
And held in awareness.
In holding it in this way,
We come to know a deeper silence,
A stillness,
A wisdom.
We simply sit.
By becoming the mountain,
We can connect with its strength and stability to adopt it as our own.
We can use this symbolism to support our energy to encounter each moment with a stable and mindful clarity.
We simply sit,
Returning the attention to the breath,
Taking in a few deeper than normal breaths,
Letting go of the image of the mountain,
Focusing on your body as a whole,
Allowing your breath to flow in a natural rhythm.
But when you're ready,
Gently wiggling the fingers and toes,
Shifting the body in any way needed,
And with the breath,
Gently opening the eyes.
