Equanimity - Sit Like A Mountain

This meditation further explores the topic of equanimity, by a guided visualization of what it would be like, to sit, like a mountain. The track will help listeners feel more grounded and present, and accepting changes that our out of our control. I was inspired by Jon Kabat-Zinn's "Mountain Meditation".

Special thanks to Kevin MacLeod, who allowed me to use his music in the background, royalty-free.

Transcript

Welcome,

Today we're doing a meditation on equanimity for my friend Megan who specifically requested it.

Let's get started with a quote from Sharon Salzberg,

Fit like a mountain sit with a sense of strength and dignity,

Be steadfast,

Be majestic,

Be natural and at ease in awareness.

No matter how many winds are blowing,

No matter how many clouds are swirling,

No matter how many lions are prowling,

Be intimate with everything and sit like a mountain.

Because of the imagery,

It is useful to start in a sitting position,

Either on the floor or a chair with a straight but relaxed spine.

If you would like to lie down or stand,

That is perfectly okay as well.

Know that during this meditation it is always okay to move,

Just please do so mindfully.

When you're ready,

Begin by sensing into the support you have from the chair,

The cushion,

The bed,

Maybe the floor.

Pay attention to the actual sensations of contact,

Finding a position of stability and poise,

Upper body balanced over your hips and shoulders in a comfortable but alert posture,

Hands on your lap or on your knees,

Arms hanging by their own weight like heavy curtains,

Stable and relaxed.

Sense into your body,

Feeling your feet,

Legs,

Hips,

Lower and upper body,

Arms,

Shoulders,

Neck and when you're ready,

Allowing your eyes to close,

Bringing awareness to breath,

The actual physical sensations,

Feeling each breath as it comes in and goes out,

Letting the breath be just as it is,

Without trying to change it or regulate it in any way,

Allowing it to flow easily and naturally with its own rhythm and peace,

Knowing you are breathing perfectly well right now,

There's nothing to do,

There's nowhere to be,

Allowing the body to be still and sitting with a sense of dignity,

A sense of resolve,

A sense of being complete,

Whole in this very moment with your posture reflecting this sense of wholeness.

As you sit here,

Letting an image form in your mind's eye of the most magnificent or beautiful mountain you know or have ever seen or can imagine,

Letting it gradually come into greater focus and even if it doesn't come as a visual image,

Allowing the sense of this mountain and feeling its overall shape,

Its lofty peak or peaks high in the sky and the large base rooted in the bedrock of the Earth's crust,

Its steep or gently sloping sides,

Noticing how massive it is,

How solid,

How unmoving,

How beautiful,

Whether from a far up or close,

Perhaps your mountain has snow blanketing its top and trees reaching down to the base or ragged granite slides,

There may be streams and waterfalls cascading down the slopes,

There may be one peak or a series of peaks or with meadows and high lakes.

Now observe it,

Noting its qualities and when you feel ready,

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

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

You become the mountain.

Grounded in the sitting posture,

Your head becomes the lofty peak supported by the rest of the body and affording a panoramic view.

Your shoulders and arms are the sides of the mountain,

Your buttocks and legs the solid base.

You are grounded and 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,

Alive and vital,

Yet unwavering in your inner stillness,

Completely what you are beyond words and thought,

A centered,

Grounded,

Unmoving presence.

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 stillness.

And the surface teems with life and activity,

Streams,

Melting snow,

Waterfalls,

Plants and wildlife.

As the mountain sits,

Seeing and feeling how night follows day and day follows night.

The bright,

Warming sun,

Followed by the cool night sky studded with stars and the gradual dawning of a new day.

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.

Calmness abiding all change.

In summer,

There is no snow on the mountain,

Except perhaps for the very peaks or in cracks 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.

Seen or unseen,

In sun or in clouds,

Broiling or frigid,

Day or night,

It just sits,

Being itself.

At times,

Visited by violent storms,

Buffeted by snow and rain and winds of unthinkable magnitude,

Through it all,

Though,

The mountain sits.

Spring comes,

Trees leaf out,

Flowers bloom in the high meadows and slopes,

Birds sing in the trees once again.

Streams overflow with the waters of melting snow.

Through it all,

The mountain continues to sit,

Unmoved by the weather,

By what happens on its surface,

By the world of appearances.

Remaining its essential self through the seasons,

The changing weather,

The activity ebbing and flowing on its surface,

In the same way,

As we sit in meditation,

We can learn to experience the mountain.

We can embody the same central,

Unwavering stillness and groundedness in the face of everything that changes in our own lives over seconds,

Over hours or 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,

Activity and inactivity,

Our moments of color and our moments of drabness.

It's true that we experience storms of varying intensity and violence in the outer world and in our own minds and bodies,

Buffeted by high winds,

By cold and rain.

We endure periods of darkness and pain,

As well as the moments of joy and uplift.

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 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 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 personally,

But its strongest characteristic is that it's impersonal.

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.

And in holding it in this way,

We come to know a deeper silence and stillness and wisdom.

Mountains have this to teach us,

And much more,

If we can let it in.

So,

If you find 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 own meditation practice,

To remind you of what it means to sit mindfully,

With resolve and with wakefulness in true stillness.

As we come to the end of this meditation,

When you're ready,

You can gently return to your senses and feel your whole body supported by the earth beneath you.

You are safe and you are present.

How do you feel now versus when you started this meditation?

How does it feel to be in your body?

Are there any emotions coming up?

If so,

It may be useful to you to journal after this meditation ends.

Gently scan your body,

Waking up each part as you move your attention from your toes all the way to the top of your head.

Are there any areas of tension?

If so,

Gently relax and just be.

Begin noticing the sounds you can hear,

Smells that may be present.

When you're ready,

You can gently begin to open your eyes.

Notice your surroundings.

See the colors and shapes around you.

When you feel ready,

Please feel free to move on with your day.

Thank you so much for meditating with me.

Reviews

Absolutely Beautiful. Thank you so much, it's so nice to hear your soothing voice, Friend. I return to this often, it's very calming, empowering, and it helps me shift perspectives. I often remind myself to sit like a mountain and use the imagery of the Smokies in my mind. 😌 🌄 Thank you. 💗

Thank you so much Zsofia!! So beautifully made!! Such a perfect way to rest in presence and to see the impermanence and change around you!! 🙏😊