Mountain meditation.
Lie down comfortably,
Become aware of your physical body.
Notice your feet,
Legs,
Become aware of your pelvis,
Belly and chest and also say hi to your back and your shoulders and arms and also notice your neck,
Jaw.
You can see if there's a tension in any of those parts.
If you find some you can soften around the tension without pushing it away,
Just see if we can be a bit gentle with this tension.
Become aware of your breath as well and keep the awareness of your breath or any part of the body or the whole body,
Whatever suits you.
Just stay in some way grounded in your body for the following practice.
Imagine the most beautiful mountain that you've ever seen.
It might be an imaginary mountain or a real mountain.
What's on the bottom,
On the sides and what's on the top of the mountain?
Imagine yourself standing at the bottom of this mountain.
And slowly start walking up the mountain.
Imagine how the path that you're walking upon feels like and looks like.
Maybe you feel stones under your feet,
Grass or just ice and snow.
What do you see?
Maybe trees,
Maybe snow,
Maybe a little mountain stream or lake,
Maybe drops of water on the grass.
Maybe an animal crosses your way or anything else that is on your mountain.
Is there anything that you can hear walking up?
Maybe the sounds of your own steps?
Sounds of nature?
Is there anything that you can smell?
And you slowly reach the top of the mountain.
Look around.
How is the view?
And also look inside the mountain.
There's probably stone.
Silence.
Now imagine the mountain from a certain distance.
And the picture of the mountain suddenly starts approaching you.
It's getting closer and closer until the point where it merges with you.
And the mountain becomes you.
And you become the mountain.
And every morning the Sun rises and shines over a bigger and bigger part of the mountain.
The meadows or the snowy areas or trees,
Whatever is on your mountain.
And then after the noon,
Slowly going down again,
Before the evening,
The golden hour comes and everything is lit up with soft golden light.
And then the Sun sets and maybe the sky above the horizon gets a bit purple or pink or reddish.
And then the moon replaces the Sun and shines with its pale light along with the stars lighting up our mountain.
And also the weather changes.
Some days are sunny without a single cloud.
Other days are cloudy.
And even other days it starts raining.
And sometimes the rain is so strong and the wind joins the rain and it becomes a storm.
Sometimes the storm is so strong that it tears off a tree or a rock from the mountain.
And it's rolling down,
Down to the valley,
Making a lot of noise.
But then,
After the storm,
The Sun starts shining again.
And maybe the rainbow appears over the mountain.
The animals go out of their shelter and the mountain becomes lively again.
Also seasons change.
In the spring,
New grass is growing or maybe just a little bit of ice and snow is melting down.
Maybe the mountain becomes a bit more lively.
Maybe some insects appear,
Flying around or birds.
And then the summer comes.
There is even more light and warmth.
Maybe more flowers show up on the mountain.
And everything is buzzing and alive.
And groups of people appear in the valley.
People who came to see the mountain.
Some of them think,
Oh that's the most beautiful mountain I've ever seen.
Some of them feel like just another mountain.
And some others do not like the mountain at all.
After the summer,
Autumn is coming.
More days are cloudy.
A little bit more rain again and wind.
A little bit more darkness.
A little bit less life.
The cold is creeping in a bit.
And if there are any trees with leaves on the mountain,
Maybe they turn amazing colors.
And then slowly the snow starts coming and replacing the rain.
The winter.
Everything becomes chilly,
Cold.
And step by step maybe even frozen.
And the mountain becomes hollow.
Sometimes very dark and hostile.
Sometimes maybe the sun shines over the vast snowy areas.
And it's just beautiful.
And there might be almost no life on the mountain during the winter.
But then the spring comes again.
The mountain undergoes constant changes.
Some of them are temporary,
Like seasons.
Some of them are burnament.
But still,
Despite storms,
Clouds,
Rain,
Despite people coming and judging the mountain sometimes,
There is still this stable,
Silent,
Strong mountain inside.
And similarly,
We undergo constant change in our lives.
Ups and downs.
Sunny days and cloudy days.
Storms and then rainbows.
And then a storm again.
But inside there is still a place of peace,
Silence,
Stability,
Place of unity with the whole universe.
Place that we can always come back to.
Embracing the awareness that all these changes are just clouds in the sky.
Being aware that behind every cloud,
Even the darkest one,
There is a clear blue sky.
And that we are the sky and everything else is just the weather.
