Mountain Meditation recorded by MBSR teacher Adele Stewart at Mount Kira Scout Camp February 2020 Taking a comfortable seated position for the practice of mountain meditation.
Noticing the state of the body heart and mind.
Notice your chosen seated posture.
Perhaps make a few little adjustments to make sure you feel really grounded.
Perhaps moving the sit bones out a little bit.
Making sure that the knees aren't higher than the pelvis ideally.
Have that sense of being ready to meditate.
Not too rigid but not too casual.
That nice balance.
Notice the body settling.
Noticing the breath.
Perhaps particularly focus on the little gap between the out breath and the in breath.
No need to exaggerate it.
Just really noticing it.
Bringing to mind the image or the felt sense of a mountain.
If you are a visual person,
Imagine the most beautiful mountain that either really exists or exists in your imagination.
Notice the top of the mountain.
The peak.
Is it sharp or not?
Does it have trees at the top or perhaps it's snow capped?
Notice how steep the sides are.
Or perhaps they're not very steep.
Notice the enormous base of the mountain rooted in the earth.
Notice how massive it is.
How unmoving.
How beautiful whether seen from afar or up close.
A beauty emanating from its unique signature of shape and form and at the same time embodying universal qualities of mountainness.
Transcending particular shape and form.
However it appears,
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 of the mind's eye become one.
Your head becomes the lofty peak.
Your shoulders and arms,
The sides of the mountain.
Your buttocks and legs,
The solid base rooted to your cushion or chair or stool on the floor.
Perhaps experiencing in your body the sense of uplift,
The elevated quality of the mountain deep in your own spine.
Inviting yourself to become a breathing mountain.
Notice the mountain doesn't try to be still.
It simply is still.
Can you be unwavering in stillness?
Completely what you are?
Beyond words and thought?
Ascented,
Rooted,
Unmoving presence.
Of course with any mountain there will be changes every minute,
Hour,
Day,
Season.
But through it all the mountain just sits being itself.
The sun will rise.
The sun will set.
There may be moon and stars in the darkness.
There may be changes in shadows,
Changes in temperature.
Through it all the mountain just sits simply being itself.
Calmness abiding all change.
There can be all sorts of activity on the mountain.
Animals,
Birds,
Plants,
People,
Blowflies.
And the mountain continues to sit.
The seasons change.
Heat,
Bushfires,
Summer storms.
Perhaps leaves dropping.
Water freezing.
Snow falling.
Icy winds and rains.
Water melting.
Temperature rising.
Flowers and new leaves growing.
Throughout it all the mountain just sits being itself.
Unmoved by the weather,
By what happens on the surface,
By the world of appearances.
Tourists might come to visit and complain because they can't see the mountain because it's covered in cloud or fog.
Or walk to the top triumphantly but it's all the same to the mountain.
As we sit holding this image in our mind,
Can we embody the same unwavering stillness and rootedness in the face of everything that changes in our own lives over seconds,
Hours and years.
And so continuing on is that still mountain.
The invitation is to do your own meditation now.
Perhaps an open awareness practice.
Watching the weather,
The clouds,
The rain,
The sun,
The rainbows coming and going.
Or perhaps the mindfulness of the breath.
Thank you.
