Mountain Meditation

This is the Mountain meditation by Jon Kabat Zinn, to help you embody qualities of the mountain like stability and groundedness.

Transcript

This is the Mountain Meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn.

It's one of my very favorite visualizations and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sit in a comfortable position and allow your eyes to close gently as you bring your attention to the flow of your breath.

Feel each in-breath and each out-breath.

Observe your breathing without trying to change it or regulate it in any way.

Allow your body to be still with a sense of dignity,

A sense of resolve,

A sense of peace,

Of being complete,

Whole in this very moment.

As you sit here,

Picture in your mind's eye as best you can the most beautiful mountain you know or have seen or you can imagine.

Feel this image and the feeling of this mountain in your mind's eye,

Letting it gradually come into greater focus.

Observe 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.

Notice how massive it is,

How solid,

How unmoving,

How beautiful 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 a series of peaks or a high plateau.

Observing it,

Noting its qualities.

And when you feel ready to,

See 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 majesty of the mountain.

You become the mountain.

Rooted in your sitting posture,

Your head becomes the lofty peak,

Supported by the rest of the 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.

And wavering in your stillness,

Completely what you are,

Beyond words and thought,

A centered unmoving rooted presence.

As you sit here,

Becoming aware of the fact that 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,

Then 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 the 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 and shrouded 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 and 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 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 unspeakable magnitude,

Through it all the mountain 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,

What happens on the surface,

By the world of appearances.

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.

Certainly we experience storms of varying intensity and violence in our outer world and in our own minds and bodies,

Buffeted by high winds,

By cold rain.

We endure periods of darkness and pain,

As well as the moments of joy and uplift.

Even our appearances change 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 cries,

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,

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 come to listen.

Thank you and I hope you enjoyed this mountain meditation.

Reviews

Found this to be calming and helpful.

Very beautiful and inspiring. Thank you very much. 🙏

I love it!

Beautiful thank you. It is my go to when I can’t sleep in the middle of the night. ❤️🙏

Such a strong meditation for grounded presence! Thank you!

Beautiful meditation. Thank you

Awesome. On a mountain right now. Really and metaphorically. Namaste 🙏🏾

Amazing visual and expression of just how unwaivering we can be, if we choose
thank you 🙏☀️❤️

~Peter

That was beautiful, thank you 🙏💕 I was literally transported in the midst of the Pyreneans mountains where I used to treck ❤ A lovely experience, thanks again, I'm very grateful 🤗Namaste ☺

Wonderful visualizations and music. Calm tone of voice and fluid train of thought❤️

Wonderful!! 🙏🏼 thank you

Amazing meditation, so powerful I loved it!
Thank you

Very beautiful experience and I can relate so much. I'm working on a mountain series of art work and this is coming to me at the perfect time. Gratitude🙏

Brilliant meditation 🧘‍♂️ thank you 😊 perfect to start the day.

Very clear, charming and calming meditation. Thank you!

Loved it. So many meaningful statements and ideas.

Forgotten this meditation it was on of the first ones i tried thank you for remiding me

Positively beautiful, and I feel so grounded! Namaste.

One of the best mediations I've tried for making you feel stronger and empowered to let change and termoil wash over you and stay strong.

One of my favorite meditations on the ap. I adore the tranquility inget from this one.