Finding a comfortable position,
Either sitting on the floor or in a chair.
Noticing the support of the chair or cushion and finding stability and poise in a comfortable but alert posture.
Allowing the eyes to close if that feels okay or just lowering your gaze.
Bringing awareness to the breath,
Noticing the actual physical sensations as you breathe in and out.
Allowing the breath to be just as it is without trying to change it in any way.
Noticing each breath as it comes in and goes out.
Allowing the body to be still and sitting with a sense of dignity,
A sense of being complete in this very moment with your posture reflecting the sense of wholeness.
Bringing to mind now an image of the most spectacular mountain you have ever seen or can imagine.
Allowing the image to slowly come into focus and 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,
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 afar or up close.
Perhaps your mountain is dusted with snow on its summit and adorned with trees on its base.
Maybe its rugged sides are made of granite and there are rivers and waterfalls cascading down the slopes or vast meadows and high lakes.
Observing it,
Noticing its qualities and when you feel ready,
Seeing if you can bring the mountain into your own body sitting here.
Thinking of yourself becoming one with the mountain,
Sharing its immense strength,
Tranquility and magnificence.
Situated 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,
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,
Alive and vital yet unwavering in your inner stillness.
Really what you are beyond words and thought,
A centred,
Grounded,
Unmoving presence.
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 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.
During the summer,
There is no snow on the mountain except perhaps for the very peaks or in the crevices sheltered from the sun.
In autumn,
The mountain may wear a stunning coat of fiery colours.
Winter brings a thick layer of snow and ice.
In any season,
The mountain may be concealed by clouds,
Fog or pelted by freezing rain.
People may come to see the mountain and admire how beautiful it is or how it's not a good day to see the mountain,
That it's too cold 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.
It just sits,
Being itself.
It endures violent storms,
Withstanding relentless snow,
Rain and wind and through it all,
The mountain sits.
Spring comes,
Trees leaf out,
Flowers boom in the high meadows and slopes,
Birds sing in the trees once again and streams overflow with the waters of melting snow.
And 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.
Just as we learn to feel the solidity of a mountain during meditation,
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,
Over years.
In our lives and in our meditation practice,
We experience constantly the changing nature of mind and body and the outer world.
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 connect 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,
Equanimity and clarity.
It may help to see that our thoughts and feelings,
Our worries,
Our emotional storms 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,
Honoured,
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.
Mindfulness have this to teach us and much more if we can allow it.
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 meditation practice,
To remind you of what it means to sit mindfully with resolve and with wakefulness in true stillness.
So in the time that remains,
Continuing to sustain the mountain meditation on your own in silence,
Moment by moment,
Until you hear the sound of the bell.
