This meditation,
Drawn from the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn,
Is a way for you to draw your mind and senses inwards into a visualization.
Let go of any expectations of what this will do or change for you,
And simply follow along,
Picturing as best you can the many images that will be offered to your awareness.
Allow whatever arises to arise,
And,
Like a mighty mountain,
Simply abide in your experience,
Knowing it's all valid,
All part of you being you,
Just in this moment.
Sit up tall with a straight back,
Either on the floor or in a chair.
Hold your head level on top of your neck and shoulders,
And allow the shoulders to soften down away from your ears.
Place your hands in a comfortable position on either your knees or thighs.
You can either close your eyes or lower your gaze to your lap,
Drawing your attention inwards.
Bring your attention now to the flow of your breathing.
Feel each in-breath and each out-breath.
Just observe your breathing without trying to change it or regulate it in any way.
Allow the body to be still.
Sit 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,
Picture in your mind's eye,
As best you can,
The most beautiful mountain that you know or have seen or can imagine.
You may remember a particular mountain that you have visited.
Just hold the image and feel 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 huge it is,
How solid,
How unmoving,
How beautiful both from afar and from up close.
Perhaps your mountain has snow at the top and trees on the lower slopes.
Perhaps it has one prominent peak,
Perhaps a series of peaks or a high plateau.
Whatever its shape or appearance,
Just sit and breathe in the image of this mountain.
Observe it,
Noticing its qualities.
And when you feel ready,
See if you can bring the mountain into your own body so that the body sitting here and the mountain in your mind's eye become one.
So that as you sit here,
You share in the stillness and majesty of the mountain.
You become the mountain rooted in your posture,
Your head becomes the lofty peak supported by the rest of the body.
Your shoulders and arms,
The sides of the mountain,
Your buttocks and legs,
The solid base rooted to your support.
Experience in your body a sense of uplift from deep within your pelvis and spine.
With each breath as you continue sitting,
Become a little more a breathing mountain,
Unwavering in your stillness,
Completely what you are beyond words and thought.
A centered,
Rooted,
Unmoving presence.
Now as you sit here,
Become aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky,
The light and shadows and colors are changing virtually moment by moment.
Night follows day and day follows night,
A 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 and day by day,
Calmness abiding all change.
In summer,
There's no snow on the mountain except perhaps for the very peaks.
In autumn,
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 on how it's not a good day to see the mountain.
None of this matters to the mountain,
Which remains at all times its essential self.
Clouds may come and clouds may go.
The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by the way people see it or not or by the weather.
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 unthinkable magnitude.
Through it all,
The mountain continues to sit unmoved by the weather,
By what happens on the surface,
By the world of appearances.
And 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 constantly experience 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 the outer world and in our own minds and bodies.
We endure periods of darkness and pain as well as the moments of joy.
Then 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 it 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 crises,
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 it,
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.
Letting your image of your particular mountain fade away now and bringing yourself back into the reality of this present moment,
Continue into your day with that sense of solid presence that the mountain brings.
Wow,
Eternal API certainly.
