For our meditation,
You can slowly ease yourself into whatever position feels comfortable for your body.
So that can be sitting down,
It can be lying on your back,
And grabbing anything that you need to feel comfortable and to feel cozy.
Lengthen your spine,
Close your eyes and guide some slow in-breaths into your body.
Let your belly rise as we inhale,
Fall as we exhale.
The most magnificent,
Beautiful mountain that you can imagine.
This mountain will be experiencing all kinds of weather,
Including snow.
So keep that in mind as you bring this image to life.
Maybe it's a place you've visited before,
Or a mountain that you've seen in an image or a movie.
Let it slowly come into focus,
Adding in more subtle detail.
Start to sense its overall shape,
Its wide base rooted in the earth's crust,
Soft rolling hills or steep peaks that extend high into the sky.
Feel how massive it is,
How solid and moving and beautiful.
Feel these mountain-like qualities within your own body,
As if you and the mountain are slowly becoming one.
Share its massiveness and stillness.
Feel the connection of your body with the ground.
With each breath you take,
Feel your unwavering stability and timelessness.
Rounded,
Centered,
Unmoving,
Beyond thoughts and words.
Become aware of the sensation of the traveling sun overhead.
The warm,
Soft light turns bright and intense and fades into the shadows and finally darkness.
Night sky studded with sparkling stars.
The cycle that brings light to dark,
Dark to light.
In the summer,
The sun bakes the dirt and rocks.
Animals slow down in the heat and trees and shrubs on your mountain soak in the sun's rays.
In the fall,
Sun leaves change color.
The air is cool and crisp.
Animals prepare for winter by storing up.
As winter comes,
Snow falls covering the trees and the ground like a soft blanket and ice forms underneath.
Animals hibernate and quiet sets in.
Spring brings new life.
Melting ice that turns into waterfalls and wild flowers pop up.
Birds sing and insects hum.
The grass,
Bushes and trees soak up gentle rain and turn vibrantly green.
The mountain experiences changing weather from moment to moment and month to month.
Its surfaces change and the activities on it change,
But it is always being itself a mountain.
People come to visit to see the sights and hike the craggy hills.
Some comment on how beautiful it is or what a great day it is to visit.
Others say the trails are too easy or too challenging,
That the day is too cold and rainy or too hot.
None of this matters as at all times the mountain remains its essential self.
The magnificence,
The magic and the beauty are not changed by whether people see it or not or what visitors say about it.
It just sits,
Being itself,
Unmoved by what happens on the surface.
Allow yourself to remain in this state of steady ongoingness for a few more minutes.
Feeling your belly rise and fall with your breath.
Staying central,
Unwavering stillness and groundedness in the face of everything that changes in our own lives over seconds,
Hours and years.
In our lives and even in our meditation practice we experience a constantly changing nature of our mind,
Body and outer world.
We have our own periods of light and darkness.
We experience storms of varying intensity with our bodies and minds.
We endure periods of darkness and pain as well as elation and joy.
Even our appearance changes constantly.
By embodying the mountain we connect to our own strength and stability.
We realize that we too can encounter each moment with mindfulness,
Clarity,
Acuity.
It helps us see that our thoughts,
Feelings,
Preoccupations,
Emotional storms and the things that happen to us are very much like the weather on the mountain.
We tend to take it personally but it is usually impersonal.
The purpose of our own lives is not to be ignored or denied.
It is to be encountered,
Honored,
Felt,
Known for what it is and observed as it passes by.
In this way we come to understand and embody the wisdom that mountains have to teach us.
To notice your breath,
The presence of your mountain.
Open your eyes and when you feel ready,
Using the top hand,
Gently press yourself back up into a seated position.
Once you are in a seated position,
Once again choosing any sort of movement that feels good for you and your body.
We will take our three final breaths together.
Inhaling the arms up.
Exhale,
Open wide.
Inhale the arms up.
Exhale,
Open wide.
Do the same thing one more time.
Inhale the arms up except this time bring your hands anywhere onto your body.
Exhale,
Taking one final moment to feel the connectedness with your breath and with your body.
Thank you so much for spending a little bit of time with me.
Hopefully you found that very grounding and relaxing.
And hopefully I see you again soon.
