Mountain meditation can start with taking a dignified,
Balanced,
And relaxed posture,
Letting your spine stack up and hold you.
You can close your eyes or take a soft gaze,
And we'll start by just noticing the breath.
You might notice the cool air as you breathe in and the warm air as you breathe out,
Or the rise and fall of your chest,
Not trying to change anything,
Just watching as your body breathes.
You can notice the sensation of gravity anchoring you to the earth,
And for now,
See if you can put aside worries and concerns,
Roles and responsibilities,
Plans and thoughts of the future,
Regrets and reflections of the past.
See if you can just let them be for now.
Welcome to this moment.
As we move through our meditation today,
Just remember you can always come back to the breath,
Allowing it to flow easily and naturally with its own rhythm and pace,
Knowing you are breathing perfectly well and there's nothing more for you to do.
When you're ready,
You can bring to your mind's eye a beautiful mountain that you know or have seen or can imagine,
Letting it gradually come into greater focus,
And even if it doesn't come as a visual image,
You can allow the sense of this mountain,
Feeling its overall shape.
Notice how expansive it is,
How solid,
How unmoving,
How beautiful,
Whether from afar or up close.
Perhaps your mountain has snow blanketing its top or trees reaching down to the base.
Maybe there are streams or waterfalls or lakes.
Maybe there's one peak or several.
Maybe it has meadows or flowers.
Spend a moment just observing its details,
From its peak in the sky to its base rooted in the earth.
And when you feel ready,
You can see if you can bring the mountain into your own body sitting here,
So that your body and the mountain in your mind's eye become one.
You can share in its stillness and majesty.
You become the mountain.
Grounded in the sitting posture,
Your head becomes the peak,
Your shoulders and arms the sides of the mountain,
Your bottom and legs the solid base rooted in your cushion or chair,
Experiencing in your body a sense of uplift.
With each breath,
See if you can become a little more of a breathing mountain,
Alive and vital,
Yet unwavering in your stillness,
A centered,
Grounded,
Unmoving presence.
As the mountain sits,
You can notice how night follows day and day follows night,
How the bright warm sun is followed by the cool night sky.
Through it all,
The mountain just sits.
The world might change around it,
But it is constant,
Always just being itself.
You might notice as the seasons flow from one to another,
And through it,
The mountain just sits.
You might notice the weather moving and changing around the mountain.
It might rain or snow,
It might be blue skies or thunder and lightning,
Yet through it all,
Moment by moment,
Day by day,
The mountain just sits.
It may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings,
Our preoccupations,
Our emotional storms,
Even the things that happened around us,
Are all very much like the weather on the mountain,
Temporary,
Moving,
But the mountain stays rooted.
We might take the events of our life personally or seriously,
But we can always remember to return to our mountain,
Knowing that the weather of our lives is not to be ignored or denied,
It is to be encountered,
Honored,
Felt,
And known for what it is,
And held in awareness.
The mountain does not fear the darkness of night or heavy rainfall,
And in holding it in this way,
We can come to know a deeper silence,
A deeper stillness,
And deeper wisdom.
The mountains have much to teach us.
See if you can resonate with the mountain's strength and stability.
Know that you can always bring to mind and embody this mountain energy,
This stillness and constancy amidst all the chaos in our minds and in our lives.
We can remain unmoved,
Moved,
Stable,
Grounded.
For the next minute,
See if you can just enjoy being a mountain,
Moment by moment.
Know that you can always return to the rooted wisdom of this mountain.
In a moment,
As our meditation comes to a close,
I will ring the bell,
And as I do,
You can wiggle your fingers and toes,
Come back into your body,
Into this moment,
Into your life,
And when you're ready,
You can open your eyes.
You
