We're really finding a position of stability and poise.
The upper body balanced over your hips and shoulders.
In a comfortable but alert posture.
Hands on your lap or on your knees.
The arms just hanging by their own weight.
Be a little bit like heavy curtains.
But stable and relaxed.
Just sensing into your body now.
Feelings in your feet.
Your legs.
Your hips.
Lower and upper body.
The arms.
The shoulders.
The neck and the head.
And bringing the attention to the breath.
Not changing the breath in any way.
The body knows how to breathe.
Just noticing the breath's rhythm and pace.
And just knowing that you're breathing perfectly well.
Nothing more for you to do.
Just allowing the body to be still and sitting with a sense of dignity.
A sense of resolve.
A sense of being complete.
Whole in this very moment.
And your posture reflecting this sense of wholeness.
And as you sit here now,
Just letting an image form in your mind's eye.
Of the most magnificent or beautiful mountain.
You know,
Or perhaps you've seen,
Or perhaps you can imagine.
Just letting it come gradually into greater focus.
And if it doesn't come as a visual image,
Feel free to just invoke the sense of a mountain.
So feeling into its overall shape.
Its lofty peak or peaks high in the sky.
And the large base rooted in the bedrock of the earth.
Notice how massive it is.
How solid.
How unmoving.
Perhaps your mountain has snow on the top.
Trees along its side.
Maybe streams and lakes.
Maybe a single peak or a series of peaks.
Just exploring as best you can with your mind's eye.
And now seeing if it's possible to bring the mountain into your own body.
Sitting here.
So that your body and the mountain in your mind's eye become one and the same.
You share in its massiveness.
And its stillness.
You become the mountain.
So grounded in this sitting posture.
Your head becomes the lofty peak.
Your shoulders and arms become the side of the mountain.
Your buttocks and legs the solid base.
Rooted to your cushion or your chair.
Maybe experiencing your body a sense of uplift deep within your pelvis,
Spine.
And with each breath you continue sitting.
You become a little more of a breathing mountain.
Alive and vital.
But unwavering in your inner stillness.
Completely what you are.
Beyond words and thought.
A centred,
Grounded,
Unmoving presence.
And as you sit here,
Becoming aware of the fact that the sun travels across the sky.
The light and shadow and colours are changing virtually moment by moment on the mountain's surface.
And the surface of the mountain teems with life.
Streams,
Melting snow,
Waterfalls,
Plants and wildlife.
And as the mountain sits,
Noticing that night follows day and day follows night.
The bright,
Warming sun followed by the cool night sky studded with stars.
And then the gradual dawning of a new day.
Through it all the mountain just sits.
Experiencing change in every moment.
Constantly changing.
Yet always just being itself.
Weather on the mountain changes with the seasons.
Snow in winter.
Bright heat in summer.
Ferocious winds.
Extreme cold.
Gentle warmth and sunlight.
Through it all the mountain just sits.
Just being itself.
The mountain is unmoved by the weather.
By what happens on its surface.
By the world of appearances.
Rooted in the bedrock of the earth.
Entirely itself.
Maybe noticing now the arrival of spring.
Trees leafing out on the mountain.
Flowers blooming in the high meadows.
Streams overflowing with melting snow.
Through it all the mountain just sits.
Just noticing your own weather patterns on your mountain.
Things arising and passing away.
Changing.
The pleasant and the unpleasant.
Rising and passing away.
Through it all the mountain just sits.
Unchanging.
When you're ready now,
Imagining the image of the mountain.
Separating from the body.
Just returning your attention to the breathing.
The entirety of the body as it sits here and breathes.
Maybe noticing any mountain like qualities.
That are still showing up for you.
Maybe noticing your own weather patterns.
Just becoming aware of whatever is here for you.
As we come to an end of this practice.
Thoughts.
Emotions or moods.
Maybe noticing them and labelling them.
Not trying to change them.
Just as best as you can allowing them to be here.
Now gathering your attention to an anchor point or the breath.
Zooming in to the details of this anchoring point.
And then finally expanding your awareness.
To the entirety of the body.
Seeing if it's possible to approach whatever is here with a kind and gentle openness.
An openness to the pleasant.
Perhaps savouring the pleasant.
Noticing the unpleasant.
Noticing it's already here.
Maybe placing a hand on the heart if that feels right for you.
Just extending a kind and friendly awareness to yourself.
The kindness is already here.
Dealing with whatever is here for you right now.
A gentle open acceptance to all your experience.
Knowing that you don't have to like what's here.
As much as you're able to just sitting with it.
Allowing it to be.
As we bring this practice to a close.
Just returning the attention to the body in the seat.
