The mountain meditation.
So settling into a comfortable position with your spine straight but relaxed,
Your head balanced on your neck,
With maybe your chin tucked in a little to bring your head in alignment with your spine.
If you're sitting on a chair maybe moving your bottom a little away from the back of the seat so that your spine is self-supporting with your feet placed firmly on the floor,
Taking a strong and assertive posture.
Whatever position you're in,
As this is a visualization exercise,
You might find allowing the eyes to close works for you if that's comfortable.
Let your attention settle on the sensations of your breath as it naturally comes in and down the body.
Just observing the body as it breathes.
Sitting with a sense of completeness and your posture reflecting this.
And when you're ready bring to mind the image of a mountain.
Picturing the most beautiful mountain that you can imagine and focusing on that image or even just the sense or feeling of a mountain in your mind's eye.
Allowing it to come clearly into view.
Getting a feeling for the shape of the mountain.
Its lofty peak or peaks reaching to the sky and its large base rooted in the earth.
The sides steep or sloping gently.
Noticing how the mountain is for you.
But how massive and solid it is.
How unmoving and grounded.
And how beautiful from close up or from afar.
Sensing the particularities of its unique shape.
Your mountain may have snow at the top or trees on the lower slopes.
Perhaps it has one prominent peak.
Or maybe a series of peaks.
However it appears to you.
Just sitting and breathing with the image of a mountain.
Observing its quality and its beauty.
And when you're ready,
Just seeing if you can playfully bring the mountain into your own body.
So that the image of the mountain is merged with the image of you sitting here in your mind's eye.
And you and the mountain become one.
And you and the mountain become one.
And you and the mountain become one.
As you sit here,
You become the mountain.
Your head the lofty peak.
Your shoulders and arms the sides of the mountain.
Your buttocks and legs the solid base rooted to your cushion or chair.
Your shoulders and arms the sides of the mountain.
Your legs the solid base rooted to your cushion or chair.
Experiencing in your body a sense of uplift from the base.
All the way up to the peaks.
And with each breath becoming ever more a living,
Breathing mountain.
Unwavering in your stillness.
Completely what you are beyond words and thought.
A centred,
Unmoving,
Rooted presence.
And just as the sun travels each day across the sky,
The light,
Shadows and colours constantly change moment to moment.
As the environment moves,
The colours and shadows change.
The mountain just sits in stillness.
As day and night flow into each other.
As the sun and moon pass across the sky.
The mountain remains unmoved.
As the seasons flow into each other.
Spring turns into summer.
Summer turns into autumn.
And autumn turns into winter.
As the weather changes moment by moment,
Day by day.
This calm abiding in the mountain stays the same.
In the summer there may be no snow at all on the mountain or just on the peaks.
The mountain side baked in the summer heat.
In the autumn the mountain may be coloured in a brilliant show of reds and oranges.
Its rivers swollen with autumnal rain.
And in the winter a blanket of snow may cover the whole mountain.
But whether the mountain be covered by clouds,
Baked in the sun or frozen with ice,
The mountain just sits solid and unwavering.
At times violent storms may blow up,
Snow or hail,
Heavy rain battering the mountain,
Thunder and lightning and harsh winds.
But all through this the mountain just sits,
Seen or unseen.
Day or night,
Sun or storm.
Whatever happens on the surface of the mountain,
The solidity of the mountain itself is unmoved.
All these things come and go and the mountain remains with all it is.
The peaks may be lost in fog at times,
But the mountain itself remains solid.
And people may come from far or near to see the mountain.
Some admire the beauty of its amazing majesty.
Some see it simply as an ugly obstacle.
But it's all the same to the mountain.
It has no opinions of the people visiting it.
And as we sit,
Holding this image of the mountain in our mind,
We can embody the same unwavering stillness and rootedness in the face of everything that changes.
Over the hours and days,
Even the moment to moment of our meditation could be battered by the storms of our memories and minds.
We can sit still in the middle of it all,
Experiencing the constant changing of our mind and body,
The constant changing of the world around us.
Sometimes we experience light,
Sometimes dark.
Sometimes we experience the storms of our own life,
Sometimes violent storms.
But we can endure no matter how dark or stormy it gets.
We can sit in the middle of it all,
Strong,
Unwavering like a mountain,
Just watching the weather blow by,
Connecting with the strength of the mountain,
Allowing its qualities to sink into us deeply,
Supporting our efforts to encounter each moment with a compassionate awareness,
With clear,
Radiant mindfulness.
We can see our thoughts,
Feelings,
Conceptions and emotions are just storms that blow over.
All these things,
Like so much weather,
We don't need to take it personally.
It's just blowing on by.
And as we come to know a deeper silence,
We enter a wisdom of stillness,
A sense that we may never have even thought possible right here in the centre of the mountain of our meditation.
As this meditation comes to a close,
Allowing this image to sink deeply into us,
So that we can embody the strength,
The rootedness,
The peace and majesty of a mountain.
