This meditation is normally done in a sitting position,
Either on the floor or a chair.
It begins by sensing into the support you have from the chair or the floor,
Paying attention to the actual sensations of contact.
Find a position of stability,
Upper body balanced over your hips and shoulders in a comfortable but alert posture,
Hands on your lap or your knees,
Arms hanging by their own weight stable and relaxed.
When you're ready,
Inviting the eyes to close or keeping them open in a soft gaze at a point in front,
Bringing awareness to the breath,
Feeling the breath as it comes in and feeling the breath as it goes out,
Not trying to change or regulate the breath in any way,
Allowing it to flow easily and naturally with its own rhythm and pace.
Knowing you are breathing perfectly well right now,
Nothing for you to do.
If the mind wanders,
As minds do,
Bringing it back to the breath,
Allowing the body to be still and bringing a sense of resolve,
Of wholeness to this moment.
Perhaps the posture can reflect this sense of wholeness.
As you sit,
Bringing an image into your mind's eye of the most magnificent or beautiful mountain you have ever seen or that you can imagine.
Inviting it gradually to come into greater focus.
It is not necessary for it to be a visual image,
Perhaps it's the sense of the mountain and its shape.
The lofty peak or peaks high in the sky,
The large rooted base.
Noticing whether the sides are steep or gently sloping.
Noticing how massive it is,
How solid,
How beautiful.
This can be from far or up close.
Perhaps the mountain has snow blanketing its top and trees reaching down to the base.
Perhaps the mountain has rugged granite sides.
There may be one peak or many peaks.
There may be streams and waterfalls cascading down.
Perhaps meadows or lakes.
Observing this mountain,
Noting its qualities and when you feel ready,
Seeing if you can bring this mountain into your own body sitting here.
Your body and the mountain and your mind's eye become one.
Sharing in the massiveness,
The stillness and the majesty of the mountain.
Becoming the mountain.
Grounded in the sitting posture,
Your head becomes the lofty peak supported by the rest of the body.
Your shoulders and arms the sides of the mountain.
Your lower body the solid base rooted to the floor or the chair.
Experiencing in the body a sense of uplift from deep within your pelvis.
With each breath as you sit,
Becoming a little more a breathing mountain,
Alive yet unwavering in your stillness.
Complete in what you are.
Beyond words,
Beyond thought.
A centered,
Grounded,
Unmoving presence.
While sitting,
Becoming aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky,
The light,
Shadows,
Colors change virtually moment by moment in the mountain's stillness.
The surface teems with life and activity.
Streams,
Melting snow,
Plants,
Waterfalls,
Wildlife.
As the mountain sits,
Seeing and feeling how night follows day and day follows night.
The bright warming sun followed by the cool night sky studded with stars and the gradual dawning of a new day.
Through everything the mountain sits,
Experiencing change in each moment.
Change is constant,
Yet the mountain is always being itself.
It remains still as the seasons flow into each other,
The weather changing moment by moment,
Day by day.
Calmness through the change.
The summer comes,
There is no snow on the mountain,
Except perhaps on the very peaks.
The fall arrives,
The mountain may wear a coat of brilliant colors.
Now the winter,
A blanket of snow and ice.
At any time,
The mountain may find itself covered in clouds or fog,
Or pelted by freezing rain.
People may come to see the mountain and comment on how beautiful it is,
Or how it's not a good day to see the mountain.
It's too cloudy,
Too rainy,
Too foggy,
Too dark.
None of this matters to the mountain,
Which remains itself at all times.
Clouds come,
Clouds go.
The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed,
Whether people see it or not,
Whether they're sun or clouds,
Whatever the weather,
Day or night.
It just sits,
Being itself.
At times,
The mountain experiences violent storms,
Blanketed by snow,
Rain,
And winds of unthinkable magnitude.
Through it all,
The mountain sits.
Spring comes,
Trees grow leaves again,
Flowers bloom in the meadows,
Birds perhaps sing,
Streams overflow with the waters of the melting snow.
Through it all,
The mountain sits,
Unmoved.
Unmoved by what happens on the surface,
The world of appearance,
Remaining its essential self,
Through the seasons,
Through the changing weather,
Through the activity ebbing and flowing on the surface.
In this way,
As sitting in meditation,
We can experience the mountain,
Embodying that same unwavering stillness and groundedness,
In the face of everything that changes in our lives,
In seconds,
Hours,
Over years.
In daily life and in our meditation practices,
We experience it constantly,
The changing nature of the mind,
The body,
And the outer world.
We have our periods of light and darkness,
Activity,
Inactivity,
Moments of color,
Moments of drab.
We may experience storms of varying intensity and violence in the outer world,
In our mind,
And in our body.
Experiencing high winds,
Cold rain,
We endure periods of darkness and pain,
And moments of joy and uplift.
Changing constantly,
Our appearance experiences a weather of its own.
By becoming the mountain,
We can link to its strength and stability,
And perhaps take these qualities in as our own.
We can use this energy to support ourselves,
To encounter each moment with mindfulness and balance and clarity.
This stability can help us see our thoughts,
Our feelings,
Our preoccupations,
Our emotional storms.
The things that happen to us are very much like the weather on the mountain.
Constantly changing.
The weather is not to be ignored or denied,
It is to be encountered,
Honored,
Felt,
Held in awareness.
And holding our experiencing,
Our awareness this way,
We come to know a deeper silence,
And stillness,
And wisdom.
If you resonate with the strength and stability of the mountain in this practice,
It can be helpful to bring it from time to time.
In your meditation,
To remind you of what it means to sit mindfully,
And wakefulness,
And true stillness.
In the time that remains,
Continuing this practice in silence,
Moment by moment,
Until you hear the sound of the bells.
