Hello and welcome.
This is Julia for Dahl and this meditation is to help you find equanimity and stability.
Please set up a comfortable seat and begin to settle into your body.
It would be ideal to sit in a classic meditation position,
Upright with your legs folded,
But if that's not possible,
It's perfectly fine to sit in whatever way you need to sit in order to be comfortable.
And then when you're ready,
Close your eyes and bathe your eyes in that beautiful,
Velvety darkness.
Sit with a clear,
Straight spine with the head at the peak of the mountain body and a solid base.
Let your shoulders relax down.
Relax your hands.
Bring your attention to the flow of breath,
A running stream of breath.
Feel each in-breath coming in through the nostrils and each out-breath.
And just feel the breath without trying to change it or regulate it in any way.
Let the body be still.
And let there be both weight to your presence,
A grounding weight to your presence,
And at the same time a vastness and spaciousness to your being.
Let the base of your seat connect you to the earth and your center of gravity be the center of your being.
In that infinite blackness in front of your forehead,
Begin to picture a great mountain.
Just let the image of a great mountain begin to appear there.
Let it gradually come into focus,
This great mountain,
The lofty peak,
Its steep or gently sloping sides,
The large base that begins in the very bedrock of the earth's crust.
And feel how solid it is,
How it is both solid and wondrous at the same time.
And just sit with the image and presence of this mountain.
And begin to feel its presence mirrored within you,
Its dignity and completeness.
Bring the presence of the mountain within.
Mirror this mountain,
The presence,
The stillness,
The majesty.
Become the mountain,
Its triangular shape mirrored in your shape here,
Your head its lofty peak,
Your shoulders and arms the sides of the mountain,
Your seat its solid base,
Your breath the breeze that surrounds the mountain.
Imagine earth's mountains breathe just as you breathe.
Bring the massiveness and the stillness of this great mountain inside the majesty,
The sense of uplift from the base of the pelvis all the way through the spine.
Perhaps your mountain has snow on its peaks or trees growing up its sides.
Maybe there are streams or waterfalls cascading down the slopes or maybe it's all rugged granite or red rock.
Whatever it looks like,
Notice how steady and gracious is the presence of the mountain.
And bring that inside as well as you become the mountain.
With each breath as you continue sitting become more and more a breathing mountain alive and vital yet unwavering in your inner stillness.
Completely what you are beyond words and thought,
A centered,
Grounded,
Timeless,
Steady presence.
As you sit here,
Become aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky,
The light and shadows and colors that fall upon the mountain change moment by moment.
Its surface teems with life and activity,
Streams,
Melting snow,
Waterfalls,
Plants,
Wildlife.
The bright warming sun followed always by the cool night sky speckled with stars.
The mountain experiences the change in each moment and yet remains dignified and steady.
As the seasons change,
The mountain might find itself enshrouded in clouds or fog or pelted by freezing rain.
But none of this matters to the mountain,
Which remains at all times its essential self.
Clouds may come and clouds may go.
Tourists may like it or not.
The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by whether people like it or not.
Whether it's in the sun or the clouds,
Broiling or frigid,
Whether it's day or night.
Through it all,
The mountain sits unmoved by the weather,
By what happens on its surface,
By the world of appearances.
It remains its essential self.
The things that happen to us are like the weather on the mountain.
Everything changes day and night,
Gains and losses,
Times of health and sickness,
Breath coming in and going out,
Seasons turning,
Joys and sorrows,
People coming and going in our lives.
All things rise and fall away,
All things.
And you exist at the center of it all,
Like this mountain,
Steady in the wise and eternal heart of the mountain,
Gracious and dignified amidst it all,
Never grasping,
Just present to life,
Allowing the rising and passing of all things with equanimity and with grace.
Allowing the successes and the difficulties,
The joys and the losses,
Knowing none of them last forever.
Take these ideas and this imagery into your life.
Learn from the mountain.
Embody its unwavering stillness,
Its long view,
Its timeless majesty and dignity.
We will all experience storms of varying intensity in the outer world and in our own minds and bodies.
We will experience high winds,
Cold and rain.
We will endure periods of darkness and pain,
As well as moments of joy and the sun breaking through the clouds.
Even the surface of our appearance changes constantly like the mountains.
By internalizing these qualities of a mountain,
We can embody its strength and stability as our own.
We can mirror its timelessness and find the wiser,
Long view in our lives.
And the idea is not to ignore or deny the weather of our own lives,
But rather to allow ourselves to be encountered,
To hold the experiences that come to us in awareness and equanimity,
And in holding them this way,
In bringing ourselves to a deeper silence and stillness.
We can respond with wisdom.
So for a few more minutes,
Let yourself remain here as the mountain.
Sit with a sense of inner strength and dignity.
Be still.
Be majestic.
Be natural and at ease in your self-awareness.
No matter how many winds are blowing,
No matter how many clouds are swirling,
No matter how many lions are prowling,
Be intimate with all things and sit like a mountain,
In silence,
Under the infinite sky.
There will be a gentle closing bell after three minutes of silent meditation as a mountain.
Be still.
Be majestic.
Be at peace.
Be at peace.
Be at peace.
Be at peace.
Be at peace.
Be at peace.
