Welcome to the Mountain Meditation.
Get yourself into a comfortable sitting position,
Whether it's on the floor or in a chair,
And begin to feel the actual sensations of contact,
The support that that chair or the floor is providing.
Ensure to find a position of stability.
Your upper body is balanced over your hips and shoulders in a comfortable but alert position.
Hands on your lap or your knees,
Your arms hanging by their own weight,
Stable but relaxed.
Actually sensing the sensation into your body,
Feeling your feet,
Legs,
Then hips,
Your lower and upper body,
Arms,
Shoulders,
Neck and head.
And when you're ready,
You can close your eyes and bring some awareness to your breath.
Feeling the physical sensations of each breath as it comes in and goes out.
Letting the breath be just as it is without trying to change it or regulate it.
Just allow it to flow easily and naturally at its own rhythm and pace.
Know that you are breathing perfectly well and there's nothing for you to do.
Allow your body to be still and sitting with a sense of dignity,
A sense of resolve,
Of being complete and whole in this very moment with your posture reflecting this sense of wholeness.
And now bring to mind the most magnificent or beautiful mountain you have ever known,
Seen or even imagined.
Let it gradually come into greater focus.
And if a visual image doesn't come,
Just allow the sense of this mountain come to you.
Sense its overall shape,
Its lofty peak,
The large bays rooted in the bedrock,
Its steep or maybe its gentle sloping sides.
Noticing how massive it is,
How solid and unmoving but yet how beautiful it is.
Whether you're viewing it from far away or up close.
Maybe your mountain has snow that blankets its tops.
There might be streams and waterfalls that cascade down its slopes.
There may be one peak or a series of peaks.
Take note of its qualities and when you're ready see if you can bring the mountain into your own body sitting here so that your body and the mountain become one.
You share in the massiveness and the stillness.
You become the mountain.
Your head becomes the lofty peak supported by the rest of your body and affording that panoramic view.
Your shoulders and arms are the side of the mountain.
Your bottom and legs are the solid base rooted to the cushion or your chair.
You experience in your body a sense of uplift from deep within your pelvis and spine.
With each breath you become a little more a breathing mountain.
Alive and vital yet unwavering in your inner stillness.
Completely what you are beyond words and thought.
You are a centered,
Grounded,
Unmoving presence.
And as you sit you become aware of the fact that as the Sun travels across the sky the light and shadows and colors are changing virtually moment by moment.
Even in the mountain stillness the surface is teeming with life and activity.
The streams,
Melting snow,
Waterfalls,
Plants and wildlife.
As you as the mountain sits you see and feel how night follows a day and day follows night.
As the new day is dawning the bright warming Sun is followed by the cool night sky studded with stars.
And through it all the mountain just sits experiencing change in each moment.
Constantly changing yet always being itself.
It remains as the seasons flow into one another and as the weather changes moment by moment,
Day by day,
Calmness abiding all change.
In the summer there isn't any snow on the mountain except for maybe the very high peaks.
In the fall the mountain may wear a coat of brilliant fire colors.
In the winter it's blanketed by snow and ice.
Yet in any season it may find itself at times enshrouded in clouds or fog,
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 or rainy or foggy or dark.
But none of this matters to the mountain.
It remains at all times its essential self.
Clouds come and go.
Tourists may like it or may not.
The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by whether people see it or not.
It just sits being itself.
There'll be violent storms.
There'll be snow and rain and winds.
Through it all the mountain sits.
Spring comes and trees will develop its leaves and flowers will bloom.
Birds will sing in the trees once again.
Streams overflow with the waters of melting snow.
And through it all the mountain continues to sit,
Unmoved by the weather or by what happens on the surface.
It remains its essential self through all the seasons,
The changing weather,
The activity ebbing and flowing on its surface.
In this same way as we sit in meditation we can learn to experience the mountain.
We can learn to embody the same central unwavering stillness and groundedness in the face of everything that changes in our lives over seconds,
Over hours or over the years.
In our lives and in our practice we constantly experience that changing nature of our mind and body and of the outer world.
We have our own periods of light and dark,
Activity and inactivity,
Our moments of color and our moments of drabness.
It's true that we experience storms of varying intensity and violence in the outer world and in our own minds and bodies,
Buffeted by high winds,
By cold and rain.
We endure.
We endure periods of darkness and pain as well as the moments of joy and uplift.
Even our appearance is constantly changing,
Experiencing a weather of its own.
By becoming the mountain in our meditation practice we can link up with its strength and stability and adopt them as our own.
We can use its energies to support our energy to encounter each moment with mindfulness and equanimity and clarity.
It may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings,
Our preoccupations,
Our emotional storms and crises,
Even the things that happen to us are very much like the weather.
We tend to take it all personally but its strongest characteristic is impersonal.
The weather of our own lives is not to be ignored or denied.
It is to be encountered.
It is to be honored,
Felt and known for what it is and hold it in awareness.
And in holding it in this way we come to know a deeper silence and stillness and wisdom.
Mountains have this to teach us and much more if we can let it in.
If you find that you resonate in some way with the strength and stability of the mountain in your sitting,
It may be helpful to use it from time to time in your practice to remind you of what it means to sit mindfully with resolve and with wakefulness in true stillness.
For the time that remains continue to sustain the mountain meditation on your own moment by moment.
Continuing to feel the strength and stability of the mountain.
Use the energy of the mountain to support your own energy.
Remembering that your thoughts and feelings are like the weather on the mountain,
Not to be taken personally.
Experience change in each moment and yet remaining calm and stable through it all.
Remain your essential self regardless of the clouds that may come and may go.
The weather of your life is not to be ignored,
It is to be encountered and held in awareness.
Experience the stillness,
Strength and wisdom of the mountain.
It's time now to gently transition from this meditation.
You can begin with gently moving your body,
Opening your eyes to gaze about the room.
And as you move through your day,
You can remember the strength and wisdom of the mountain.
Namaste.
