Strength Practice

This practice is designed for you to embody your strength, calm the mind and relax the body. Strengths are your best charcteristics and help you be resilient. Staying close to the things you're good gives you courage and resilience. I hope this meditation helps you be strong.

Transcript

This meditation is normally done in the sitting position,

Either on the floor or chair,

And begins by gently sensing into the support you have from the chair or cushion,

Paying attention to the actual sensations of contact,

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,

Arms hanging by their own weight like heavy curtains,

Stable and relaxed,

Actually sensing into the support you have from the chair or cushion,

Feeling your feet,

Legs,

Hips,

Lower and upper body,

Arms,

Shoulders,

Neck and head.

And when you're ready,

Just allowing the eyes to close,

Bringing the awareness to the breath and the actual physical sensations,

Feeling each breath as it comes in and goes out,

Letting the breath just be as it is without trying to change or regulate in any way,

Allowing it to flow easily and naturally with its own rhythm and pace,

Knowing you are ready to take the breath in and out,

Knowing you are breathing perfectly well right now and nothing for you to do,

Nothing to change and nothing to fix,

Allowing the body to be still,

Sitting with a sense of dignity,

A sense of resolve,

A sense of being complete,

Whole in this very moment with your posture reflecting this sense of wholeness.

And as you sit here,

Letting an image form in your mind's eye of the most magnificent and beautifully strong mountain,

You may have seen it or you can imagine it,

Letting it gradually come into greater focus.

And even if it is a little bit too much,

You can still feel it,

And you can feel it,

And you can feel it,

And you can feel it,

And you can feel it,

And you can feel it,

And you can feel it,

And you can feel it,

And you can feel it,

And you can feel it,

Letting it gradually come into greater focus,

And even if it doesn't come as a visual image,

Allowing this sense of the mountain and feeling its overall shape,

A space rooted in the bedrock of the earth's crust,

Its steep or gently sloping sides,

Noticing how massive it is,

How solid,

How unmoving,

And how beautiful,

Whether from afar or up close.

Perhaps your mountain has snow blanketing its tops and trees reaching down to the base,

Or rugged granite sides.

There might be streams and waterfalls cascading down the slopes.

There may be one peak or a series of peaks,

Or with meadows and high skies.

Lakes and streams,

Just observing it and noticing its qualities,

And when you feel ready,

Seeing if you can bring the mountain into your own body,

And when you feel ready,

Seeing if you can bring the mountain into your own body,

Sitting here so that your body and the mountain in your mind's eye become one,

So that as you sit here,

You share in this massiveness and stillness and the majesty of the mountain,

And you become the mountain.

Grounded in this sitting posture,

Your head becomes the lofty peaks,

Supported by the rest of the body and affording a panoramic view.

Your shoulders are the of the body,

And your head becomes the lofty peaks,

Supported by the rest of the body and affording a panoramic view.

Panoramic view,

Your shoulders and arms and sides of the body,

Your buttocks and legs the solid base,

Rooted to your cushion or chair,

Experiencing in your body a sense of uplift from the deep within your pelvis and spine.

With each breath as you continue sitting becoming a little more a breathing mountain,

Alive and vital yet unwavering in your inner stillness.

Completely what you are,

Beyond words and thoughts,

A centered,

Grounded,

Unmoving presence.

As the mountain sits seeing and feeling how night follows day and day follows night,

The bright sun followed by the cool night sky,

Studded with stars and the gradual dawning of a new day.

Through it all the mountain just sits,

Experiencing change in each moment,

Constantly changing,

Yet always just being itself.

It remains still as the season flows into one another and the weather changes moment by moment,

Day by day,

Calmness abiding all change.

In the summer there is no snow on the mountain except perhaps for the very peaks or in the crags shielded from the direct sunlight.

In the fall the mountain may wear a coat of brilliant fire colors,

In winter a blanket of snow and ice.

In any season it may find itself enshrouded 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,

That it's too cloudy or rainy,

Foggy or dark.

None of this matters to the mountain,

Which remains at times its essential self.

Clouds may come and go,

Tourists may like it or not,

The mountain's magnificent and beauty are not changed by one bit,

By whether people see it or not.

Seen or unseen in the sun or clouds,

Broiling or frigid,

Day or night.

At times visited by violent storms,

Buffeted by snow and rain and winds of unthinkable magnitude,

Through it all the mountain sits.

Spring comes,

Trees leaf out,

Flowers bloom in the high meadows and slopes,

Birds sing in the trees once again,

Storms overflow with waters of melting snow.

Through it all the mountain continues to sit,

Unmoved by the weather,

By what happens on the surface,

By the world of appearances,

Remaining its essential self through the seasons.

The changing weather,

The activity ebbing and flowing on its surface.

In the same way we sit in meditation,

We can learn to experience the mountain,

We can embody the same central unwavering stillness and groundedness in the face of everything that changes in our own lives,

Over seconds,

Over hours,

Days and years.

In our lives and in our meditation practice we experience constantly the changing nature of mind and body and of the outer world.

We have our own periods of light and darkness,

Activity and inactivity,

Our moments of colour 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 the high winds,

By cold and rain,

We endure periods of darkness and pain.

As well as moments of joy and uplift,

Even our appearance changes constantly,

Experiencing a weather of its own.

By becoming the mountain in our meditation practice we can lift up with its strength and its stability and adopt them for our very own.

We can use its energies to support our energy and 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 on the mountain.

We tend to take it all personally,

But its strongest characteristics is impersonal.

The weather of our own lives is not to be ignored or denied,

It's to be encountered,

Honoured,

Felt,

Known for what it is and held 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.

So if you find yourself resonating 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 meditation practice to remind yourself what it means to sit mindfully with resolve and with wakefulness,

Its true stillness.

So in the time that remains,

Continue to sustain the mountain meditation of your own,

In silence,

Moment by moment,

Until you hear the sound of the bell.

Reviews

It us a great meditation but no beep at the end of the non-guided section

💖💖💖💖💖

Really great, but I never heard the bell at the end lol

Thank you

Thank you for today’s strength

A simple voice only visualisation, I can really identify with the concept of mountain - everything comes and goes regardless… I sat in silence with eyes closed for several minutes afterwards (not sure if there was a “joke” at the end) 😉 Thank you for sharing! 😊

What wonderful imagery with a powerful connection to how we can be like the mountain...steadfast, immovable, still, confident in who we are - our essential self. Thank you 🙏🏽

Great mountain visualization!

Excellent take on classic mountain meditation 🙏

A very well guided and solid meditation. Thank you 🙏

Deeply resonated. Thank you.

Thank you 🙏 sending gratitude 🙏

This one really resonated. Thank you for the lovely analogy of the mountain and a meditation filled with resolve and courage.

Wonderful mountain meditation, thank you

Really really enjoyed it! Becoming a mountain and watching the seasons pass in front of me made me realise how life is always changing and that I'm going to be ok. Much needed feeling for my soul! Thank you 🙏🏽

This was perfect for grounding myself when traveling. Highly recommend it if your on the way. Thank you 🙏🏻 Namaste.