This is the Mountain Meditation.
Find yourself a comfortable position with your back straight.
You may choose to sit in a chair,
On the floor or a cushion.
You may want to stand or lie down on your back.
Find whatever position is most comfortable for you.
As you take your position,
Have your spine straight.
Take a few deep breaths.
Breathe in,
Breathe out and let your body settle.
Let the weight of your arms and legs hang from your bones like clothes on a hanger.
Settle into your posture.
You might think of your mind like the wide open blue sky.
Clouds come and go.
Sometimes they stay,
But the clouds are not the sky.
In this same way,
Thoughts come and go,
But they are not your mind and they are not you.
Continue to breathe in and out at a comfortable pace.
And as you feel your stillness,
Try thinking of a mountain.
It may be one you visited or seen in photographs or one you imagined.
Just get a very clear image of the mountain in your mind.
See how still the mountain is,
Rooted in the earth.
Above the mountain,
There are clouds in the sky.
They may be big fluffy cumulus clouds or high wispy cirrus clouds or even towering thunderheads.
But none of that matters to the mountain.
It just sits.
Sometimes the clouds dissipate with the sun.
Sometimes the cloud drifts away on the wind or it may hang like fog across the peak of the mountain.
But the mountain is still.
The mountain has seen many clouds,
Seen them come,
And eventually they all pass and leave the mountain and the blue sky.
Trees and plants grow on the mountain and animals make their home there.
These things come and go,
Each in their season.
But the mountain is still.
Seasons change.
Spring brings torrential downpours which run down the side of the mountain and trees and plants come into flower and bud and leaf out.
And the mountain is still.
Summer's heat comes,
Bringing thunderstorms and lightning strikes the mountain.
But still,
The mountain observes and the storms pass.
In fall,
The trees change again to brilliant colors and animals prepare for winter.
The mountain doesn't prepare.
It merely sits and observes.
Winter brings snow that covers the mountain.
Animals are in their lair.
Trees are bare.
And suddenly,
The rest of the world is as quiet and still as the mountain.
And the mountain is one with the stillness.
The mountain observes all of it,
But it remains still and unchanged.
The mountain also senses that not far away there are other mountains,
Long chains of mountains,
All rooted to the earth.
And though they are apart,
They are also together.
The mountain is both alone and in community.
Our mind is like the mountain and the clouds are thoughts that come and go.
And the changing seasons are moods,
Are temperament,
But the mind can be still.
Our minds can be like the mountain.
They can observe the thoughts as they come and go and still remain unchanged.
Now try and sit and feel the mountain within you,
The base of the mountain where you are connected to the ground,
Your head,
The peak of the mountain in the blue sky.
Feel the wisdom and the stillness of the mountain.
Remember,
You can return to that stillness with your breath at any time.
Now take a deep breath in and exhale and feel yourself returning to your space.
