Take a moment to choose your seat consciously.
You might want to sit on a chair or cross legged,
But whatever position you choose,
Make sure that your back is long and supported,
And that you can sustain this seat for the next 20 to 25 minutes.
You might even want to shift the weight back and forth a few times on your sitting bones,
Until you find that position where your spine stacks up naturally.
Your seated center of gravity.
Notice the contact between your seat and whatever support you are sitting on.
Feel your feet on the floor or your shins on the floor.
Let the earth support you in this meditation.
Invite a sense of physical and inner stillness.
Of course we don't want to cause any discomfort.
So if you feel the need to move during this meditation,
You are most welcome to do so.
But as much as possible,
See if you can stay still.
Physical stillness can be very supportive of inner stillness.
Let the arms be rested on your thighs or by your side,
Palms facing up or down.
Allow the shoulders to drop down.
If you haven't already,
Allow the eyes to close or simply drop the gaze down.
Become aware of your breath.
Notice the gentle rise and fall of your chest and belly.
Notice its steady pace,
Its ongoing rhythm happening all by itself.
If you are someone visual,
You might even visualize the breath going in through the nose and down through your spine and with every exhalation all the way down into your seat to the center of the earth.
Allow you to ground down even deeper.
I invite you to bring into your awareness the image of a beautiful mountain.
Maybe it's a mountain that you know very well and you can bring it from your memories.
Maybe it's one that you've never seen before,
That doesn't even exist.
Fresh out of your imagination.
And if you happen to be not so visual,
That's very much okay,
We're all different.
Then I invite you to think of a mountain instead.
Or even hear the sounds of a mountain.
Smell the fresh air of it.
Feel the feet on the ground of the mountain.
Whatever helps you to transport yourself to this beautiful mountain.
Take a moment to contemplate this mountain in your mind's eye.
Notice its shape,
Its solid and wide base,
The majestic peak in the sky,
Maybe it has a number of peaks.
Notice its slopes,
Gentle or steep.
Notice how massive it is,
How steady,
How unmoving and silent.
Now,
Take a closer and more detailed look at this mountain.
Get a more sensitive feel for it.
You may notice snow blankets at the peak,
Or maybe granite rocks.
You may notice streams and waterfalls,
Beautiful lakes.
Your attention may even become so attuned that you may be able to notice wildlife,
Hear the birds singing,
Or the trees dancing in the wind.
You might be able to smell the fresh air with every inhale.
Allow your attention to expand and broaden out once more.
And just become aware of the mountain as a whole again.
And I wonder what it would be like to embody this mountain completely,
To embody the qualities of this mountain.
Become one with it.
What would it be like to be so still,
So majestic,
So unmoving within and without?
Feel your seat as the solid base of the mountain.
Wide and supportive,
Grounding deep into the earth's crust.
You might even notice that there is no place where the mountain ends and the rest of the earth begins.
Such separation and distinctions are really only created in our minds.
In reality,
It's a seamless whole.
So allow yourself to soften down and melt deep into the earth's crust.
Feel part of it,
Supported by it.
Feel your pelvis and lower back lifting strong and steady from the seat.
Feel your spine grow tall towards the sky,
Supporting the whole of the mountain from within,
Like an invisible inner structure.
Feel your head rising like the majestic peak and invite a feeling of lightness,
Effortlessness in your head.
Just like the peaks of the mountains,
Our heads are actually quite heavy.
And yet,
When they're fully supported by the solid base and our shoulders,
They can lift up more freely towards the sky.
Feel your arms and chest softening down like the beautiful slopes of the mountain.
You might even be able to feel your heartbeat in your chest,
Buzzing with life.
You might even be able to smell the freshness of the trees,
The bushes blossoming.
You might even hear the birds singing,
The rivers providing a background drone,
The crowns of the trees dancing together in the wind,
The wind of your own breath.
With each breath,
Embodying the mountain more and more fully,
Full of wildlife,
Yet unwavering and centered.
The groundedness of the mountain is the inner stillness of our own being.
We have these qualities within us.
From that inner stillness,
You might see the wheel of the seasons turning ear after ear,
And yet you as the mountain stand still.
The weather changes often.
Sometimes there are mental storms up towards the peak of the mountain,
Sometimes there are frightening thunders,
And yet you as the mountain have full capacity to watch them with detachment.
The stillness in the core of your being remembers that every storm eventually runs out of rain.
But you remain.
That spring,
The snow starts melting and emotions are running like powerful rivers,
Overflowing and sometimes even flooding the meadows with cool water.
Still you as the mountain have full capacity to meet them all,
To welcome them all,
To receive and eventually release them.
Whatever happens on the surface of your life,
You have the capacity to remain your essential steady self,
Your mountain essence.
This mountain essence is effortless.
There is a steady,
Unmoving and changeless awareness of everything that is happening in your life.
We cannot improve it.
We cannot lose it.
It is already steady by its very nature.
All we need to really do is to reconnect with it,
Turn our attention towards it.
Take a few moments to bathe in your own steadiness.
Let it inform you and infuse you from within.
Let it musical,
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When you're ready,
Take a deep breath in.
And as you do so,
Invite some gentle movement in your hands,
In your feet,
In your body that has been sitting still.
Notice that,
Although there might be physical movement,
That quality of stillness doesn't need to go anywhere.
In fact,
It cannot go anywhere.
So as you flutter your eyes open,
See if you can leave a part of your attention with that stillness,
With that essential nature.
