This is a meditation on the earth element called mountain medicine.
The earth element is associated with root chakra in yoga philosophy called mooladhara,
Which literally means the supporter of the root or bearer of the foundation.
In indigenous cultures,
People cannot own land or the earth.
The land owns them.
The earth is their mother or grandmother and is an integral part of an individual's identity and very being.
In Tibetan Buddhism,
The ratna buddha family is associated with earth element.
This family is associated with the wisdom of equanimity and underlying stillness,
A sense of stability.
Being on the earth is associated with a sense of groundedness and trust.
For this meditation,
You may want to sit outside on the earth directly.
If not,
You may hold a small stone in your hands representing the earth within you.
If you are sitting in a chair,
You can remove your shoes so you can feel more connected to the earth below you.
Settling now into stillness in your seat and body.
Take a deep breath in and out and again in and out.
Getting comfortable while being awake and alert.
Closing your eyes if you wish or lowering and softening your gaze in front of you.
Connecting with the solidity and weight of your own body.
Notice all the places your body is in contact with your seat.
Your sits bones.
The backs of your legs.
Perhaps your back.
Notice sensations that may be present,
If any.
Rest the weight of your body on the earth.
Sensing the earth,
Holding your body.
Supporting you.
If you are sitting in a chair,
Bringing your attention to your feet.
Feel them connected to the floor or the earth below you.
Picturing in your mind's eye the earth below you.
Perhaps you notice pressure on the soles of your feet or wherever your body is in contact with the floor and earth.
Sense into that connection now of your body and the earth.
Imagine the earth rising to meet you,
To meet your feet and your body.
You are connected to the strength of the earth.
Grounded.
Connected with the earth's still energy.
You are like a mountain.
Stable.
Persistent.
Rooted by stone and dirt into the living earth.
Unwavering.
Sturdy.
Feel that strength in your bones.
You sit calmly like a mountain.
Mountains may arise like weather.
Let them move through like clouds.
They do not disturb the quiet power of your mountain.
Stronger emotions may arise in difficult times.
Or you may have a habitual unskillful way you reflexively respond to difficult situations.
Bring to mind now a recent time when this may have happened.
Perhaps this is a reaction of anger or frustration.
Maybe worry or fear.
Perhaps even shutting down or avoiding.
Bring this situation or way of reacting to mind right now.
Notice what sensations arise in your body.
Notice where those sensations live in your body.
Maybe in your chest or belly.
Your throat or your head.
Maybe your neck and shoulders.
Notice what physical sensations are present.
Perhaps heat or heaviness,
Maybe a sense of constriction or shrinking.
Maybe there are no sensations present or a feeling of closing down,
Emptiness or numbness.
Just noticing what is present now for some moments.
Staying with kindness and compassion.
Environmental storms and the body sensations that go with them may come like wind and rain.
Yet there is a mountain inside of you.
One that is deeply still.
You endure like a quiet mountain.
Unwavering.
Unaffected in your center.
You are not the clouds or rain or wind of the storm moving through.
You are the mountain.
You feel the weather and you persist with whatever you are facing.
Within you is a central core of collected calm.
A sense of unshakable power.
You remain rooted in the strength of the earth.
This quiet,
Strong center within you prevails through anything you encounter.
Sit now in your calm strength.
The equanimity of the living earth and mountain inside you.
The equanimity of the living earth and mountain inside you.
The equanimity of the living earth and mountain inside you.
