Mountain Meditation

This visualisation practice helps us connect to the qualities of the mountain, to help cultivate steadiness, stability, and perspective to meditation practice and to life in general. By embodying the mountain, we can better weather the storms of life, in the same way that the mountain weathers the seasons throughout the year.

Transcript

Mountain meditation,

You can do this practice lying down if you like,

But it's best done seated.

So spending a few moments,

If it's okay for your body,

Finding a comfortable seated position.

Perhaps allowing the feet to rest on the floor,

Uncrossed.

Resting the hands on the belly or the lap,

Wherever is comfortable.

You're looking to have a straight-ish spine,

Upright but not uptight.

A posture that signifies dignity and alertness.

Allowing the head to lightly rest on the neck.

Not tipping forwards or backwards,

But in a more neutral position.

And finding a gaze that feels comfortable for you.

So that might be eyes closed,

Eyes open with an unfocused gaze,

Or perhaps looking at the horizon if that's better for you.

Bring your attention to the soles of the feet and where the feet meet the floor.

Noticing the contact and pressure there.

A sense of the feet being connected to the floor,

The ground and the earth beneath.

Moving up into the parts of the body in contact with support.

Feeling the weight of the body.

Sensations of touch underneath the thighs,

The bum,

The back of the body.

And shifting into the hands.

Noticing what sensations are here.

Touch,

Pressure,

Temperature.

And you might continue to rest your attention with the feet,

The seat and the hands.

Or you might,

If you prefer,

Begin to settle onto the movements and the sensations of the breath as it moves through the body.

No need to change the breath,

No need to control it.

Simply using it as a focus for the attention.

Notice the sensations of the in-breath and the out-breath.

Maybe resting with the sensations down in the belly,

The chest,

The nose.

Or maybe simply having a sense of the breath as a whole as it moves in and out of the body.

Spending a few moments with your chosen anchor.

The feet,

The seat,

The hands or the breath.

Using the anchor to steady and focus the mind as best you can.

But of course the mind may wander away from the anchor.

Drifting off into thoughts,

Planning,

Daydreaming.

And know that that's okay.

Each time you notice it's wandered,

You have a choice.

And gently and kindly you can bring it back to the anchor.

The feet,

The seat,

The hands or the breath.

As best you can,

Allowing the body to be as still as possible.

And allowing the body to be as still as possible.

So if you have to move,

Please move.

No need to cause pain here.

But sitting with a sense of dignity,

Of resolve,

A sense of being whole in this very moment.

The posture reflecting this sense of wholeness and dignity.

Settling on the anchor for a few more moments.

Bringing the attention back when you notice it's wandered away.

And now I invite you to picture in your mind's eye,

As best you can,

A beautiful mountain.

Perhaps this is a mountain that you know.

Maybe one that you've seen.

Maybe in real life or on TV or photos.

Or perhaps just imagining a beautiful tall mountain.

Hold the image and the feeling of this mountain in the mind's eye.

Letting it gradually come into greater focus.

Spend a while noticing its shape.

Its lofty peak high in the sky.

The mountain's base rooted in the rock of the earth's crust.

Noticing whether its sides are steep or gently sloping.

Noticing how massive the mountain is,

How solid,

How unmoving.

And how beautiful both from afar and up close.

Perhaps your mountain has snow at the top.

Maybe some trees on the lower sides.

Maybe there's a prominent peak or a series of peaks or perhaps a high plateau.

Whatever the shape or appearance of the mountain,

Seeing if it's possible to sit and breathe with the image of this mountain.

And if you find it tricky to visualize,

To imagine the mountain,

To see it in your mind's eye,

Then simply sitting with the feeling of that mountain.

Observing the mountain and noticing its qualities.

Qualities of a mountain.

Solid,

Unmoving,

Steady.

And seeing if you can bring the mountain into your heart.

Solid,

Unmoving,

Steady.

And seeing if you can bring the mountain into your own body.

So that the body sitting here and the mountain in your mind's eye become one.

As you sit here,

You share in the massiveness,

The stillness and the majesty of the mountain.

You become the mountain,

Rooted in the sitting posture.

Head becoming the lofty peak,

Supported by the rest of the body.

Your shoulders and arms,

The sides of the mountain.

The buttocks and legs,

The solid base rooted to the chair.

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

With each breath as you continue resting here,

Becoming a little more a breathing mountain.

Unwavering in your stillness.

Completely what you are,

Beyond words and thought.

A centred,

Rooted,

Unmoving presence.

And as you sit here,

Becoming aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky,

The light and shadows and colours are changing,

Moment by moment.

Night follows day,

Day follows night.

Night follows day,

Day follows night.

A canopy of stars,

The moon,

Then the sun.

Through it all,

The mountain just sits,

Experiencing change in each moment.

Constantly changing,

Yet always just being itself.

It remains still as the seasons flow into one another.

And as the weather changes,

Moment by moment and day by day.

It remains still.

It remains itself.

Calmness abiding all change.

In summer,

There's no snow on the mountain,

Except perhaps for the very peaks.

In the autumn,

The mountain may wear a coat of brilliant fire colours.

In winter,

Maybe a blanket of snow and ice.

And in any season,

It may find itself at times in the middle of nowhere.

Sometimes covered in clouds or fog,

Or pelted by freezing rain or hail.

People may come to see the mountain and comment on how beautiful it is.

Or maybe on how it's not a good day to see the mountain.

And none of this matters to the mountain,

Which remains at all times its essential self.

Clouds may come and clouds may go.

And the mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by the way people see it.

The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by the way people see it.

And not changed one bit by the weather.

Seen or unseen,

In sun or clouds,

Hot or cool,

Day or night,

It just sits,

Being itself.

At times visited by violent storms,

Buffeted by snow and rain and winds of unthinkable magnitude.

Through it all,

The mountain continues to sit,

Unmoved by the weather,

By what happens on the surface,

By the world of appearances.

And in the same way,

As we sit in meditation,

We can learn to experience the mountain.

We can embody the same stillness and rootedness in the face of everything that changes in our own lives.

Staying grounded through challenges and changes over hours,

Days,

Years.

In our lives and our meditation practice,

We constantly experience the changing nature of the mind and body,

And of the outer world too.

We have our own periods of light and darkness.

Our own moments of colour and drabness.

Certainly we experience storms of different intensity and violence in the outer world.

And in our own minds and bodies.

We endure periods of darkness and pain,

As well as moments of joy.

Even our appearance changes,

Experiencing a weather of its own.

By becoming the mountain in our meditation practice,

We can link up with its strength,

Its stability,

And adopt it for our own.

We can use its energies to support our energy,

So that we're able to face each moment with mindfulness,

With clarity,

With calmness.

It might be helpful to see that our thoughts,

Our feelings,

Our preoccupations,

Our emotional storms and crises,

Even the things that happen to us,

Are very much like the weather on the mountain.

The weather on our own lives is not to be ignored or denied.

But we don't need to take it all personally.

We can face our challenges with strength,

With courage,

With calmness and kindness.

Face our fears,

Our anxieties,

Our anxieties,

Our fears,

Our anxieties,

Our anxieties,

Our anxieties.

Facing the weather of our own lives.

And in holding it in this way,

We come to know a deeper silence and stillness,

A deeper wisdom.

Mountains have this to teach us,

And much more,

If we can come to listen.

Allowing the sense of the mountain to fade into the background.

And shifting focus once more to the sensations of the body being supported by whatever it rests on.

Bringing to the foreground sensations of touch and pressure underneath the thighs,

The hips,

The buttocks.

Noticing sensations in the hands and down in the feet.

As we come out of stillness,

Gently moving the body slowly,

No rush.

And perhaps seeing if you can bring the qualities of the mountain out from this practice into whatever you're doing next in your day.

Reviews

I really appreciate your wonderful mountain meditation that solidifies and strengthens body, mind and soul. Thank you. Namaste 🤓🙏🏻