In most of Western society,
People are overworking and suffering from stress and burnout.
People are feeling lost and disconnected from their true energy and vitality,
Constantly running on a hamster wheel,
And not seeing a way to step off.
There is a deep level of fear operating in our culture nowadays that feeds on the thought of scarcity,
That we do not have enough,
And that we ourselves are not enough.
We are taught to believe that aggression and competition are healthy expressions of our power,
But this is far from the truth,
And a deep wounding of our masculine energy.
And for most of the world,
This is the only example of masculinity we currently have.
In its wounded state,
Our masculine energy will show up in our lives through domination,
Competition,
Aggression,
And criticism,
To name a few.
Yet until we can heal our inner masculine,
The feminine cannot move into healthy interdependence and true sacred feminine consciousness.
Symbols possess a profound ability to transcend language and communicate deeper meanings,
Playing a crucial role in capturing the essence of the empowered divine masculine.
They serve as visual manifestations of its qualities and offer profound insights into its nature.
In this meditation,
We will access our empowered inner masculine through embodying the energy of the mountain.
Let's begin by sensing into the support you have from the cushion or floor beneath your seat bones,
Paying attention to the actual sensations of contact,
Finding a position of stability with your upper body balanced over your hips and shoulders in a comfortable but alert posture,
Hands on your laps or your knees,
Arms hanging by their own weight like heavy curtains,
Stable and relaxed,
Dropping your awareness into your body,
Feeling your feet,
Legs,
Hips,
Lower and upper body,
Arms,
Shoulders,
Neck,
And head,
Allowing your eyes to softly close,
Bringing your awareness to your breath,
To the physical sensation of your breath,
Feeling each breath as it comes in and as it goes out,
Letting the breath be just as it is without trying to change or regulate it in any way,
Allowing the body to be still and sitting with a sense of dignity,
A sense of resolve,
A sense of being whole in this very moment with your posture reflecting the sense of wholeness.
As you sit here,
Letting an image form in your mind's eye of the most magnificent or beautiful mountain you know or have seen or can imagine,
Letting it gradually come into greater focus,
And even if it doesn't come as a visual image,
Allowing the sense of this mountain and feeling its overall shape,
Its noble peaks reaching high in the sky,
The large base rooted in the bedrock of earth's crust,
Its steep or gentle sloping sides,
Noticing how massive it is,
How solid,
Unmoving,
Beautiful,
Whether from afar or up close.
Perhaps your mountain has snow blanketing its top and trees reaching down to the base.
There may also be streams and waterfalls cascading down the slopes.
There may be one peak or a series of peaks.
There may be meadows and high lakes.
Observe your mountain,
Noticing its qualities,
And when you feel ready,
Seeing if you can bring the mountain into your own body,
Sitting right here right now,
So that your body and the mountain in your mind's eye become one,
So that as you sit here,
You share in the massiveness and the stillness and the majesty of the mountain.
You become the mountain.
Grounded in the sitting posture,
Your head becomes the noble peak,
Supported by the rest of the body and affording a panoramic view.
Your shoulders and arms the sides of the mountain,
Your sit bones and legs the solid base,
Rooted to your cushion or your chair,
Experiencing in your body a sense of uplift from deep within your pelvis and spine.
With each breath,
As you continue to sit,
Becoming like a breathing mountain,
Alive and vital,
Yet unwavering in your inner stillness,
Just as you are,
Beyond words and thought,
A centered,
Grounded,
Unmoving presence.
As you sit here,
Becoming aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky,
The light and shadows and colors are changing virtually moment by moment in the mountain's stillness,
And the surface beams with life and activity,
With streams,
Melting snow,
Waterfalls,
Plants,
And wildlife.
As the mountain sits,
Seeing and feeling how night follows day and day follows night.
The bright,
Warming sun,
Followed by the cool night sky,
Shining with stars,
And the gradual dawning of a new day.
And the mountain sits.
The watcher,
The observer.
Through it all,
The mountain just sits,
Experiencing change in each moment,
Yet always just being itself.
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,
Calmly witnessing and withstanding all change.
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 all times its essential self.
Clouds may come and clouds may go.
Tourists may like it or not.
The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by whether people see it or not,
Seen or unseen,
In the sun or in the clouds.
In the daylight or at nighttime.
It just sits there,
Being itself.
At times visited by violent storms,
Blizzards,
Torrential rains,
And winds of unthinkable magnitude.
Through it all,
The mountain sits,
Unmoved by the weather,
By what happens on its surface,
By the world of appearances,
Remaining its essential self.
In the same way as 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.
In our meditation practice,
And in our lives,
We experience constantly the changing nature of the mind and body,
Of our outer world.
We have our own periods of light and darkness,
Activity and inactivity,
We experience our own storms of varying intensities and violence,
In the outer world,
And in our own minds and bodies.
We endure periods of darkness and pain,
And we experience our own storms of light and darkness,
We endure periods of darkness and pain,
As well as the moments of joy and uplift.
By becoming the mountain in our meditation practice,
We can link up with its strength and stability,
And adopt them for our own.
We can use its energies to support our energy,
To empower our divine masculine essence,
To encounter each moment with mindfulness,
Equanimity,
And clarity.
It may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings,
Preoccupations,
Emotional storms and crises,
Are very much like the weather on the mountain.
The weather of our own lives is not to be ignored or denied,
It is to be encountered,
Honored,
Deeply felt,
And held in awareness.
And in holding it in this way,
We come to know a deeper silence and stillness,
A wisdom within.
Mountains have this to teach us,
And much more.
So if you find you resonate 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 own meditation practice.
As a reminder of what it means to sit mindfully with resolve and with wakefulness in true stillness and powerful presence.
You may stay in this peaceful and powerful space for as long as you'd like,
Continuing to sustain this state of presence on your own,
In silence,
Moment by moment,
Until you are ready to come out.
From my heart to yours,
Namaste.
