Mountain Meditation

This mindfulness practice uses a mountain as a metaphor for the human experience. This practice encourages a mindful awareness of the present moment, fostering feelings of calm, stillness, and strength.

Transcript

Hey friend,

This is Stefan.

Welcome.

This practice is called the Mountain Meditation and it's just over 10 minutes long.

It's also one of my favorites.

While I often teach mindfulness meditation,

Which is about paying attention to what's happening in the present moment,

This practice includes some visualization.

The themes,

However,

Are so relevant and powerful for mindfulness practices,

I wanted to share it with you.

So,

We'll start and end with the sound of the bells.

Let's begin by shifting into a comfortable posture for your practice.

This could be sitting in a chair or on a cushion.

It could be lying on the floor or standing.

If you're seated,

Lengthen your spine and reach the top of your head to the ceiling.

Shoulders stacking over your hips.

Your hands can rest in your lap or on your thighs,

Whatever is comfortable.

And take a moment to notice what's happening in your body right now,

Softening any areas of tension in the shoulders,

Maybe in your brow or your jaw,

As you settle in.

Finding a balance between being comfortable,

Awake,

And alert.

When you feel ready,

You can lower and soften your gaze.

If it's supportive,

You can close your eyes.

Settling here,

Finding some stillness as you gather your attention and find a comfortable anchor to focus on.

Perhaps the feeling of contact with your seat or the floor.

Perhaps the sensations in your hands.

For some,

This could be the ebb and flow of your breath as you inhale and exhale,

Allowing these subtle,

Natural movements without any extra control.

Just sitting and connecting with the feeling of being in this moment.

As you sit here,

Begin picturing the most beautiful mountain that you know or can imagine.

Forming the image and the feeling of this mountain in your mind,

Allowing it to come into greater focus,

Observing its overall shape,

Its mass and loft,

The peak high in the sky,

The expansive base rooted in the rock of the earth,

The gently sloping sides or the steep cliffs.

Noticing how massive it is,

How solid,

How unmoving.

Perhaps your mountain has snow at the top and trees on the lower slopes.

Perhaps it has one prominent peak or a series of peaks.

Maybe there's a high plateau.

Whatever its shape or appearance,

You are simply sitting and breathing with the image of this mountain in your mind,

Observing it and noting its qualities.

When you are ready,

Imagine bringing the mountain into your own body so that your body sitting here and the mountain become one.

Sharing in the stillness and majesty of the mountain.

Becoming the mountain,

Grounded in your meditative posture.

Your head becomes the mountain's peak,

Supported by the rest of the body,

Giving you a panoramic vista.

Your shoulders and arms form the sides of the mountain.

Your seat and lower body,

The solid base,

Rooted to your cushion or chair or the floor below you.

And experiencing your body a sense of lift from deep within your pelvis and up your spine.

With each breath as you continue sitting,

Becoming a little more of the mountain embodied.

Unwavering in your stillness.

Becoming what you are,

Beyond words and stories,

Beyond thoughts.

Centered,

Grounded.

As you sit here,

Becoming aware that as the sun travels across the sky,

The light and shadows and colors are changing on the mountain moment by moment.

The light exploring the mountain's granite stillness.

Night follows day and day follows night.

A canopy of stars and the moon and the rising and setting sun.

Through it all,

The mountain sits,

Experiencing change in each moment,

Constantly changing.

But the mountain is just being.

It remains still as the seasons flow into one another.

As the weather changes moment by moment and day by day,

The calm of the mountain doesn't change.

In summer,

The snow melts,

Except perhaps at the icy peak.

In the fall,

The mountain may wear a coat of brilliant,

Fiery colors.

And in winter,

A blanket of snow and ice.

In any season,

It might find itself shrouded in clouds or fog or pelted by freezing rain.

And still the mountain sits.

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.

It's too cloudy or rainy or foggy or dark or dry or hot.

None of this matters to the mountain,

Which remains at all times itself.

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,

Or by the weather seen or unseen in sun or clouds.

The hottest of days or most frigid nights,

It just sits being itself.

At times,

The mountain is visited by violent storms,

Buffeted by snow and rain and winds of unthinkable magnitude.

And then spring comes,

With the birds singing in the trees once again.

The leaves return.

Flowers bloom in the high meadow and on the slopes.

The streams overflow with the waters of the melting snow.

And through it all,

The mountain continues to sit.

The mountain is unmoved by the weather,

By what happens on the surface.

Unmoved 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,

The sense of grounding in the face of everything that changes in our own lives,

Over seconds,

Over hours,

Over years in our lives.

In our meditation practice,

We experience constantly the changing nature of the mind and the body and of the outer world.

We have our own periods of light and darkness,

Our moments of color and our moments of,

Well,

Drabness.

We experience storms and violence in the outer world and in our own minds and bodies,

Sometimes buffeted by high winds,

By cold and rain.

We endure periods of darkness and pain,

As well as the moments of joy and uplift.

Even our appearance changes constantly,

Experiencing a weather pattern of its own.

And when we become 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 energy to support our own energy,

To encounter each moment with mindfulness and equanimity.

It may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings,

Our preoccupations,

Our emotional storms and crises,

Even the things that happen to us,

Are very much like weather on the mountain.

We tend to take it all personally,

But fundamentally it's all impersonal.

The weather and seasons of our own lives are not to be ignored or denied,

Of course.

It's all to be encountered and honored and felt,

Known for what it is and held in awareness.

Holding it in this way,

Coming to know a deeper silence and stillness and wisdom,

Mountains can teach us this and much,

Much more.

If you resonate with the strength and the stability of the mountain in this practice,

It may be helpful to use it from time to time to remind you of what it means to sit mindfully,

With resolve and wakefulness and stillness.

And so,

In the time that remains,

Continuing to sustain the mountain meditation on your own,

In silence,

Moment by moment,

Until you hear the sound of the closing bell.

Hey,

It's Stefan again.

Thanks so much for your practice.

I hope you enjoyed your trip to the mountain,

And I hope this practice really supports you on your own journey.

Listen,

I'd love to hear what you think,

So please leave a rating and a review.

And I look forward to practicing together again soon.

Thanks.

Reviews

Stephen, I really enjoyed your take on the classic Mountain Meditation and will return to this track often. It’s very grounding and will support my efforts to bring more equanimity into my life. Thank you, and blessings to you 🙏

That’s Stephen. A really relaxing meditation with beautiful imagery 😊🙏

Your mountain visualization meditation was incredibly peaceful and grounding. I felt like I was truly on top of the world. Thank you! Wonderful tracks that you have put out 😍

That was solid!! Thanks so much. Looking forward to doing more with you!