Welcome to a special meditation that will remind you of what it means to sit mindfully with resolve and with wakefulness in true stillness.
I will lead you through a visualization meditation exercise where we will embody the strongest characteristics of a mountain.
This meditation can teach us a great deal about our lives.
So let's begin by sitting with a comfortable yet alert posture.
Hands on your lap or knees.
Eyes closed and bringing awareness to the breath.
The actual physical sensations feeling each breath as you inhale and exhale.
Relaxing with the natural rhythm of your own breath.
Nothing for you to do except breathe.
Allowing the body to be still and sitting with a sense of dignity,
A sense of resolve and of being complete whole in this very moment.
As you sit here letting an image form in your mind's eye of the most magnificent mountain you know or have seen or just imagine the most beautiful one.
Even if it doesn't come in a visual shape just allowing the sense of this mountain and feeling its overall shape.
Its lofty peaks high in the sky,
The large base rooted in the bedrock of the Earth's crust.
Its steep or gently sloping sides.
Notice how massive it is,
How solid,
How unmoving,
How beautiful.
Whether from afar or up close.
Perhaps your mountain has snow blanketing its top and trees reaching down to the base or rugged granite sides.
There may be streams and waterfalls cascading down the slopes.
There may be one peak or a series.
There are meadows,
High lakes observing it,
Noting its qualities.
And when you feel ready seeing if you can bring this mountain into your own body sitting here.
That your body in the mountain in your mind's eye become one.
So that as you sit here you share in the massiveness and the stillness and majesty of the mountain.
You become the mountain.
Grounded in the sitting posture,
Your head becomes a lofty peak giving you a panoramic view.
Your shoulders and arms are the sides of the mountain.
Your legs are the solid base.
With each breath as you continue sitting,
Becoming a little more of a breathing mountain.
Alive and vital yet unwavering in your inner stillness.
A centered,
Grounded,
Unmoving presence.
As you sit here,
Become aware of the fact that as the sun travels across the sky,
The light is changing.
Shadows moving,
Colors changing moment by moment.
The surface is teeming with life and activity.
Streams flowing,
Snow melting,
Water falling,
Plants growing and wildlife.
As the mountain sits,
Experience change in every moment.
The night following the day.
Seasons come and go.
Clouds and storms come and go.
People may come to visit the mountain and tourists may like it and say it's beautiful while others may not and complain,
Oh it's too muddy or too steep or foggy.
The mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed by whether people see it or like it or not.
It just sits being itself.
Calmness,
Abiding,
All change.
Through it all,
The mountain just sits.
It doesn't matter how the surface changes.
It remains its essential self.
In the same way 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.
We experience the constant changing nature of mind and body and the outer world.
We have our own changing periods of activity and inactivity.
We are buffeted by our own storms of pain and joy.
Even our appearance changes as we age,
Experiencing a weather of its own.
By becoming the mountain in our meditation practice,
We can link up with strength and stability and make it our own.
It may help us to see that our thoughts and feelings,
Our preoccupations,
Our emotional storms and anything that happens to us are very much like the weather on the mountain.
We tend to take it all personally,
But now we can be impersonally stronger like the mountain.
Not ignoring the weather,
But having it encountered,
Honored,
Known for what it is and held in awareness.
We come to know a deeper stillness and wisdom as mountains.
Take a moment to sit in silent stillness.
And whenever you are ready,
You can open your eyes,
Feeling refreshed and mountainous.
