Three Metaphors: Six Minutes of Natural Practice

This guided meditation--a traditional Tibetan mindfulness practice-- helps you connect to your body, breath and mind through the use of three metaphors: the mountain, the ocean and the sky. When you sit still, the body is mountainlike in its innate groundedness and stability. The breath is oceanlike in its ebb and flow. The mind is skylike, in its spaciousness and openness. Connecting to these natural metaphors gets underneath our conceptual mind and taps into our deeper brain's connection to the natural world. A very quick entry into relaxation and a good meditation when you are short on time.

Transcript

Welcome to three metaphors meditation,

A practice that uses the natural world as a doorway to inner peace.

We'll begin by dropping down from the thinking mind into the feeling body.

Noticing the weight and heaviness of the body.

The body's natural groundedness.

Body like a mountain.

Notice the coming and going of breath.

Breath breathing you.

Observe the slow rise of the inhale.

The slow fall of the exhale.

The breath's natural ebb and flow.

Breath like the ocean.

Letting go of grasping after the past or anticipating the future.

With the mind come home to the present moment.

Your natural experience just as it is.

Notice how between and around these thoughts there is so much space.

Mind like the sky.

Body like a mountain.

Breath like the ocean.

Mind like the sky.

Mind like the sky.

Reviews

I’m glad to have come across this deeply relaxing, blissfully unhurried guidance into anchoring ourselves in the present moment through three natural doorways. This surprisingly short meditation gently helps us connect with a timeless inner space — thank you for this beautiful offering.

Wonderful. Just the thing! I am so grateful for all your meditations here on InsightTimer 💕thank you kindly 🙏

Amazing

Muito grata!

I absolutely love this meditation, it is so grounding and calming! Thank you 🙏🏻

I really like this one! I usually try to meditate for 20 minutes in the morning, but this one is great for when I’m short on time. It really makes me feel more grounded.

She is great

Very helpful thank you 🧡

This was lovely, and very effective ❤

So soothing and relaxing this morning. Thank you for this gift. I shall try to recall these metaphors as my day unfolds!

Helpful and healing.

Love the simplicity and the very very slow pace. Love that pace. Thank you!!

Bullseye. Excellent! Thank you. I read some reviews-
For me: simply perfect. 🙌

At first it seemed too slow but it really helped me relax. Just love the nature metaphors —I am solid like a rock, a mountain but my mind is infinite like the sky. Thank you. I feel relaxed yet powerful and inspired.

I heard lengthy explanations about the three metaphors, they are widely used and already taught by the Buddha to his son Rahula. But such a wonderful/powerful short right to point and on the spot practice is simply marvellous. No fuse pure bliss, with a body like a mountain the breath like the ocean and a mind vast as space intimately with a open heart experience the flow of the the river of life. Thank you so much L. Willa

This was wonderful. Thank you!

Body mountain. Breath ocean. Mind sky. I'll remember. Thanks

Very grounding🙏

Short & sweet. Thank you!

Lovely, thank you.