Allow this mindfulness-based guided meditation to stabilize and ground you, helping alleviate feelings of anxiety or stress. (14 minutes)
Welcome to the mountain meditation.
The mountain meditation is often practiced sitting on a cushion on the floor or in a chair. If this is not workable for your body, you can stand or lie down. If you're sitting, coming into a sitting posture that allows you to be at ease and a at the same time. If you're sitting in a chair, finding a stable place for your feet to rest on the floor. If you're sitting on a cushion, sitting with your hips slightly higher than your knees. Letting your hands rest on the legs or in the lap wherever they comfortably fall.
Allowing the shoulders to be at ease. Sitting with an upright spine, not too tight, not too loose. Allowing the eyes to close or softening and lowering the gaze. Aware of the breath as it moves into the body and out of the body, allowing breath to flow freely and fully without needing to change it in any way, feeling each in breath and each out breath. Becoming aware of the body sitting here, and allowing the body to be still. Bringing awareness to where the body makes contact with the ground. Sensing the stable base of the body, making contact with your seat.
Feeling the support of the seat against the body, The hardness or softness of the chair or cushion, sensing your firm, grounded base. Aware of the uprightness of the torso, the length of the spine,
The sloping sides of the arms supporting you and sitting. Aware of the length of the neck and the head reaching towards the sky, bringing awareness to the body sitting here, both grounded and uplifted at the same time, sitting with a sense of resolve, a sense of dignity, a sense of completeness, and bringing to mind as best you can, the image of the most beautiful, majestic mountain you can imagine.
It can be a mountain you've seen before, a mountain you know, a mountain you've climbed or seen a picture of, or whatever mountain your mind dreams up in this moment.
Holding the image of this mountain in your mind, letting it come Come into focus, in as much detail as possible. The shape of the mountain, the large, stable base rooted to the earth. It's steep, board-gently sloping sides, and it's peak reaching into the sky. Holding this mountain in your mind,
how massive it is, have solid and majestic. Picturing this mountain in as much detail as possible, seeing rock or trees, snowy peaks, streams flowing, seeing the colors and textures of this mountain mountain. Whatever it looks like, sitting here, breathing with the image of this mountain in your mind.
As you are ready, inviting the image of this mountain into your body so that your body sitting here is the same mountain. Taking this stability, the groundedness, the majesty of this mountain into your own body. Your seat, your legs, where you make contact with the ground, the stable base of the mountain. Your torso and arms, the sloping sides, your head, the lofty peak, feeling the rootedness of your stable base, and the upliftedness of your upper body.
Breathing in, each in breath giving you a sense of dignity, of uprightness. Breathing out, each out breath giving you a sense of firmness and stability.
Sitting here as this mountain, aware of all that changes around you. As a mountain, you experience day turning to night, night turning to day, and the play of light, darkness, colors,
Shadows, all constantly changing and moving across the mountain stable presence. As time passes, as the moon and stars move through the sky, the mountain just sits, witnessing the changes that occur in each moment, remaining stable in the fullness of its presence.
The mountain remains unmoving as seasons change as weather changes day by day, moment by moment. In summer, the snowy peaks melt and streams flow over the mountain surface.
In the fall, bright colors abound on the trees and crisp leaves float to the ground. In winter, the same surface may be covered in snow. The same trees may become brittle and covered in frost. There may be rain or fog or darkness. None of this may adders to the mountain. The mountain does not take any of these surface changes personally. It rests peacefully, receiving and observing all that arises and passes. Some people who pass by may judge the mountain say it's too foggy, too rainy, too hot. None of this matters to the the mountain. It lets these words and sounds move past. The mountain remains itself grounded, dignified.
The mountain may be visited by violent storms, great winds, hurricanes. The mountain sits through it all. At other times, flowers bloom, trees blossom, animals make their homes and find nourishment on the mountain, the sun shines warming the mountains face. Still the mountain sits, unmoving, stable,
non -reactive. As we sit here as this mountain, we can bring this quality of mountainous to our practice and to our lives. We can cultivate the ability to be grounded and stable in the face of whatever arises, changes and passes in our lives in the course of a day and hour
a minute. We can hold the flow of sensation, emotion, sound, thought, in awareness. Our own storms, periods of light and dark, pleasant and unpleasant, wanted and unwanted. Without holding on to anything, or pushing anything away.
We can learn to let life live through us without taking it personally or getting into a battle with our experience. Instead, we can touch our experience and let it touch us.
In the last few minutes of this meditation practice, continuing to sit as a mountain as the weather of experience, sensation, sound, emotion, thought changes from moment to moment, holding space for it all, remaining grounded in your stable, dignified presence.
A where of sitting here, a where of breathing in and breathing out.
Beginning to let the image of the mountain dissolve. Returning to an awareness of the space that you're in, of the body sitting here. Perhaps seeing if you can stay connected to the mountain -like qualities we've been cultivating in this meditation practice,
knowing that you can come back to your own intrinsic mountainous anytime throughout the day.
Taking a full deep breath in and out and resting with the sound of the bell as it rings.
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