Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain.
Breathing out, I feel solid.
Mountain/solid
One of my favourite childhood memories is of sitting on a wooden verandah of our home at the foothills of the mighty Himalayas, as I stared at the mountains across the valley. I would watch the timeless mountains transform, sometimes multiple times in a day.
Most days they would be covered with fog in the morning hours, their jagged outlines barely visible, covered with ghostly apparitions.
Then the sun would shine, and as he travelled across the sky, the light and colours across the mountains’ surface would start changing, moment to moment.
A grove of pine trees or a solitary boulder would glow in his spotlight, until it was time for the sun to move on. To another grove, to another rocky outcrop, or sometimes to the other side of the mountains where my eyes could not follow. I would often imagine the sun painting the slopes on the other side with colours of light and awareness with equal abandon.
Then the night would descend and the mountains would wrap themselves in a cloak of stillness, the darkness broken by flickering pinpoints of light. Like fireflies coming to life, for that brief moment, to shine their light on whatever needed their warmth and presence.
A new day would dawn, the seasons would change.
Through it, all the mountains would just sit. Being themselves. Experiencing everything, being intimate with all the changes, and yet staying steadfast and equanimous through it all.
In the dharma talk related to the mountain/solid meditation, Thich Nhat Hahn reminds us of the qualities of mountain within us:
“Believe it or not, inside of you there is a mountain, the element of solidity, stability—you cannot take the mountain out of you.“
During the lockdown I was lucky to be part of a group that practiced the mountain meditation on a regular basis. Amidst the chaos and the uncertainty, it was a beautiful reminder for each one of us to find our mountains within us.
In life, we each have our own periods of light and darkness, activity and inactivity, our moments of color, and our moments of drabness. Amidst it all, we can always remember that the mountains live within us, we just have to let them be.
- If you close your eyes and breathe in, do you see yourself as a mountain?
- If yes, what season is the mountain experiencing right now? Is it spring, summer, or winter?
- Is there an aspect of your life that needs some equanimity?
Here is a short talk by Thich Nhat Hahn about the mountain/solid meditation. A longer (15 min) mountain meditation can be found here.
The first part of the series can be found here.
To be continued…
