beings are far more interesting and complex than
mountains. We are breathing, moving, dancing
mountains. We can be simultaneously hard like rock,
firm, unmoving, and at the same time soft and gentle
and flowing. We have a vast range of potential at our
disposal. We can see and feel. We can know and
understand. We can learn; we can grow; we can heal;
especially if we learn to listen to the inner harmony of
things and hold the central mountain axis through
thick and thin.
The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together,
the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
Li Po
TRY: Keeping this mountain image in mind as you sit
in formal meditation. Explore its usefulness in
deepening your capacity to dwell in stillness; to sit for
longer periods of time; to sit in the face of adversity,
difficulties, and storms or drabness in the mind. Ask
yourself what you are learning from your experiments