Meeting as Apprentice Mountains

The invitation here is to explore what might offer a sense of stillness and groundedness from which to meet the world.

Out in the wilderness that Buddhism explores, there's the opportunity to discover a spirit of mountainess that has no particular location. The language surrounding it can sound so abstract and heady - but. Exploring this part of reality, staying open and noticing nuances, there's the chance of discovering the Divine ground of Being as something that feels incredibly anchoring: deeply felt, known as intimately and sensually as one's own body. What is Buddha Mind? Maybe it's revealed as something solid enough to drive a tent peg into, so that the most terrible storm wouldn't uproot the sense of anchored stillness it provides. Or maybe you find out its solid enough to drive a mountain-climber's piton into, so that you could surrender everything to it's strength and stability... leaping from the known rightout into space...

Or another wilderness: the one that Shamanism explores. Taking the chance to explore a spirit of mountainness that involves entering the energy matrix of a given landscape. Going beyond identification with a little human body to find a deep sense of strenth and stability through rooting into a larger world. In a forest: becoming an apprentice tree - learning to plunge energy down into the earth to root and go still. Feeling the support of earth's richness. Feeling the kidneys float in the black, ancient waters that flow deep beneath the soil. Feeling how the air itself can ripple with the subtle pulsations of the body. And then expanding a millionfold to take part in the stillness of stars...the felt sense of Heaven and Earth meeting in the belly.

Or Daoism's approach: rooted stability and strength in the body that becomes the basis for the inner power for which practitioners of esoteric martial forms are known. In this alchemy, there’s a relaxed confidence and fearlessness. And a quality of bone deep fierceness that nothing of deference or self-doubt. There is stillness in this, but not the stillness of a Buddha hovering above a lotus flower. This is the stillness and steady watchfulness of a Tiger resting in the sun.