Snow Settles on the Mountain

Snow Settles...

I came to meditation through a common entry point: a way to improve the self, better focus, more calm, less reactivity. But I noticed that this turns breath into an object. Posture becomes an object. Attention becomes an object. There is a sense, often unnoticed, of standing somewhere outside experience and trying to manage it; it might be felt as a subtle distancing, a leaning forward, or a watching-from-behind-the-eyes.

For me, meditation became about cultivating a different way of being in the world instead of an activity within it. So I wanted something that could travel with me, something that doesn't require a cushion or quiet room.

Then I was reading the Wheel of Time, in which there are something called sword forms. I find these interesting because they aren't instructions; they're more like miniature worlds of conditions that one attunes to such that the inhabitation of the form is the source of action rather than following a technique.

So I started experimenting with presence forms.

... on the Mountain

What is experience like when what is being added can be noticed?

weight finding its way downward
time without urgency
nothing needing to be held

snow settles on the mountain

What is being added in this moment?