Theme: Intention
This week’s podcast recording illustrates how in moments of uncertainty, no failure is final. Drawing inspiration from the multi-limbed warrior Goddess Durga and her victory over the wrathful Mahisa, Tracy Cochran explores the force of resolve as a means to remind us all of our deeper intention.
About the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast
The Rubin Museum of Art presents a weekly meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area, with each session focusing on a specific work of art. This podcast is recorded in front of a live audience, and includes an opening talk, a 20-minute sitting session, and a closing discussion. The guided meditation begins at 14:30.
If you would like to attend Mindfulness Meditation sessions in person or learn more, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation.
Related Artwork
This sculpture represents the personification of female energy in full fury””skillful, composed, and deadly. The goddess Durga is the warrior form of Sri Devi, and here she is in the act of subduing the demi-god Mahisa, who has disguised himself as a mighty buffalo. Durga is the goddess of the homesteaders, the village people in conflict with the cattle ranchers who would keep the land open for grazing. The Great Goddess represents the Cosmic Law against those who would seek to undermine it.
About the Speaker
Tracy Cochran is editorial director of Parabola, a quarterly magazine that for forty years has drawn on the world’s cultural and wisdom traditions to explore the questions that all humans share. She has been a student of meditation and spiritual practices for decades and teaches mindfulness meditation and mindful writing at New York Insight Meditation Center and throughout the greater New York area. In addition to Parabola, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Psychology Today, O Magazine, New York Magazine, the Boston Review, and many other publications and anthologies. For more information please visit tracycochran.org.