ABOUT THE MEDITATION
This week’s meditation session led by Jon Aaron and the theme is: Liberation.
The guided meditation begins at 10:13
For centuries Himalayan practitioners have used meditation to quiet the mind, open the heart, calm the nervous system, and increase focus. Now Western scientists, business leaders, and the secular world have embraced meditation as a vital tool for brain health.
Whether you’re a beginner, a dabbler, or a skilled meditator seeking the company of others, join expert teachers in a forty-five-minute weekly program designed to fit into your lunch break. Each session will be inspired by a different work of art from the Rubin Museum’s collection and will include an opening talk, a twenty-minute meditation session, and a closing discussion.
RELATED ARTWORK
Vajrabhairava is a prominent deity in the Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug Tibetan Buddhist traditions. He is considered to be the wrathful emanation of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. He took on a wrathful form by reflecting back the terrifying nature of Yama, the Lord of Death. He overwhelmed and subdued Yama, who became a protector.
Vajrabhairava is considered to be a meditational deity. He is often referred to as Yamantaka, the Slayer or Defeater of Death, since he accomplished the formidable task of overcoming Yama.
Vajrabhairava is depicted with the head of a buffalo. This is topped by the head of Manjushri, signifying Vajrabhairava’s true nature.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jon Aaron teaches meditation, Buddhist dharma, and is a Somatic Experience Practitioner® in New York City. He is well known as a teacher of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) as well as a trainer of new teachers of this seminal eight-week curriculum. Among his primary interests are the use of meditation and somatic work in healing trauma and working with individuals with chronic pain and grief. Recently he has been teaching for the New York Police Department in an eight-hour intervention called Cultivating Mindfulness: expanding the capacity of mind and body to work with stress, anxiety, and trauma. He is a co-founder of the MBSR Teacher Collaborative of Greater New York and a founding member of the Global Mindfulness Collaborative, and is a long-time teacher at New York Insight Meditation Center. When the pandemic hit, along with his partner he co-founded Space2Meditate, an online community of meditators that is still going strong six days a week. Learn more about Jon Aaron on his website.
This program is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg and teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine and supported by the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism.
