This week’s meditation session is led by Rebecca Li and the theme is Ritual.
The guided meditation begins at 11:44.
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 45-minute weekly program designed to fit into your lunch break. Each session is inspired by a different work of art from the Rubin Museum’s collection and includes an opening talk, a 20-minute meditation session, and a closing discussion.
RELATED ARTWORK
The gyaling is similar to the oboe. Both instruments have a double reed. These exquisite gyalings are adorned with silver and turquoise. Gyalings are played on ceremonial occasions, when entering the temple and when welcoming Rinpoches and Lamas.
Here we see two examples of a gyaling, because gyalings are generally played by two or more monks, nuns, or laypeople. This enables the sound to continuously flow.
Gyalings have an important function within sacred Tibetan music. The other instruments that typically constitute the ritual orchestra are the dungchen and kangling (horns), dungkar (conch shells), drillbu (handbells), and silnyen (cymbals). The instrumental music is interspersed with chanting.
About the Speaker
Kimberly Brown is a meditation teacher and author. She leads classes and retreats that emphasize the power of compassion and kindness meditation to reconnect us to ourselves and others. Her teachings provide an approachable pathway to personal and collective well-being through effective and modern techniques based on traditional practices. She studies in both the Tibetan and Insight schools of Buddhism and is a certified mindfulness instructor. Her new book, Navigating Grief and Loss: 25 Buddhist Practices to Keep Your Heart Open to Yourself and Others, was published in November, and an updated edition of Steady, Calm, and Brave was released in January 2023. Both are published by Prometheus Books. You can learn more about Kimberly on her 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.
