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 18:11.
If you would like to attend Mindfulness Meditation sessions in person or learn more, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation.
This program is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project and Parabola Magazine.
Related Artwork
Theme: Resilience
Akshobhyavajra
The meditation deity Akshobhyavajra, described in the Secret Assembly (Guhyasamaja) Tantra, symbolically unites the Five Buddha Families. Three-headed, six-armed, holding a vajra and bell, and embracing a consort, he represents the ultimate form of Buddha Akshobhya and the unification of method and wisdom that allows one to overcome duality. The enlightened qualities and wisdom of the five constituents (skandhas) of the human body and mind are developed through the resilient practices of visualization, meditation, and ritual.
In this painting many of the stylistic elements, including the faces, the scrollwork background, and the hierarchical organization, are reminiscent of early Tibetan art. In contrast, the fullness of the deities’ garments and their patterns””such as the Chinese-inspired flowers and clouds””the gilding of all the figures, and the sense of movement are more recent developments that emerged with the Khyenri painting tradition in the fifteenth century.
About the Speaker
Dr. Rebecca Li, a Dharma heir in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen, started practicing meditation in 1995. She began her teacher’s training with Master Sheng Yen in 1999 to become a Dharma and meditation instructor. Later on, she trained with Simon Child to lead intensive retreats and received full Dharma transmission in 2016. Currently, she teaches meditation and Dharma classes, gives public lectures, and leads retreats in North America and the UK. Her talks and writings can be found at www.rebeccali.org. She is the founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community and a sociology professor at The College of New Jersey, where she also serves as faculty director of the Alan Dawley Center for the Study of Social Justice.