Theme: Happiness
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 18:23.
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 supported with thanks to our presenting partners Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project and Parabola Magazine.
Related Artwork
This sculpture of the Buddha shows him wearing a crown and monk’s robes. With the developments in Buddhist thought and practice during the Pala period (8th”“12th century), images of the crowned Buddha became prominent in eastern India and across Asia. In Tibet, this convention became known as Vajrasana Buddha, referring to the famous image at Vajrasana (present-day Bodhgaya, India) that commemorated the Buddha’s enlightenment.
The Buddha is seated with his right hand in the earth-touching gesture and the left hand in the meditation gesture. His broad face, with slightly downcast eyes, shows a faint smile. The crown and earrings are decorated with turquoise, and his monastic robe is engraved with designs. The Buddha’s face and body are painted with gold, while his hair is painted blue, a typical Tibetan convention.
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.