Theme: Impermanence
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 15:18.
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
Begtse is one of the main protector figures of the Gelugpa order. He is distinguished by his “coat of mail,” which is wonderfully portrayed in this sculpture as it stretches over the vast expanse of his corpulent torso. He brandishes a flaming sword in his right hand and the fresh heart of the enemy in his left hand. Though these seem to be fearsome objects, they all symbolize the defeat of ego-centered conceptions. He wears the gear of the Mongolian generals with felt boots, flaring skirts and sleeves, and dragon-headed emblems on his chest, stomach, tight sleeves, and at the opening of his boots. As he is a dharmapala (protector of the faith), he also wears the elements of the wrathful deities: the five-skull crown and garland of 50 severed heads. His locks of hair fly out to one side and still bear the original red pigment, as does his curling tongue.
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.