This week’s meditation session is led by Kimberly Brown and the theme is Action. The guided meditation begins at 17:20.
Following the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, Tsherin Sherpa returned to his home city of Kathmandu and created Wish-fulfilling Tree. He worked with local craftsmen to create a seven-layer bronze mandala, an idealized representation of the cosmic universe. Both a memorial to the destruction wrought by the earthquake and a wish for the future, the mandala is surrounded by rubble, debris, and found objects, representing the types of household goods destroyed during the natural disaster and creating a relationship between cosmic aspiration and earthly reality.
The notion of a wish-fulfilling tree is found across Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism to satisfy worldly and celestial desires. In Sherpa’s installation it alludes to the Nepalese’s practical hope for economic compensation post-earthquake, symbolized in an earlier iteration of this work with signed rupee notes on the mandala. The rubble, debris, and found objects were all sourced from within 5 blocks of the Rubin Museum, creating a local connection that also speaks to the universality of the work’s intentions.
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 book Navigating Grief and Loss: 25 Buddhist Practices to Keep Your Heart Open to Yourself and Others was published in 2022, and an updated edition of Steady, Calm, and Brave was released in 2023. Both are published by Prometheus Books.
Your gateway to Himalayan art and its insights, with stories and news from the Rubin.