This week’s meditation session is led by Elaine Retholtz and the theme is Appreciation. The guided meditation begins at 11:54.

Making offerings is an integral part of Buddhist practices such as religious rituals and ceremonies. The act can be understood as sharing something and giving it away to a religious community or sacred space. Offerings can take many forms, from words and sounds to fluids, food, incense, and flowers, as well as symbolic and abstract representations.

In the Rubin’s Shrine Room adjacent to this 2023 installation, seven stemmed bowls with auspicious symbols function as receptacles to receive offerings. Offerings bowls in a shrine room are usually arranged in a straight line. In the installation Offerings, artist Palden Weinreb invites us to experience the receptacles in a circular arrangement.