Mindfulness Meditation · Awaken
This week’s meditation session is led by Tracy Cochran and the theme is Awaken. The guided meditation begins at 11:25.
White Tara with Long Life Deities; Tibet; 19th century; Pigments on cloth; 27 3/8 × 18 1/4 × 2 1/4 in. (estimated); Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, gift of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation; F1996.32.5
According to Buddhist belief, at the moment of death we have an opportunity to attain an enlightened state of mind. But our own karma brings up various visions, including terrifying ones. If we do not recognize them as projections of our own mind, we cannot reach the enlightened state or a good rebirth. This painting depicts the deities described in a 14th-century text, The Peaceful and Wrathful Deities: The Profound Teachings of Self-Liberated Wisdom Mind, as well as the famous Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State. The teachings of this text allow practitioners to prepare and train their minds for this future eventuality. Often ritual specialists read these instructions to the deceased as the means of guiding them through the difficult process of transitioning to a future existence.
Tracy Cochran has been a student and teacher of meditation and spiritual practice for decades. She is the founder of the Hudson River Sangha. In addition to offering meditation online, Tracy has taught mindfulness meditation and mindful writing at the Rubin Museum and the New York Insight Meditation Center, as well as in schools, corporations, and other venues worldwide. She is also a writer and the editorial director of Parabola, an acclaimed quarterly magazine that seeks to bring timeless spiritual wisdom to the burning questions of the day.
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