Mindfulness Meditation · Beginning Again
This week’s meditation session is led by Tracy Cochran and the theme is Beginning Again.
Red Avalokiteshvara, also known as Bunga Dya, and Macchendranath; Nepal; Dated by inscription 1842; Pigments on cloth; 30 1/8 × 22 3/4 in. (estimated); Rubin Museum of Art; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2006.66.45
Though traditionally Buddhists do not concern themselves with creation myths, this 19th-century painting from Nepal presents Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, as the creator of the world. He stands surrounded by various Hindu deities as he assigns them to different tasks for maintaining the universe.
Along with being Avalokiteshvara, he is also Bunga Dya, a local deity associated with bringing the annual monsoons. Before the monsoons, Nepal becomes increasingly dry with the many plants withering away and animals hiding from the heat. Once the monsoon rains fall, everything comes back to life as it becomes time to plant rice for the fall’s harvest. Both the creation of the world and the monsoons serve as reminders that even though we may lose focus during meditation practice, we can always begin again.
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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