Mindfulness Meditation · Change
This week’s meditation session is led by Lavina Shamdasani and the theme is Change. The guided meditation begins at 12:38.
Leg Bone Trumpet (Kang Ling); Tibet; 18th-19th century; Human bone, copper, coral, leather; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Robert and Lois Bayils; SC2019.3.2
The process of dismantling the ego is a type of change. Change could also be found when Buddhists “rhythmically rotate the drum to beat it at appropriate moments of their ritual,” trying to transform their perceptions.
Buddhist practitioners who engage in the practice of “cutting the ego” (chod) use implements such as this during their meditation and rituals. Traditionally, they would engage in this practice at charnel grounds, places where dead bodies decompose or are eaten by vultures, to facilitate their experiences. These yogis visualize, while reciting verses and mantras of the tantric ritual, that they dismantle their ego. They blow the trumpet to summon spirits and other beings inhabiting the charnel ground and offer them their visualized cut-up body as an offering. They also rhythmically rotate the drum to beat it at appropriate moments of their ritual, which aids in transforming their perceptions.
Lavina Shamdasani is a certified compassion teacher through the Compassion Institute and Stanford University. She has taught programs focused on mindfulness, compassion, joy, and gratitude and led book club discussions and meditations for over five years.
Lavina studied positive psychology coaching at the Wholebeing Institute and helps clients transform their lives and meet their personal and professional goals.
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