About the MeditationAbout the Meditation

This week’s meditation session is led by Jon Aaron and the theme is Fearlessness.

Related ArtworkRelated Artwork

Green Tara; Tibet; 13th century; Brass with inlays of silver; 18 1/2 × 12 1/2 × 9 5/8 in. (estimated); Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2005.16.30

This incredible 13th-century sculpture of Green Tara from Tibet displays all the classic traits of this popular Buddhist goddess. Dressed as an Indian princess, she sits in the fluid pose of royal ease, suggesting her active and helping nature. One of her origin stories says that Green Tara was a beautiful princess who through her fearlessness and commitment to helping one hundred thousand beings a day became a bodhisattva. She vowed to always be reborn as a woman to reach as many beings as possible. The head of her buddha family is Amoghasiddhi, who exemplifies fearlessness. Green Tara also has this quality of fearlessness since despite all the suffering in the world, she remains full of compassion and equanimity. The grace of her pose reminds us to remain fearless despite all challenges we that we in our lives.

Jon Aaron is a Dharma and mindfulness teacher based in New York and Chicago. Since 2006 he has taught at the New York Insight Meditation Center, offering Dharma and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) classes. He regularly leads retreats around the US. He is primarily grounded in the Theravada tradition, alongside non-dual and Mahayana approaches. His teaching emphasizes integrating Dharma and mindfulness into daily life to foster clarity in addressing personal and social challenges. His teachers include Matthew Flickstein and, more recently, Kittisaro and Thanissara through their Dharmapala program. Jon also studied contemplative care at the Zen Center for Contemplative Care and completed the Integrated Study and Practice program at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is a certified MBSR teacher and teacher trainer and a Somatic Experience Practitioner® In response to the pandemic, he and his partner, Upayadhi, launched the Space2Meditate community, offering daily meditation since March 2020. Additionally, he co-hosts the podcast Diggin’ the Dharma with scholar Doug Smith.

Published December 9, 2015
PodcastsMindfulness Meditation

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