Mindfulness Meditation · Healing
This week’s meditation session is led by Sharon Salzberg and the theme is Healing. The guided meditation begins at 13:33.
Medicine Buddha Palace (Copy of first painting from the set of the Tibetan Medical Paintings from Mentsikhang Lhasa); Rebgong county, Qinghai Province, China; 2012-2013; Pigments on cloth; 74 3/4 × 58 1/4 × 2 in.; Rubin Museum of Art; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; SC2013.6
This painting of the Medicine Buddha in his palace illustrates the first chapter of the Four Medical Tantras, which many medical students and doctors recite every morning in homage to this buddha and his medical tradition. The palace, presented as a traditional Buddhist mandala diagram, is surrounded by four mountains. Each mountain offers the perfect environment for specific medicinal plants to grow and harbors various types of minerals, precious stones, and springs with restorative waters, each associated with particular healing qualities and used in treatment. At the center of the palace the Medicine Buddha, in the form of the teacher Rigpa Yeshe, is seen expounding the science of healing to four groups of disciples. This painting is a rendition of the first painting of an important set of 79 medical thangkas created in Lhasa, Tibet, in the late 17th century.
Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, has guided meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Her latest book is Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World. She is a weekly columnist for On Being, a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, and the author of several other books, including the New York Times bestseller Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, and Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness. Ms. Salzberg has been a regular participant in the Rubin’s many on-stage conversations and regards the Rubin as a supplemental office.
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