Mindfulness Meditation · Hope
This week’s meditation session is led by Tracy Cochran and the theme is Hope. The guided meditation begins at 15:04.
Wish-fulfilling Tree; Nepal; 2016; bronze cast mandala, found objects, and rubble; 59 × 27 × 27 in. (Estimated); Rubin Museum of Art; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2019.1.1a-j
Following the devastating earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, 2015, Tsherin Sherpa returned to his home city of Kathmandu and created Wish-fulfilling Tree (2016). He worked with local craftspeople to create a seven-layer bronze mandala, an idealized representation of the cosmic universe. Both a memorial to the destruction wrought by the earthquake and a wish for the future, the mandala is surrounded by rubble, debris, and found objects, representing the types of household goods destroyed during the natural disaster and creating a relationship between cosmic aspiration and earthly reality. The notion of a wish-fulfilling tree is found across Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism to satisfy worldly and celestial aspirations.
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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