Mindfulness Meditation · Intentionality
This week’s meditation session is led by Kate Johnson and the theme is Intentionality. The guided meditation begins at 13:25.
Bodhisattva Maitreya; Tibet or China; 17th - 18th century; Pigments on cloth; 58 1/2 × 32 1/2 in. (estimated); Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2006.66.34
This painting is an unusual pastiche of Tibetan and Chinese imagery and painting techniques. The central figure, the bodhisattva and future buddha Maitreya, is marked by his traditional Tibetan Buddhist iconographic attributes: he is painted red, has a stupa in his crown, and holds a blossoming branch with a vase on top. Maitreya is surrounded by three small vignettes, which clearly have been added to the composition, referencing his future existence as a buddha.
During the fragmentation of their empire at the end of the ninth century, a time of uncertainty, Tibetans looked to their glorious imperial past as a frame of reference for the present and an aspirational model for the future. They considered the past and future similarly entwined within individual lives. How might this understanding of past, present, and future help us understand the fluidity of time and the role of intentionality in the formation of the future?
Kate Johnson works at the intersections of spiritual practice, social action, and creativity. She has been practicing Buddhist meditation in the Western Insight/Theravada tradition since her early twenties and is empowered to teach through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She holds a BFA in dance from the Alvin Ailey School/Fordham University, and MA in performance studies from NYU.
Kate is a core faculty member of MIT’s Presencing Institute, and has trained hundreds of leaders and change-makers in using Social Presencing Theater, a mindfulness and dance improvisation methodology used to inform strategic planning and systems change in our complex world.
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