Mindfulness Meditation · Light and Dark
This week’s meditation session is led by Tracy Cochran and the theme is Light and Dark. The guided meditation begins at 14:20.
Shri Devi Makzo Gyelmo (Buddhist Protector); Central Tibet; 18th entury; ground mineral pigment with fine gold on cotton; Rubin Museum of Art, Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2016.3
This painting depicts the Indian goddess Shri Devi Magzor Gyalmo, the queen who repels armies. An enlightened protectress, she rides a mule through a sea of blood while holding a skull cup and a stick of sandalwood marked with a vajra. She is a wrathful version of Saraswati, whose boundless compassion manifests in this fearsome appearance to scare away foes of the Buddha’s teachings. These frightful images also represent the transmutations of negative emotions into energy for one’s practice, embracing all experiences and rejecting none.
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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