Mindfulness Meditation · Mantra
This week’s meditation session is led by Tracy Cochran and the theme is Mantra.
Buddha Amitayus; Tibet; 17th century; Pigments on cloth; 28 1/2 × 21 1/8 in. (estimated); Rubin Museum of Art; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2002.18.1
Foregoing his usual red color for gold, Amitayus sits flanked by two bodhisattvas with the motif of a meditating buddha repeated in the background. In his hands rests a vase containing amrita, or the nectar of immortality. Amitayus’s name means “boundless life” and is venerated particularly for long-life practices within the Tantric Buddhist tradition. The vase itself is a symbol for emptiness, one of the fundamental teachings of the Buddha. Though a vase contains empty space within it, it still has a form just like the experience of existence. From understanding the emptiness contained in the vase emerges a better understanding of the whole.
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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