Mindfulness Meditation · Power
This week’s meditation session is led by Rebecca Li and the theme is Power. The guided meditation begins at 21:00.
Guan Yu, God of War; Inner Mongolia; late 18th - 19th century; Pigments on cloth; 35 3/4 x 28 7/8 x 2 1/4 in. (90.8 x 73.3 x 5.7 cm); Rubin Museum of Art; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2012.7.24
Guan Yu was a Chinese general of the Three Kingdoms period (220–280) who was deified to become a focus of popular religion in China. The landscape of this painting is typical of Qing-period thangkas made in Beijing and Inner Mongolia, where the emperor’s Tibetan Buddhist chaplain Changkya Rolpai Dorje (1717–1786) oversaw the workshops.
Guan Yu appears at the center as a martial figure. His spear, noose, and white face seem to be borrowed from Tibetan war god imagery. The consort depicted behind him to his left is also not part of his typical Chinese iconography and appears to be another “Tibetanization” of the god.
Dr. Rebecca Li, a dharma heir in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen, is the founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community. She teaches meditation and dharma classes, gives public lectures, and leads retreats in North America and Europe. Li is the author of Allow Joy into Our Hearts: Chan Practice in Uncertain Times, and her book Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No-Method was published by Shambhala Publications in 2023. She is a sociology professor and lives with her husband in New Jersey.
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