Mindfulness Meditation · Renewal
This week’s meditation session is led by Tracy Cochran and the theme is Renewal. The guided meditation begins at 17:03.
The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (1617-1682) with Previous Incarnations; Central Tibet; 18th century; Pigments on cloth; 27 3/8 × 17 3/8 in. (estimated); Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, gift of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation; F1996.29.3
The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngagwang Lobzang Gyatso (1617–1682), depicted here holding a lotus and a vase of longevity, was the first theocratic ruler of a unified Tibet. His status is expressed through a language of divine inheritance, the succession of past glorious empires through reincarnation. The Fifth Dalai Lama identified himself as an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, depicted in this painting at top center. Avalokiteshvara was not only the patron deity of Tibet but also the founder of the Tibetan Empire, Songtsen Gampo (r. 617-650), was considered his emanation. By asserting himself as an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the Dalai Lama was symbolically declaring that his was a divine kingship and more specifically that he was in the lineage of the Tibetan emperor who first united Tibet and thus positioned himself as the rightful inheritor of the old Tibetan Empire.
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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