Mindfulness Meditation · Transforming Obstacles
This week’s meditation session is led by Tracy Cochran and the theme is Transforming Obstacles.
Peaceful and Wrathful Deities of the Bardo; Tibet; 18th century; Pigments on cloth; Object size: 46 5/8 x 34 in. (estimated)Image size: 45 1/4 x 32 5/8 in.Framed size: 57 3/4 x 44 1/4 x 2 1/4 in.; Rubin Museum of Art; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2006.66.17
This painting depicts the 108 gods as described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. According to these texts, after a person dies their consciousness experiences all these gods. Some of the gods are attractive while others are frightening. If a person’s consciousness reacts too strongly to either the positive or the negatives gods, they will be reborn. The key is for the person to realize that all the deities are simply projections of their own consciousness, leading them to achieve enlightenment between the stages of death and rebirth. No matter how attractive or repulsive these gods are, they are ultimately obstacles, preventing the mind from seeing its own nature.
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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