Mindfulness Meditation · Unity
This week’s meditation session is led by Jon Aaron and the theme is Unity. The guided meditation begins at 13:13.
Sacred Earthly Realms and Heavenly Paradises; Central Tibet; 17th century; Pigments on cloth; 52 1/2 × 74 1/4 in.; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2010.31
Tibet is depicted as a terrestrial paradise, much like the hidden land of Shambhala, a heavenly realm believed to be concealed on our world and the basis of the Western construct of the fabled lost land of Shangri-la. Tibet’s sacred geography is mapped out, with Mount Wutai and its distinctive five multicolored peaks to the east (bottom left) and Mount Kailash’s snowy peaks towering over nomadic scenes of the Tibetan northern plains to the west (top right).
The central imagery in this painting accords with a prophecy in which a divinely anointed ruler, known as a chakravartin and identified by a golden wheel, transforms the world into an ideal realm. Here the king sits in a palace surrounded by representatives of various races and nations who have come to make offerings at his feet. Complementing this terrestrial paradise, the top of the painting includes depictions of three bodhisattvas floating above in their own heavenly pure lands.
Jon Aaron is a Dharma and mindfulness teacher based in New York and Chicago. Since 2006 he has taught at the New York Insight Meditation Center, offering Dharma and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) classes. He regularly leads retreats around the US. He is primarily grounded in the Theravada tradition, alongside non-dual and Mahayana approaches. His teaching emphasizes integrating Dharma and mindfulness into daily life to foster clarity in addressing personal and social challenges. His teachers include Matthew Flickstein and, more recently, Kittisaro and Thanissara through their Dharmapala program. Jon also studied contemplative care at the Zen Center for Contemplative Care and completed the Integrated Study and Practice program at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is a certified MBSR teacher and teacher trainer and a Somatic Experience Practitioner® In response to the pandemic, he and his partner, Upayadhi, launched the Space2Meditate community, offering daily meditation since March 2020. Additionally, he co-hosts the podcast Diggin’ the Dharma with scholar Doug Smith.
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