Mindfulness Meditation · New Beginnings
This week’s meditation session is led by Elaine Retholtz and the theme is New Beginnings. The guided meditation begins at 11:15.
Hand-held Drum (Damaru); Tibet; date unknown; human bone, semi-precious stone, leather, pigment; Rubin Museum of Art; gift of G.W. VAn Keppel Trust; SC2022.5.1
The damaru is an instrument played in the right hand by twisting the wrist and causing the strikers to beat against the drum skin. The drum skin of this damaru is made of leather, the strikers are made of semi-precious stones, and the drum itself is made of human bone.
The chöd damaru (or chöda) is a specialized form of the instrument, utilized in the Tantric practice of chöd. This practice involves cutting away defilements and symbolically offering one’s body. The chöd damaru serves as a tool for severing attachment to one’s being, and its dissipating sound represents emptiness.
Elaine Retholtz has been studying and practicing the Dharma since 1988. In addition to teaching dharma at New York Insight, she is a certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher and a certified MBSR teacher trainer. She is deeply interested in helping students integrate mindfulness into daily life. Elaine is committed to deepening her own understanding of issues of diversity and the way racial conditioning in the United States affects all of us—both as individuals and in relation to the institutions we are a part of, including New York Insight.
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