This week’s meditation session is led by Elaine Retholtz and the theme is Openness. The guided meditation begins at 11:39.

Avalokiteshvara is the bodhisattva of boundless compassion, who has vowed to remain in the cycle of rebirth throughout time to work for the benefit of all beings. Practitioners visualize Avalokiteshvara aspiring to make their body, speech, and mind indistinguishable from his, thereby cultivating a greater sense of openness.

Avalokiteshvara is depicted in many forms, including peaceful and wrathful, with multiple arms and legs, up to 1,000 hands and eyes, and 11 heads. In this intricate thangka (Tibetan scroll painting), Avalokiteshvara is adorned with a crown. He holds crystal prayer beads in his upper right hand and a lotus flower in his upper left hand, both signifying purity. His other pair of hands are folded at the heart in a gesture of salutation, and his graceful pose evokes his kind and loving nature.

In this serene setting rife with detail, Avalokiteshvara presides over his celestial dwelling of Mount Potalaka. This idyllic realm is portrayed as an island off the coast of western India. Tiny figures climb a rope and cross a bridge toward Potalaka, representing the wish of Buddhists to attain rebirth in this pure realm.