This week’s meditation session led by Kaira Jewel Lingo and the theme is Balance. The guided meditation begins at 23:41.

Machik Labdron was born in 1055 and died in 1149, at the age of 94. She is revered for originating the tantric practice known as “cutting through ego” (chod). Chod practitioners intentionally visualize in their mind’s eye offering their own bodies to the deities.

Here she is shown adorned in bone ornaments, dancing to the sounds of her drum (damaru) and the bell she holds. To her right are dakinis, goddesses who walk the skies, dancing with her. To her left, a tantric master, possibly Machik’s teacher, is blowing into a leg bone trumpet. A personification of the Perfection of Wisdom, the deity Prajnaparamita is above her among the buddhas. Machik Labdron reminds us that realizing the empty nature of reality frees us from attachment and suffering, and enables us to gain a greater sense of balance.