This week’s meditation session is led by Kimberly Brown and the theme is New Beginnings. The guided meditation begins at 8:51.

This is the first composition from a set of nine woodblock prints depicting key scenes from the life story of Buddha Shakyamuni. This image portrays the Buddha’s birth and the second and third deeds “Descent from Tushita Heaven” and “Entering the Mother’s Womb/Birth”. Buddha’s birth represents the ultimate new beginning, a conscious choice to enter the world to achieve enlightenment.

This set of the Twelve Deeds of the Buddha was based on compositions attributed to the famous late 19th-century master painter Purbu Tsering of Chamdo. Above in Tushita Heaven (top left), after choosing a suitable place and time to be born, Buddha Shakyamuni in bodhisattva form is seen passing a crown to the Bodhisattva Maitreya who will become the future Buddha. He then descends to earth in the form of a white elephant (top right), which his mother Maya sees in a dream as she sleeps in her palace (bottom right).

The central theme which dominates the composition is the birth of prince Siddhartha. On the bottom left, Siddhartha is bathed by naga (snake spirits) and takes seven steps in each of the four cardinal directions, with a lotus flower blooming under each footprint. Raising his hand, he pronounced his coming into the world and that this will be his last birth. This woodblock print was made at the Derge Printing House in the Kham region of southeastern Tibet. Founded in 1729, it is one of the largest and most important producers of traditional Tibetan woodblock prints.