Mindfulness Meditation · Compassion
This week’s meditation session is led by Reverend Doyeon Park and the theme is Compassion. The guided meditation begins at 10:43.
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara; Nepal; 13th - 14th century; Gilt copper alloy with semiprecious stone inlay; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2005.16.8
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 compassion.
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. Here Avalokiteshvara is portrayed in his simplest form, standing while extending his right hand in the gesture of supreme generosity and holding the stalk of a lotus (now broken) in his left hand. This sculpture is remarkable for its fluid simplicity of form and graceful proportions.
Avalokiteshvara demonstrates infinite mercy and loving kindness to all sentient beings. As we behold this powerful bodhisattva let us reflect on how we can more fully express compassion to others and ourselves.
Reverend Doyeon Park is a gyomunim, a title in the Won Buddhist tradition that means “one who devotes oneself to teaching the Dharma.” Since 2008 she has served as a minister at the Manhattan Won Buddhist Temple and as the Won Buddhism representative to the United Nations. In addition, she serves as the Buddhist spiritual life advisor at both Columbia University and New York University, the president of the Buddhist Council of New York, and cochair of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations.
Inspired by the Buddhist path of inner freedom and happiness, Reverend Doyeon began her monastic training in 1998. She earned her BA from the Department of Won Buddhism at Wonkwang University in Iksan, South Korea, and completed her MA in Won Buddhist Studies at the Won Institute of Graduate Studies in Glenside, Pennsylvania. She received full ordination in 2007.
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