Mindfulness Meditation · Lasting Happiness
This week’s meditation session is led by Tracy Cochran and the theme is Lasting Happiness. The guided meditation begins at 13:12.
Sacred Earthly Realms and Heavenly Paradises; Central Tibet; 17th century; Pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2010.31
This painting is a vision of a future age of peace and harmony, where Tibet is depicted as a terrestrial paradise. Tibet’s sacred geography is mapped out, with Mount Wutai and its distinctive five peaks in the bottom left and Mount Kailash’s snowy peaks towering in the top right. The location of the central mountain with the meditator in a cave is uncertain, but it may be the Pure Crystal Mountain, also known as Mount Tsari, in southeast Tibet, which was an increasingly important Tibetan pilgrimage site in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The central imagery of the painting accords with a prophecy in which a divinely anointed ruler, known as a chakravartin, or “wheel turning” king, transforms the world into an ideal realm. Here the ruler sits in a palace surrounded by representatives of various races and nations who have come to make offerings at his feet.
Complementing this terrestrial paradise are three bodhisattvas floating above in their own heavenly paradises: Green Tara in her Sandalwood Forest; Maitreya in Tushita Heaven and Avalokiteshvara in his Potala Pure Land.
In the top left of the painting are the Four Harmonious Friends—the elephant, monkey, hare, and partridge working together in harmony and living a virtuous life. This teaches us that the spirit of unity and collaboration are key to achieving lasting happiness.
Tracy Cochran has taught meditation and spiritual practice for many years. She is a speaker and author whose most recent book, Presence: The Art of Being At Home in Yourself, was published by Shambhala Publications in 2024. Tracy is the founder and leading teacher of the Hudson River Sangha and has taught mindfulness and mindful writing at New York Insight, the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, and many other venues. In addition to serving as the editorial director of the acclaimed spiritual quarterly Parabola, her writings have appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Psychology Today, The Best Spiritual Writing series, Parabola, and many other publications and anthologies. For more about Tracy, please visit tracycochran.org.
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