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Theme: Seeking Refuge

About the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast

The Rubin Museum of Art presents a weekly meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area, with each session focusing on a specific work of art. This podcast is recorded in front of a live audience, and includes an opening talk, a 20-minute sitting session, and a closing discussion. The guided meditation begins at 17:57.

If you would like to attend Mindfulness Meditation sessions in person or learn more, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation.

This program is supported with thanks to our presenting partners Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project and Parabola Magazine.

RELATED ARTWORK
Mandala of Hevajra Hevajra; Mandala Central Tibet; 15th century; Mineral pigments on cloth; C2002.22.1 (HA 65115)
Mandala of Hevajra Hevajra; Mandala Central Tibet; 15th century; Mineral pigments on cloth; C2002.22.1 (HAR 65115)

Theme: Seeking Refuge

The tantric deity Hevajra stands in the middle of his mandala, a graphic representation of his palace, in union with his consort Nairatmya. In order to use mandala visualization for meditation, a practitioner must be ritually initiated into the mandala, in effect taking refuge in the celestial abode of the deity. Once a part of the mandala, the practitioner can use it to transform himself or herself into an enlightened being, like Hevajra in the center. By becoming a buddha, the practitioner can then provide a refuge for other beings.

About the Speaker

Tracy Cochran is editorial director of Parabola, a quarterly magazine that for forty years has drawn on the world’s cultural and wisdom traditions to explore the questions that all humans share. She has been a student of meditation and spiritual practices for decades and teaches mindfulness meditation and mindful writing at New York Insight Meditation Center and throughout the greater New York area. In addition to Parabola, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Psychology Today, O Magazine, New York Magazine, the Boston Review, and many other publications and anthologies. For more information please visit tracycochran.org.

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