Theme: Transformation
About the Meditation
Meditation session led by Sharon Salzberg.
The guided meditation begins at 19:16.
For centuries Himalayan practitioners have used meditation to quiet the mind, open the heart, calm the nervous system, and increase focus. Now Western scientists, business leaders, and the secular world have embraced meditation as a vital tool for brain health.
Whether you’re a beginner, a dabbler, or a skilled meditator seeking the company of others, join expert teachers in a forty-five-minute weekly program designed to fit into your lunch break. Each session will be inspired by a different work of art from the Rubin Museum’s collection and will include an opening talk, a twenty-minute meditation session, and a closing discussion.
This program is supported with thanks to our presenting partners Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project and Parabola Magazine.
Related Artwork
The vajra and bell—the two most common ritual implements used in Tibetan Buddhism—have particular significance in empowerment ceremonies. The vajra, a type of scepter, represents compassion, firmness, the uprooting of suffering, and that which is immovable, indestructible, and imperturbable. The bell represents wisdom (about the true, empty nature of reality) and the propagation of the truth. When the vajra and bell are used in an empowerment ritual, their combined compassion and wisdom are a means to liberate sentient beings from suffering.
There are many different explanations of the symbolic meanings of the vajra and bell. The meanings can vary depending on the different tantra literature or cycle of Tantric practice. A general explanation describes the five pronged vajra scepter as representing twenty-eight deities and the bell representing twenty-three deities.
About the Speaker
Sharon Salzberg, cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, has guided meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Sharon’s latest book is Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection. She is a weekly columnist for On Being, a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, and the author of several other books including the New York Times bestseller Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, and Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness. Sharon has been a regular participant in many onstage conversations at the Rubin.
