About the Meditation
Meditation session led by Victoria Davis.
The guided meditation begins at 10:48
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.
Presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg and the Interdependence Project. This program is supported in part by the Hemera Foundation.
RELATED ARTWORK
Theme: Impermanence
Illuminated books became very popular in 19th-century Mongolia, and unlike many Buddhist texts that were reproduced using block prints, most of these books were hand written as is true of this text. This manuscript of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a guide to navigating the intermediate state of consciousness between death and rebirth, or the bardo, features a vertical Uyghur-based Mongolian script that was instituted by order of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan (reigned 1206–1227) in the early 13th century.
Painted illustrations translate the written word into easily recognized and memorable forms and shapes, both peaceful and fearsome, that are meant to be visualized during the bardo practice in preparation for one’s own death or as part of the ritual at someone else’s death performed by a ritual specialist. In one folio, various female forms are depicted in active postures, each with a different animal head and body color. The colors relate to basic elements such as fire, air, and earth, and the animal heads are derived from Central Asian species of wild game along with some iconic Indian animals such as the elephant and boar.
About the Speaker
Victoria Davis is the founder of WellspringMind, a New York-based company offering in-office meditation and genuine happiness training. Victoria is an avid meditator, yogi, and mental health advocate. With a mind labeled ‘obsessive-compulsive’ and ‘disordered’ before the age of 10, Victoria was an early adopter of mindfulness and movement-based practices for mental flourishing. She first turned to the Buddha dharma in 2012 and has dedicated her life to sharing practices that settle body, speech, and mind in the cultivation of genuine happiness. Her teachers include B. Alan Wallace, Douglas Veenhof, Venerable Robina Courtin, and Sri Dharma Mittra. She lives in Brooklyn and teaches online and across the five boroughs, and hosts trainings globally.