This week’s meditation session is led by Rebecca Li and the theme is Interconnectedness.
The episode begins with an opening talk followed by a 20-minute meditation. In this episode, the guided meditation begins at 15:27.
RELATED ARTWORK
The term mandala means “circle” or “center” in Sanskrit. A mandala serves as a symbolic map of a universe. Each quadrant of a mandala is associated with a different cardinal direction, color, and element. Mandalas often depict heavenly palaces, with a deity featured in the center. Mandalas are used during prayer and meditation by advanced practitioners of Buddhism.
The Sarvavid Vairochana Mandala features an outer circle surrounding a perfect square, and four quadrants placed around an inner circle. The mandala depicts the palace of the Sarvavid Vairochana deity. Sarvavid Vairochana’s retinue is around him. He is depicted with four faces. He is seated in a meditation posture. He is surrounded at the cardinal directions by four other buddhas.
These buddhas sit at the tips of the triangular quadrants, and together with Vairochana they represent the Buddhas of the Five Families or the Five Wisdom Buddhas. They help practitioners transform the five afflictive emotions of pride, anger, attachment, envy, and ignorance that cloud our worldview into the wisdoms and skills necessary to reach enlightenment. Awareness of our emotions reminds us of our interdependence on all beings and the interconnectedness of all life.
About the Speaker
Dr. Rebecca Li, a Dharma heir in the lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen, is the founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma Community. She teaches meditation and Dharma classes, gives public lectures, and leads retreats in North America and Europe. Li is the author of Allow Joy into Our Hearts: Chan Practice in Uncertain Times, and her new book titled Illumination: A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No-Method was published by Shambhala Publications in October 2023. She is a sociology professor and lives with her husband in New Jersey. Her talks and writings can be found at www.rebeccali.org.
This program is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg and teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine and supported by the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism.
