Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum with Lama Aria Drolma

The theme for this meditation is Love. It is inspired by an artwork from the Rubin’s collection and it will include an opening talk and a 20-min session.

Transcript

Welcome to the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast.

I'm your host,

Dawn Eshelman.

Every Wednesday at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea,

We present a meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area.

This podcast is a recording of our weekly practice.

If you would like to join us in person,

Please visit our website at rubinmuseum.

Org slash meditation.

We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg.

This series is supported in part by the Hemera Foundation.

In the description for each episode,

You will find information about the theme for that week's session,

Including an image of a related artwork chosen from the Rubin Museum's permanent collection.

And now please enjoy your practice.

Good afternoon,

Everyone.

Hello,

Hello.

Welcome to the Rubin and to our weekly mindfulness meditation practice.

Anybody here for the first time?

Wow,

Great.

Welcome.

And welcome back to those of you who have been here before and who some of whom make this part of their weekly ritual.

So it's great to have you all here.

And you're joining us during the month of love.

We're talking about love this month,

Which is such a delight.

And to do that today,

We're sharing with you this beautiful Tonka of green Tara pictured here in her pure land.

This is kind of her home base,

If you will,

This beautiful idealized environment that she resides in.

And she is surrounded by in that kind of halo that you see detailed there,

21 Taras,

So the different 21 emanations of herself.

And then further beyond that,

Just some really beautiful,

Amazing gods and goddesses and deities that inhabit this pure land with her.

We'll take a little bit of a closer look.

And you can see a little more detail there and the Taras that surround her there.

You can see the lotus blossom thrown upon which she sits.

And we've talked about Tara a few times here.

If you remember,

Tara is kind of a peaceful deity who protects you from your own fears.

And she is really an emanation of compassion,

Of enlightened activity and of true love.

And when we're talking about love within this month,

We're talking not about necessarily about the romantic love that might first come to mind,

But really about love of oneself,

Love of another,

Whether that is a romantic love or friendship or a deep loving relationship,

Or even the love that we can express towards a stranger on the subway,

Or even the love we can express to someone that we have never even met.

So lots of ways of thinking and feeling and talking about love.

We have a guest teacher here with us today.

And it's always a real pleasure to be able to bring a guest teacher to you.

Just as we kind of keep finding some different perspectives from which to experience and view meditation is always really wonderful and I think a healthy thing to do.

And the person who will be teaching us today has a very special connection to the Rubin Museum,

Which is such a treat and really something I learned about today.

Before I introduce you to her,

I also just want to say that Lama Arya Dronma is so kind to be with us because it is a very unusual thing to ask a Lama to come and speak for such a short amount of time and to teach such a short meditation.

But she has very graciously agreed to do this and we get to have a taste of her practice here with us today.

Lama Arya Dronma has been studying and practicing Tibetan Buddhism since 2008 and is trained in the Dharma Path program of progressive stages of meditation and contemplation for serious practitioners offered by the Kagyu Thupten Choling Monastery.

She teaches at the Hindu Samaj Temple and Cultural Center and Jain Temple in Poughkeepsie.

Lama Arya Dronma is a graduate of a traditional Tibetan Buddhist retreat spanning three years and three months,

Which is an advanced,

Completely cloistered and intensive meditation training program.

She attended Mumbai University in India and graduated with a BA degree in sociology.

And she is also an active volunteer for several nonprofit organizations including Breast Cancer Awareness and HIV AIDS related issues.

And I mentioned she has a special connection to the Rubin.

Many years ago she came to our shop as a designer of tunics embroidered in India and she sold them here in our shop and developed a relationship with Sharab who was at the time the shop manager.

On one of her visits she picked up a book and it changed her life and it was really the thing that spurred her into a radical transformation of her life and she then became a Tibetan Buddhist nun.

So I'll let her tell you what the book was.

Please give her a very warm,

Warm welcome.

Lama Arya Dronma.

Thank you Dawn and thank you Rubin Museum for having me here again.

Welcome everyone and thank you all for coming in today.

I'm absolutely delighted to be here with you all today.

The book that Dawn spoke about was the book called Awakening the Buddha Within You and it was really a chance.

I just picked up this book from there and I went home and read it all I think within one or two days and in that book there was reference to one of the greatest lineage masters called Kalu Rinpoche and the lineage that he's from which is called the Kagyu lineage.

So I did some research and then I went and found out where they would they have a meditation place in the city here and luckily they had a place,

A meditation place and so I went to the meditation place.

I started going there and then went on to go to the monastery in Phuket Sea and when I went there I did my three and a half year retreat program which is a traditional Buddhist retreat and it was Rubin Museum the source and the book from here that totally changed my life and I went on to become an ordained nun.

So I'm so happy to back here because this is one of the sources of my journey.

So the theme today and for the whole month has been love and Tara is the deity Tara in this beautiful artwork behind.

She embodies unconditional love and compassion and if you see the picture closely you will see her right foot is always a little out and what it means is that when you call on her with devotion and faith she's right there she's very swift.

She's also my favorite personal deity because my name is also Arya Droma and Droma is Tara the liberator.

So she's very special to me and in all in almost all the monasteries in Tibet she is her prayers are practiced every day her prayers are chanted every day and then you'll hear many stories of her coming and saving people when they really needed her help.

So Tara is one of the most popular and beloved deity in the Buddhist pantheon.

There are many manifestation of Tara as you see around us surrounded there are 21 Taras and one of them is red Tara and white Tara and blue Tara and they all mean something and there's also many stories of her origin and but there's a very well known legend and the legend is the Lord of compassion our Loke Tehshwara promised that he would not rest until he liberated all the beings from samsara and after his promise he worked tirelessly and diligently to save all the beings from suffering and when he looked down on the world he couldn't he was in such despair because there were so many people still suffering in utter sadness he began to cry and when he started to cry they formed a pool of tears and from those tears there was a beautiful lotus that bloomed and from the lotus the deity Tara appeared and she said oh Lord please don't cry I will help you I will help you save all the sentient beings and thus the goddess Tara represents unconditional love and compassion and it said that her compassion is much greater than a mother's love for her child so as you see Tara is very revered in the Tibetan Buddhist community and so today the mindful meditation will be about love kindness and compassion when we actually I heard there are a lot of beginners here today wonderful I love having newcomers because they bring a certain newness and the old timers bring us bring some groundedness so welcome everyone and thank you all for being here so when we actually start the meditation session there are two essential points the essential point of the body and the essential point of the mind and the essential point of the body is your posture in our tradition it's very important to have the correct posture and if you're when you're sitting on the chair all you need to do is have a straight back and for anyone if this feels uncomfortable that's okay do your best and as you sit up straight you can place your hands palms down on your knees like this wherever it falls on your knees like this or you can have your hands right over left with your thumbs meeting and then just place them on the lap again wherever it falls and whatever is comfortable for you if it's comfortable for you to have your hands on palms down on your knees that's fine if you're comfortable to have your hands like this this is fine as well and so the shoulders you shouldn't be slumped it should be squared straight and your legs it's best to have them firmly placed on the ground like that rather than crossed and have your neck slightly bent just slightly and your gaze should be downward and place your gaze anywhere in front of you please don't focus on anything just gently hold your gaze there and if this posture is a little uncomfortable you can do your best and sit as comfortably as you can now the essential point of the body is of the from the body we move on to our mind and the essential point of the mind is very important because the mind is what does the meditation so when you start the meditation session the mind needs a focus because the mind tends to wander aimlessly so today we will put our minds attention on our breath and it's very easy to put our minds attention on a breath because we breathe all the time so just focus on your breath so let's put our minds attention on our breath feeling each breath as it comes in and goes out breathe normally letting the breath be just as it is without trying to change the rhythm or regulate it in any way allow it to flow easily and naturally with its own rhythm and space so inhale and exhale breathe normally just imagine as you exhale you're sending out pure love to all the beings which brings them peace and just rest in the present moment of awareness inhale and exhale breathe normally and as you exhale imagine you're sending out pure love to all the beings and they all healed and just rest in the present moment of awareness anytime you start thinking any thoughts just say thinking then drop it let it go don't follow it don't engage in it and return to your breath it doesn't matter how many times your mind wanders all that matters is when you notice you gently bring your focus back to the breath inhale and exhale breathe normally as you exhale imagine you're sending pure love to all the beings and they all healed and just rest in the present moment of awareness you do not follow the past the past is finished do not think of the future the future is not here yet just rest your mind the present moment of awareness and bring your attention back to the breath meditation allows you to look inward so when you meditate you will see a lot of thoughts come and go thoughts are going to come and go and depending on the thoughts emotions is going to rise but as soon as you realize your thoughts just say thinking and just gently let them go tell yourself this is your time to meditate and inhale and exhale breathe normally and as you exhale send out pure love to all the beings and rest your mind the present moment of awareness when your mind starts to wander just bring your attention back to your breath inhale and exhale breathe naturally and as you exhale breathe out pure love to all the beings and just rest your mind in that present moment of awareness the idea is not to block your thoughts when you push your push them away or block your thoughts more thoughts come we are just not paying attention or following our thoughts when you start thinking just drop your thoughts and bring your mind's attention back to your breath inhale and exhale breathe normally and just rest in the present moment of awareness inhale and exhale breathe naturally as soon as you recognize a thought just say thinking and let go and come back to your breath inhale and exhale thoughts are like clouds that pass in the sky if you don't engage in them you can just let go of it and let go and come back to your breath inhale and exhale thoughts are like clouds that pass in the sky inhale and exhale breathe normally do not follow the past the past is finished do not think of the future it hasn't arrived yet just rest with the present moment of awareness as soon as you see a mind wandering bring your attention back to your breath and just inhale and exhale gently inhale and exhale breathe normally as you exhale imagine you're sending out unnoticed unconditional love to all the beings in the universe and just rest in the present moment if we can train ourselves during meditation to simply observe the arising of each thoughts and emotions without grasping at it without clinging to it as being anything other than temporary play of mind they are like waves emerging and dissolving back into the ocean and then this habit will make it make its way into our ordinary activities in our daily life so just observe your thoughts don't grasp on them and just let it go and bring your attention back to your breath inhale and exhale and as you exhale imagine you're sending out pure love to all the beings and they're all healed and just rest in the present moment of awareness when you catch yourself your mind wandering just bring your attention back to your breath inhale and exhale gently and just rest in that present moment of awareness okay relax and you can just stretch a little bit thank you everyone for coming may all be blessed with unconditional love from Tara thank you that concludes this week's practice if you'd like to attend in person please check out our website rubinmuseum.

Org meditation to learn more sessions are free to rubinmuseum members just one of the many benefits of membership thank you for listening have a mindful day

Reviews

Long introduction on Tara, but with very nice joint guided concentration meditation on the breath, combined with the lojong practice of sending love to all sentient beings. (if I remember correctly the word lojong). Kagyu Lineage, lama Arya Drölma, sweet and erudite

Thank you🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻very gentle and clear...

Out of the meditations this week this was the one I liked the most. Very relaxing and good talk before hand.

Lovely meditation. Thank you.

Another one this week where the lecture was as good as the meditation. Thankyou.

Love is The way
Thank you for remind us

A friend sent me this meditation, and I am very grateful to her. To sit, and be still, and to send out unconditional love to all beings, with every exhale . . . words are inadequate to describe it. Maybe that’s by design. This meditation is led in a very gracious, patient, and kind manner, and I am grateful to be welcomed in. Thank you.

It's been interesting learning about the different artworks and the simple meditations and the teachers. Namaste 🙏

Very relaxing art talk followed by a guided mindfulness meditation. 🙇

Thank you so much for this guidance with and through Tara 🙏🏽❤️❤️❤️🙏🏽

Beautiful.
Thank you.

Always lovely to learn and listen to new guidance. Thank you.

The wisdom of the Green Tara conveyed in a simple, beautiful and peaceful way ~ Thank you !

thank you so much
for me one of the best meditations i have ever heard

Thank you, beautiful easy voice to follow.

So enjoyed this week at the Rubin. Broadened my "meditation horizons ". Thank you 🤗

So lovely! I especially loved the story of Tara. Thank you.

Best of the week thank you 🙏🏼

That was the most enjoyable and beneficial talk and meditation session of the week for me. I now want to read 'Wakening the Buddha within'. Namaste 🙏

Very nice talk lovely meditation thank you