Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum with Tracy Cochran

The theme for this meditation is Beginning Again. It is inspired by an artwork from the Rubin’s collection & it will include an opening talk & 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 and the teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center.

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.

There was a kingdom ruled by a series of kings until one day a prince was born who was the ugliest creature in the world.

And through a series of deceptions,

He was able to marry the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.

I'm going to stop there and back up a little bit because actually I'm teasing you with a metaphor that is not really what this artwork is about.

And I'm going to make sure we get a chance to look at some details of it here.

So this is a temple banner from a temple in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal.

And it does show quite a long history,

In fact,

Of generations of kings.

And this is,

Again,

This itself is just a portion of the banner.

Generations and generations of kings in this particular kingdom that enacted a particular ritual over and over again.

And this ritual was done monthly as a way of paying homage to the harvest.

And in this particular frame and a few others,

We're seeing an image of the king that I mentioned to you.

He was actually born the ugliest creature in the world because during the puja,

The ritual,

While he was unborn in his mother's uterus,

Something went wrong with the ritual and he was cursed to be ugly.

And in fact,

He did marry the most beautiful woman in the kingdom.

And when she realized what had happened,

She ran away.

He was incredibly sad and distraught and tried to kill himself by throwing himself into a pool of water.

And he was saved by Indra,

The king.

And he was given a beautiful necklace which actually restored his beauty,

His truth.

The ugly king,

Whose name is Virakusha,

Is depicted here behind this blue banner on the top here.

Can you see that?

He is in a yellow robe there and his face is kind of grayed out to depict his ugliness.

And further down here,

You can see this multi-headed creature with the white halo behind.

Can you see that right there?

And that is Avalokiteshvara.

That is the subject of the ritual,

The deity that is being thanked.

And if you take a look,

You can see the king here participating in this ritual.

He's wearing a necklace.

That's the necklace that Indra gave him to save him.

So after he goes through this ordeal,

He's reunited with his princess.

And they go on to continue the tradition of this ritual of thanks,

Gratitude,

And compassion.

We're talking about beginning again this month.

And that's one of the reasons that we chose this artwork for you here today.

This idea of the cycle renewing over and over again.

And also the power of ritual in that to mark a beginning.

Of course,

We're talking about it too as such an important part of a meditation practice,

Letting go of thinking and returning to the focus of your meditation,

Whether that be your breath or another focus.

And so we're going to practice that with our teacher today,

Tracy Cochran,

Who is here with us again.

Great to have her back as always.

Tracy is the editorial director of Parabola,

Which is a quarterly magazine that for 40 years has explored the wisdom traditions of the world.

And it's for sale up in the shop.

If you'd like to take a look at it,

Please welcome her back,

Tracy Cochran.

Well,

One thing I like about that story is the necklace,

The jewel.

Because one way that they refer to this tradition is the three jewels,

Which is sangha,

Which is the group of us together,

The Buddha,

His example and his teaching.

And this practice that we do.

So by virtue of that jewel,

He became beautiful again.

He had a different look.

So I was inspired,

Especially because Parabola covers fairy tales and myths from all over the world to share one other little story.

And then I'll say why we're telling stories on a week like this.

Why of all times are we now focusing on here and now?

And I'll tell you why.

But first,

The story from Western tradition.

And it's a story that many of you probably know of Sir Gawain and Lady Ragnar.

So Sir Gawain was the most noble of King Arthur's knights.

And so King Arthur one day went hunting in an enchanted forest and he shot a deer and he was dressed like a simple hunter.

He wasn't wearing his armor or any kind of sign of his majesty,

Just a simple outfit.

But a mysterious knight instantly appeared and said,

Arthur,

You've wandered into a forbidden forest and you've killed one of my deer and I will kill you.

And Arthur said,

No,

Please,

I don't have my armor.

I don't have my weapons.

It would not be noble for you to kill me here.

So the knight said,

All right,

Come back in one year on this day with the answer to this question and I will spare your life or I will kill you.

So the question was,

What do women want?

I'm serious,

It was.

And I believe Sigmund Freud asked the same question.

And the story was composed before the Women's March that will be happening in a few days and we will find out what women want.

But indeed the question was so deep that we could extend it to be,

What does everyone really want?

But Arthur was at a complete loss and he went back to his court and he looked completely distraught.

And Sir Gawain of all the knights noticed how upset and preoccupied he was and said,

Arthur,

Arthur,

What's wrong?

And he said,

I have to solve this impossible question.

What do women want?

And of course,

Sir Gawain had no clue either because in those days it was a man's world,

Unlike now.

So they hunted high and low,

Looking for someone who might know.

Finally,

In despair,

Arthur ventured back into the Forbidden Forest and came upon a horrible hag,

As she was called.

A woman as ugly as the man in this story that you heard from Dawn.

And Arthur,

Because she looked like a witch,

Approached her and said,

I bet you can answer my question and spare my life.

And the terrible hag said,

I will,

But you have to give me Sir Gawain in marriage.

So Arthur,

Banking on the nobility of Sir Gawain,

Instantly agreed.

He did.

And the woman said to him,

Women want sovereignty.

Aha,

Thought Arthur.

So he handed Sir Gawain over who did nobly agree.

And there was a grotesque wedding where this woman proved not only to be physically unattractive,

But she went out of her way to be as offensive as she could possibly be in the way she ate,

In the way she spoke to people.

But Sir Gawain was noble and he stood by her side.

And then they retired to the bedchamber.

Yes,

They did.

And then she said,

Well,

Perhaps you could at least give me a little kiss,

Assuming that they would retire to separate bedrooms.

And he said,

My lady,

You are my wife,

And I will do far more than kiss you.

And at that he looked up and beheld the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

And she said,

Gawain,

Would you like me to look like this for you at night and look like the woman you married the rest of the time?

Or would you rather I look like a witch at night and be beautiful in the eyes of all the world?

And Gawain said,

My lady,

You choose.

And at that gift of sovereignty,

She became beautiful all the time.

And according to the great myth,

She only lived another five years and he mourned her all his days.

So this is a nice story,

But what does it mean?

It means that he gave her the gift of his attention,

His pure,

Loving,

Whole attention without judgment.

When we speak of sovereignty,

We usually think of a sovereign nation,

A nation that isn't dictated to from outside.

What we usually do to ourselves is dictate to ourselves from outside,

Don't we?

When we think about how we should be or how our lives should be going,

We're full of thoughts about how it should be,

Full of cruel judgments.

There's always something wrong with us,

Always.

And our work is piling up or we're too old or we're too young or we don't like how much we weigh or we don't like how we look.

The list is just endless.

And when we come in here together to sit down,

The first thing we feel when we get to shut our eyes is this feeling of sovereignty,

Which is the feeling of dropping into the experience of who you are,

Not what you think you are.

And I don't have to describe it because we're going to get to experience it in just a minute,

But what we find is the most amazing thing.

We start to find out that we're the frog we have to kiss.

We are.

That we have this experience and then we give it the embrace of our own attention.

The gift of the jewel of this practice,

Which is the practice of returning to our experience in the moment,

To our breath and to our body,

Beginning again through this action of seeing.

And seeing is an action.

We leave the thinking and we begin to experience ourselves in a new way.

So that breath by breath,

Even things that we find ugly about ourselves,

And that can include our wish to please,

Our wish to be loved,

Our kind of desperate edge of needing recognition,

All kinds of things that we find as we gently invite ourselves home to see this without judgment.

We can see the beauty under it.

The wish to be loved,

To participate in life,

To be part of it.

So breath by breath,

Sitting by sitting,

We perform this magic of transformation.

Self transformation.

And this is a story that will pop up all over the world.

And I do encourage you to read parabola every one of you.

Because another story we shared about that was a native story from the Inuit Eskimos where an Inuit fisherman pulled up in his net a skeleton that had been a woman.

And that she was a tangled mess of bones.

And at first he was horrified by the sight.

And he just wanted to cut the net loose.

But he didn't.

Something in his humanity made him stop.

So he collected these bones and he took them home and very gently with slow and careful attention he set them right.

And there on the bed was a living,

Breathing woman.

Beautiful.

He too had granted her sovereignty,

Being.

And it was beautiful.

And this isn't a story for long ago and far away.

This is a story for today,

For this week,

For everything that's to come.

We give ourselves the gift of our own attention to turn and look and see again.

To begin again.

To see who we are and all we have.

So now we'll sit.

So take a comfortable seat.

Just,

It's the most important instruction in this practice.

You take a very comfortable seat.

Giving yourself,

Your body,

The gift of your kind attention.

So we shut our eyes.

If you can't shut your eyes,

Have them on the floor.

But it's best to close them if you can.

And we have the back straight as we can.

Noticing how it feels to grant yourself space.

And we're allowing the body its sovereignty.

Let it relax at his or her pace.

Without prodding it.

Just noticing how it begins to soften and feel safe.

And as that begins to happen,

We bring the attention to rest on the breathing.

Without forcing it to change in any way with the most gentle attention,

We allow ourselves to remember the breathing.

And the experience of being in this body in this moment.

And at the same time that you begin to do this,

You notice thinking,

Sensation,

It might be cold in the room for you,

It might be hot.

You notice all kinds of things and you practice allowing them.

Let it be.

And when you notice you're taken,

Carried away by thinking,

You gently bring the attention home again to the body and the experience of being here.

Without any judgment or comment.

Noticing as we do this,

We remember the vibrancy inside,

The sensitivity in the body,

The way it receives impressions of all kinds without thinking.

Silence.

Silence.

Noticing that we can begin again at any moment with the next breath,

We can come home to the body in the moment.

And as we begin to relax,

We notice a light of awareness that's not thinking.

It's inside the body and the mind and it can feel as if it surrounds us also,

As if we share it.

It is a thoughts,

Feelings,

Pulsations.

When we get taken,

We gently notice this without any judgment.

Welcoming all of ourselves into the light of this awareness.

Allowing ourselves to be seen without judgment or rejection or comment of any kind.

Allowing ourselves to be seen without judgment or rejection or comment of any kind.

Allowing ourselves to be seen without judgment or rejection or comment of any kind.

Sati,

The word for mindfulness,

Means to remember.

We remember we're open to life.

To forces,

Air,

Awareness.

We are not alone the way we think.

We are not alone the way we think.

Noticing how it feels to have presence.

To feel vibrant and aware and open.

We are not alone the way we think.

We are not alone the way we think.

We fall asleep or get carried away by thinking.

Notice how it feels to be completely welcomed back.

Just as you are.

Just as you are.

Noticing that this light of awareness has an energy,

A presence.

A kindness.

A presence.

A kindness.

A kindness.

When we get lost we come back to this simple experience of breathing and being in a body.

Allowing ourselves to be safe.

Exactly as we are.

Noticing how it feels to be completely welcomed back.

Just as you are.

Noticing how it feels to be completely welcomed back.

Just as you are.

Noticing how it feels in the body to be accepted.

Completely accepted.

And accepting.

And accepting.

And accepting.

And accepting.

Knowing as we prepare to finish that we can begin again with an ex-breath.

And always find welcome.

And accepting.

And accepting.

And accepting.

Reviews

Wonderful apparel between myths from different cultures as a base for a more compassionate attitude towards ourselves in meditation practice, when we find ourselves cought in thoughts, to be able to gently come back to our sovereignty.

A great story and message about acceptance.

Wow; just beautiful. Thank you so so much ✨

What a wonderful talk, I've enjoyed this speaker everytime.

Beautiful. Encouraging, hopeful, packed with wisdom. Thank you.

What a lovely story. Her voice was so soothing , I felt I was there. Very relaxing. Thank you so much.

Beginning and acceptance in my here and now, wonderful 🐌

Restful and soothing. I liked the story. Thank you.

What a lovely effect these talks and meditations have on me. I am going to listen to more of them and look into Parabola. Thank you 🙏🏻

Excellent dharma..ty

Very surprising, how spiritual presence or whatever you wish to call it ... seems as if a presence walks into this teacher's meditation. Beautiful. Thank you

Phenomenal!

Loved the silences!

Interesting and memorable 🙏 Thank you

I enjoyed the diverse stories of wisdom and insight

Oh I so needed to hear this. The gift of his attention!

What a wonderful gift. Thank you for sharing this meditation with us.

Simple and great

Lovely, thank you.