Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum with Tracy Cochran

The theme for this meditation is Obstacles. 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 and teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center.

The series is supported in part by the Hamera 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.

Transforming obstacles is our theme this month.

And we've had a few,

Including this crazy buzzing sound in our sound system last week.

So we actually figured out that that is being triggered by cell phones that are on in the theater.

So even another reason to turn your cell phones totally off.

It's liberating.

It's exciting.

It's suspenseful.

And we ask that you please turn them all the way off.

Thank you so much.

So yes,

We are talking about transforming obstacles this month.

And today we're looking at a beautiful object that is actually a portable shrine.

This is a Amani shrine and it is of the Copper Palace of Padmasambhava.

Padmasambhava is known as the second Buddha who brought Buddhism to Tibet.

And according to the legend,

After Padmasambhava left Tibet,

He went here to reside,

To live in his pure land on top of a copper-colored mountain where he still resides today.

So if you take a look at this object,

At the very top,

You can see this kind of lotus throne with a parasol on top.

And that is Padmasambhava sitting there,

That little figure at the top.

And,

You know,

Often when we look together at mandalas,

I describe them to you as kind of a bird's eye view of a palace.

And in fact,

That is something that you can see here if you'd like.

You can imagine being a bird over this palace looking above it.

And in fact,

You could draw kind of mandala shape and from the architecture here that you see kind of the circle and squares coming in together into the very center.

So this is from Bhutan.

It is 18th,

19th century painted wood and clay.

And this object is about two and a half to three feet tall.

And it was likely carried through Bhutan and used as a prop by traveling storytellers who would then use it to recount the great achievements of Padmasambhava.

And as you open up all of the layers of this shrine,

More and more detail is revealed to you.

So perhaps we can use this today as a metaphor for carrying what's important to us wherever we go and also how we can really transform something by looking closely at the details.

Tracy Cochran is our teacher today and so nice to have her kind of in residency here with us.

We were joking earlier she's our house band.

She is a writer and editorial director of the quarterly magazine Parabola,

Which can be found online at parabola.

Org and also upstairs at the shop.

She's been a student of meditation and other spiritual practices for decades.

She is currently teaching a mindful writing class,

Which drop ends are welcome to and there are four Mondays left of this mindful writing classes at New York Insight if you want to join.

And in addition to teaching here at the Rubin,

She teaches at New York Insight and every Sunday at Hudson River Sangha in Tarrytown,

New York.

You can find her writing on Parabola,

Facebook,

Twitter and Tracy Cochran.

Org.

Please welcome her back Tracy Cochran.

I'm delighted to be the house band,

The house wine take your pick of metaphor and I was happy to pick this beautiful image of a traveling shrine because I think the heart of this practice for us is being able to take it anywhere in the midst of any situation and also because it reminds us that we really are on a journey.

It's not just a worn out cliche to say that we are we're traveling whether we consent to this or not we're in movement.

And when I was preparing for this I had to laugh because I read a blog post by the wonderful Anne Lamott about happening to see her reflection in a mirror in Target under those horrible fluorescent lights and much to her shock she saw an ancient goat herd looking back and instantly instantly made a note to herself that she must never wear Icelandic knitwear with ear flaps because it would complete the look and you know what she's talking about.

This ancient man looking back at her and she had just recovered,

Just soothed herself with her great faith from the trauma of accidentally looking into a magnifying mirror in a hotel.

Have you ever done that?

Like in hotel bathrooms and the magnification is like times 30 and she said even God doesn't want to look at me that closely.

And this is how it feels.

We can feel that we've made such extraordinary efforts and still this is happening to us.

Still we're being carried along with our consent or without our consent on this bumpy journey and it can be very very rough some days and what can accompany us?

What can accompany us?

And I was reading some of the earliest earliest texts about the Buddha and his alignment and it was fascinating to discover first of all in the earliest versions when he makes his decision to go sit under the Bodhi tree he makes his resolve I'm going to wake up I'm going to wake up and I won't stand up until I do.

It seems like all of creation rejoices and joins him.

There are these wonderful extravagant juicy passages about how even this old Naga this big snake king from the underworld wakes up to accompany him and he's kind of grumpy at first but recognizes that this Bodhisattva means business and he's going to join the Bodhisattvas that have come before him because there have been others.

So the Naga has a wife and the wife has attendants and they all join and then the tree goddesses join in and more and more and more and there's this lavish and wonderful procession to join the Buddha at the tree and everyone's singing everyone's delighted and all over the world miracles start happening people who are nervous calm down and that is a miracle don't you find?

It's a small miracle.

The blind can see the sick are healed even with the expectation that he's going to sit down and the tree itself explodes into light and is dripping with jewels by some accounts and of course the Buddha himself in all accounts is described as radiant he glows even before he's awakened he glows there's something special about him but here's the interesting thing when he sits down and Mara the devil the demon of his deepest fears appears he starts Mara starts live streaming maybe you know this experience his deepest fears pictures of what's happening at home while he's sitting there all kinds of things anxieties of all kinds suddenly the Buddha is alone all alone and this is how it feels when we face obstacles regardless of what that obstacle is maybe it's unwelcome news from the doctor or maybe a lawsuit maybe you found out you've been hurt or somebody stabbed you in the back oh so many things can happen that create hurt and anxiety and torment and the very first thing that happens is that we can feel quite alone it's like the world goes dark it's unfriendly where's the Naga now he is nobody nowhere so the interesting thing is the the Buddha is standing up tomorrow with his mind but then he goes a step further and he starts to open his heart and remember remember this echoes what I was trying to convey last week if my mother's not here then truth is my mother my aspiration to truth that's what we say he could say my realization of truth and wisdom is my father my wish to become wise is my father and my aspiration to understand the Dharma is my brother and kindness are my friends and my faith in my possibilities are my family like that and still Mara tries to terrify him with the size of his mighty armies and he lies about all his accomplishments and abilities don't you just hate it when world leaders do that he brags and brags and brags and brags about all his missiles and all his might and the Buddha looks at him and of course we know I've repeated it many times he touches the earth but before he touches the earth he says Mara you can't stand up against the family I bring against my armies my armies of remembering kindness and truth and wisdom and possibility and he touches the earth and the earth he says is impartial she supports everybody and she will bear witness to my truth and my intention and we know what happens next but in this version I was reading this early version some scholars shared with me the whole earth shakes it's the whole earth quakes and shakes and rejoices and he awakens and there's a feeling that doing this he does it for everybody and so back to Anne Lamott the ancient goat herd you know and she writes this on the occasion of the shocking discovery that she's turned 64 older than she's ever been and everything can start to feel like it's slipping away glasses the memory of what you read last night or what you ate for lunch but this doesn't need to be construed as something to fear we remind ourselves of the goodness in the world those moments of kindness and not just in the world but in ourselves in order to come here today in order to make it to this room there were innumerable seconds moments instance of compassion in you generosity in you self-love a deeper aspiration and wish and I invite you I invite all of us to realize that this is our traveling shrine no matter what we're going through no matter what we can remember or even if you can't access some beautiful act of goodness that you perform maybe if you're feeling you've done harm and that's weighing heavy on you you can open to what you're doing right in that instant which is turning your attention to yourself with kindness and with a wish to open to truth to wisdom to the Dharma to the faith that there's more than darkness that more will come a light will come a wisdom so why don't we practice don't just take my word for it so we plant our feet firmly on the floor and we let our back be straight our head be free and know that we're really taking our place on the earth we're taking our seat knowing that we have a right to be sitting here that we have earned our space in a very real sense with our interest and our intention to turn towards ourselves with an attention that is not judging that is kind and notice how the body responds when we turn this attention to it it begins to relax and to wake up we notice the vibrancy inside and as you notice it softening just a bit bring the attention to the breathing noticing the in breath and the out breath without trying to alter it in any way just notice the rhythm of the in and out or the sensation of the air entering and leaving the nostrils picking one focus for today and instantly we notice all kinds of sensations tensions and thoughts and we let everything be exactly as it is without judgment with an attitude of kind acceptance and when we notice we're carried by thinking or images or feelings we gently come back to the breathing and the experience of being a body in this moment it's a refined kind of point of exposure and satisfaction that we enjoy having the artist Noticing that as we let ourselves make this movement of return,

Of sati,

Of remembering the present moment,

We begin to relax.

Noticing that coming home to the breath and the moment of return,

We begin to relax.

Coming home to the breath and the moment opens us.

We remember there's a light of awareness inside us that isn't thinking.

It's a responsiveness,

A seeing that doesn't judge.

It's a eager reminder of that that is burying us.

- When we get lost in thinking or dreaming or remembering in the past,

We gently come back again to the present.

Remembering the present.

Remembering the past.

Remembering the past.

Remembering the past.

Noticing that we can welcome ourselves home.

No matter what's happening or what feeling is arising,

We can gently come back to the moment without judgment,

Without rejection.

Remembering the past.

Remembering the past.

Remembering the past.

Noticing that as we continue to make this movement of return to the present,

We can remember the breathing and the body in this moment.

We open.

We remember the vibrancy of being alive,

Open to forces of all kinds,

To breath,

Sensation,

To life.

Remembering the past.

Noticing that there is a stillness,

It doesn't mean silence,

It means softness,

It means non-judgment,

Allowing what is.

Noticing as we continue to come home,

How it feels to bask in the light of an intention that is kind,

That doesn't judge,

That is open to life.

How it feels to be in the light of an intention that is kind,

That doesn't judge.

When we get lost in thought,

Knowing that we can come back any time and find welcome here in the present moment.

As we approach the end of the sitting,

Remembering that we're not alone.

That we're part of life,

Supported and sustained by forces.

Truth,

Wisdom,

Kindness,

Faith,

Life.

Inside and outside.

Thank you.

That concludes this week's practice.

If you'd like to attend in person,

Please check out our website,

Rubinmuseum.

Org slash meditation to learn more.

Sessions are free to Rubin Museum members,

Just one of the many benefits of membership.

Thank you for listening.

Have a mindful day.

Reviews

Always a wonderful and enjoyable practice with Tracy! Thank you, Namaste 💚🙏

It is a delight to be sitting with you at the museum in Lima but with you in NYC .. one sangha together in practice. Will visit soon

🙏🏼

I am truly enjoying these, great practice and wonderful talk. Thank you

My first experience of a Ruben Museum talk and meditation session will certainly not be my last. 🙏🎈🎈

Tracy, you star, your words come straight from your heart, no filter. That's so rare, so precious these days, thank you. 😘

Thank you🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Outstanding again!!!!

Always wonderful