Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum with Tracy Cochran

The theme for this meditation is Light & Dark 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 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.

Boo.

We're getting in the Halloween spirit here.

As you can tell by this fierce,

Wrathful deity,

This is Sri Devi,

And she happens to be a queen that repels armies.

She is here with us today because we are closing out our month of talking about light and dark and recognizing that there is light and dark in all of us and in all experiences.

And we're doing that kind of with a nod to the season that we are in right now.

The day is getting shorter,

The night's getting longer,

As well as Diwali and the Festival of Lights in India and other countries in the region.

And we're taking this opportunity also to highlight the power of these wrathful,

Fierce figures in Tibetan Buddhist art,

Which is at the heart of our collection here at the Rubin.

And so,

Sri Devi here is actually a wrathful emanation of Saraswati.

So many of these deities have both a peaceful emanation and a wrathful emanation.

And they are considered to both be equally important and useful.

And in fact,

This enlightened protectress is just that.

And often these wrathful deities are known as wrathful protectors.

So their purpose is very important.

And she's here riding a mule through a sea of blood and holding a skull cap.

You can see the crown on her head has lots of skulls in it.

And this is a purposefully frightful image.

It is sometimes meant to startle the viewer into getting clear with what they're doing and how they're doing it,

To remind the viewer of awareness.

But they also represent,

And Sri Devi in particular,

Represents this kind of transmutation of negative emotions,

Negativity into something that is purposeful.

So not dismissing the negative or trying to get it to go away,

But really channeling it and having it serve a useful and appropriate purpose in our lives,

In our spiritual development.

So we'll talk a little bit more about the season and maybe even Halloween with Tracy Cochran,

Our teacher today.

And Tracy is a writer and the editorial director of Parabola.

This is Parabola magazine right here.

And it is a gorgeous quarterly magazine that we also do carry in our shop,

But you can find it online at parabola.

Org.

Tracy has been a student of meditation and other spiritual practices for decades.

And in addition to teaching here at the Rubin,

She teaches at New York Insight and every Sunday at Terrytown Insight in Terrytown,

New York.

And it's a pleasure to have her back.

Please welcome her.

Tracy Cochran.

I'm delighted to be back and sitting under this terrifying looking being because it's a very special time of year.

And it's the thin time,

According to the ancient Celts.

And Tibetan Buddhist culture,

Of course,

Was very open to the idea that we dwell in the midst of the unknown,

Surrounded by unknown forces.

So I feel moved to share with you a real life story of something that happened to me.

Last week,

I told you about my bedroom when I was in high school,

Which was covered with black light posters.

And my intention was to create a psychedelic sanctum,

As I told you.

And I was thinking if I played just the right music,

That the counterculture would rise like a whale and carry me away.

And I would have a life like Siddhartha.

But another reason why I created that sanctum is that the rest of the house was so spooky.

When I was 14 years old,

For some reason,

My parents sold our perfectly cozy little brick ranch house and bought this spooky Victorian house that had been a farmhouse.

And the town grew up around it.

So there was a barn.

And of course,

They got a spectacular deal on the house because the people that lived there before had to leave in a hurry,

Right,

Which should have been a tip-off.

And it's been for sale ever since.

But this is true.

The house was very impressive,

And it was full of old,

Dark wood,

Heavy wainscoting.

And it was one of those houses where none of the doors quite closed.

And there are all these spooky,

Shadowy corners.

And there was something dark.

And even my pragmatic father said that there was something very sinister about the upstairs hall in particular.

So my room used to be the master bedroom.

And this was for the primary reason that there was inside this room a bed that made my grandiose adolescent heart just swell.

But nobody else was short enough to occupy this bed.

It had great,

Big,

High headboard.

It looked like Dracula slept in this bed,

Or maybe Jane Eyre.

But seriously,

It had urns on it.

Reviews

Thank you!! Pls keep posting on Insight Timer!!!!

Great. Thank you

Just what the day called! Highly recommend the meditation piece

Lovely, spoken with grace, humor and heart. Thank You...

Always find the meditations at the Ruben enlightening.

Fabulous story telling and meditation 🧘‍♀️🙏Thank you Tracey.

Her voice is silken wonder, so smooth and lulling. Great story and descriptions. I really enjoyed this recording. Thank you! Namaste

Beautiful talk and Sit, here in the first week of New Year.
Thank you Tracy! Feeling aligned and Awakened to greater life purpose.

Thank you, those talks and meditations have enlightened my path. Each one is a gift.

More magic from Tracy, thank you.

Beautiful, humorous and wise. A wonderful teachings on openness and life. Thank you Tracy Cochran and Elizabeth.