Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum with Tracy Cochran

The theme for this meditation is Perception. 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.

We're looking at this beautiful sculpture from Mongolia.

This is the late 17th century,

Early 18th.

And this is the goddess of the dawn,

Marichi is her name.

And she,

As the goddess of the dawn,

Kind of reminds us that it is always darkest before the dawn,

And that her light,

When it shines,

Dispels ignorance.

She also represents the dawn of awakening or the moment when one realizes that they can and they must escape some sorrow or that cycle of suffering.

So that awareness that you don't have to,

Right?

So we have Tracy Cochran here with us today.

And she is the editorial director of Parabola,

Which is this beautiful quarterly magazine that for 40 years draws,

Has drawn upon the wisdom traditions of the world.

And we do sell this upstairs in the shop if you're interested in taking a closer look.

And she also teaches at the New York Insight Meditation Center.

So let's welcome her back,

Tracy Cochran.

It's lovely to be here,

Sitting together,

Knowing that the Latin root of the word conspire means to breathe together,

To breathe with.

So we're engaged in this wonderful and crucial conspiracy,

Right?

So as Don was saying,

We have been flooded with things to perceive and then thoughts come up and feelings and we fear.

Fear is so real.

And then when we sit down together,

One breath at a time,

There can be a space.

We can remember that there's another attention,

Another finer attention.

But we've all been through so much this week that I thought I would tell you a little story instead of lecture you.

And it's something that I have been carrying inside me for weeks and weeks.

Remember the Buddha once reached a point where things were so dark and he had a memory from childhood.

Do you remember that?

I've mentioned it more and more in the year.

So that happened to me.

And I remembered a great wisdom story that I would like to share with you.

And it's called Horton Hears a Who.

I'm not kidding.

By Dr.

Seuss,

Who is a great spiritual teacher and a great activist at the same time.

So in this story,

Horton is an elephant.

And throughout this museum,

You'll see these magnificent images of an elephant named Ganesh,

Overcomer of obstacles.

Well,

Horton is an American name for Ganesh.

So when the story opens,

Horton is bathing in a pool.

I know this is all written in verse,

But I'll just give it to you in prose.

And Horton's bathing in a pool is not unlike what we do when we sit down.

Horton is in a tranquil jungle pool,

Settling down,

Becoming more quiet.

And you know what happens when we do that?

We stop freaking out.

We turn the light of attention towards ourselves.

And we remember we experience the dawning of a finer attention.

So in that state,

This little piece of fluff drifts by.

And Horton hears something.

Help,

Help.

In an ordinary state,

He wouldn't have heard it.

And not only does he hear something,

But he's in a more concentrated state.

So he decides,

I'll help.

I'll be responsive.

So he takes this little piece of fluff and he listens closer.

And he realizes there's somebody on here.

Maybe two,

Maybe three,

Maybe more.

I'll stop risking rhyming.

So he carries the fluff to a little piece of clover.

He gets back in touch with nature.

He settles down like the Buddha did when he touched the earth.

And he puts this little speck on a piece of clover.

And just then,

These bitter,

Reactive kangaroos,

Mother and baby came up to him and said,

What are you doing?

Talking to yourself.

There's no one there.

They couldn't dare to believe that there was another world that they couldn't hear.

But he stuck to his guns,

Even though they mocked him.

But they were so reactive and so afraid.

They sent these monkeys,

Mean,

Reactive,

Cynical monkeys,

Who said,

Not only do we not believe that there's anything finer to hear or feel,

But we are going to banish that speck.

We're going to ban it.

So they give it to this eagle named Vlad.

It was a very dark and ominous evil,

Evil eagle.

And he takes this fluff and he flies and he flies and he flies and he flies.

And he puts it down in a field of clover,

Saying to poor Horton,

You will never,

Ever find it.

But what did Horton do?

He persisted.

It's just like practice.

We come into the room and we might hope for not much,

Because we're so afraid and we're so freaked out.

What can this do,

This gentle movement of return?

Well,

Horton kept on.

He listened to one piece of clover another hour after hour.

And it can feel like this when you sit.

It really can.

Finally,

He finds it.

He hears them.

And he's like,

How are you?

How are you?

And they're like,

Oh,

We're so glad you're here.

When that big bird dropped us,

All of our clocks stopped.

All of our buildings were jumbled.

And he's like,

You have buildings.

You have buildings.

And they're like,

We have a whole town.

There are thousands of us.

And please keep protecting us.

And he's like,

Oh,

I will.

I will.

So he carries it.

He carries it.

And the monkeys come back.

And they're even more threatened,

Saying,

You're just making a fool of yourself talking like this.

It's like protesting in the streets.

We're going to put a stop to all of this.

We're going to tie you up.

We're going to put you in a cage.

We're going to put an end to it all.

So Horton turns to this invisible little town.

They tell them they're Hoos.

And they live in a town called Whoville.

And he turns to them and says,

Help me now.

You have to make yourself known.

Now this is the interesting point in this story for our Dharma practice.

It doesn't mean freak out.

It doesn't mean just scream and be afraid.

It means be present.

Be present.

Remember,

When you're present,

There's a finer attention.

There's a feeling of compassion.

We remember another attention.

So they all do this.

And he said,

Speak from that.

And they say,

We are here.

We are here.

And the kangaroo who's shown up again.

And the monkeys say,

We don't hear anything.

We just hear the wind.

We don't hear anything.

And Horton says to the Hoos of Whoville,

Somebody must be missing.

Somebody must be missing.

So the mayor of Whoville runs through the streets and checks out the buildings and finally comes to one apartment complex where there's one little Who who's contracted in fear probably and spacing out and just playing with his yo-yo and not making any sounds.

And the mayor said,

You have to come.

Your presence counts.

Your presence counts.

So the little kid goes with the mayor.

Everybody in Whoville gathers.

Everybody takes a breath and grounds themselves.

And together they say,

We are here.

I want you to risk quietly repeating after me,

We are here.

And one more time,

Everybody in full presence,

We are here.

And the kangaroos and the monkeys hear.

And they say,

It's so wonderful.

We get it.

We get it.

We've been completely swept away by our fear and our perceptions.

But now we hear.

And you know what we're going to do?

We are going to help protect the who's of Whoville because everybody matters no matter how small.

So that is the story of Horton hears a who.

And it's interesting.

It's interesting.

You can see for yourself.

I had the big orange book on the Metro North and it made me think I love New York.

You know that I could be reading the storybook now in Bats and I.

But the broader takeaway,

Like the Buddha knew,

Like we all know,

Every time we sit down to practice,

Every child knows,

We remember.

That's the word for mindfulness,

Remembering.

We're more than we think.

We're more than we fear.

We're more than our perceptions.

There are deep capacities of awareness and compassion and receptivity.

And they're never lost.

So let's discover that together now.

Feeling a comfortable sea.

Thinking of Horton and his pool.

Taking refuge in the safety of this beautiful space.

It's like a jungle glen.

And we let ourselves settle down.

Return.

Unplug.

And as the body begins to feel like it's relaxing,

We bring the attention to rest on the breathing.

Without asking it to change in any way,

We just notice the in-breath and the out-breath.

Noticing it either at the nostrils as a feeling of air or in the rise and fall of the chest or the diaphragm.

And almost instantly we notice all kinds of sensations and feelings and thinking.

And we allow that to be present.

We welcome the whole of our experience with kind attention.

And as we do this,

We begin to remember in the ancient sense.

We remember the body and the life in the body.

Noticing that there's a light inside us.

And it comes softly like dawn.

And we're in the middle of the night.

We begin to remember that we're more than we think and feel and believe that we are also this awareness.

When we get taken by thinking or we start to contract intention,

We gently notice this and bring the attention home again to the breathing and to this kind light.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

When we get lost,

We simply start again noticing that we're welcome every time.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

Noticing as we begin to soften and relax how much more alive we are than we thought.

Noticing the vibrancy inside us,

The receptivity and openness to the life inside and outside.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

Noticing that stillness doesn't require perfect quiet.

It's non-reactivity,

Softness,

Openness.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And as we keep making this movement of return,

We begin to sense finer energies in us.

An energy of attention that's finer than thinking.

It can know and see.

And it's not separate from compassion.

We remember we're supported by forces inside and outside.

Air,

Earth,

All kinds of forces and elements.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

When we drift off,

We come back.

We drift off,

We come back again to the breathing and the body and the moment.

Noticing how it feels to not be judged,

To be welcome.

All of us.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

And we're in the middle of the night.

We begin to remember what it means to be present.

Vibrantly alive.

Noticing that we're grounded in life.

We're part of it.

We're part of it.

We're part of it.

When we get lost,

We come back again without judgment or comment.

Asking in the light of this finer attention.

We're part of it.

We're part of it.

We're part of it.

Noticing as we grow more still that we can hear more.

We're part of it.

We're part of it.

Noticing as we relax that we can feel fleeting feelings of joy,

Steadfastness,

Other things.

Responsiveness.

We're part of it.

We're part of it.

We're part of it.

Noticing as we prepare to stop that we can return to this light anytime.

And always find welcome.

We're part of it.

It's a beautiful presence in the room right now.

Can you feel it?

It's interesting right now to think together we are here.

To have that intention.

To know that we have each other.

And that we can act from here.

Let's just continue.

Let's do that.

Knowing that there's something very fine present.

Something that we share.

And that this energy,

This current,

This willingness is more us than our perceptions,

Fears,

Thoughts.

We're part of it.

We remember that this light of awareness is present in the world.

This force of compassion is present.

We remember that this light of awareness is present in the world.

Remember that each one of us is welcome,

Part of it.

Remembering that this attention can never be taken from us,

Can never be lost.

Can never be lost.

So now we dedicate this beautiful practice we've shared together to everybody,

Everywhere,

Everybody,

Without exception.

May everyone,

Everywhere,

Feel safe and welcome into this light.

May everyone,

Everywhere,

Feel welcome on earth.

May they find refuge.

May they remember who they really are.

And may they be free.

We are here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

That was beautiful and entertaining as always. May we all live peacefully. Thank you Tracy 🙏🏼❤️

Listen and be blessed with the richness of Tracy Cochran’s voice and heart. 🙏❤️👏

Absolutely beautiful! So grateful to have heard this. Thank you. 🌞

Excellent session - thank you very much 🙏🌸🌺🦋

Excellent talk and meditation namaste

Tracy Cochran has a very gentle and simple way to help smooth complicated topics. Nice calming meditation. 🌺

Felt so much emotion listening to this. Resonated deeply. Thank you.

Love Tracey Cochran’s meditation practice they have a beauty in their gentle delivery of a powerful message

Fantastic insightful talk and meditation. Thank you 🙏

Really wonderful. Highly recommend to everyone. 🙏🏻

So meaningful and appreciated.

Definitely one to come back to. Thank you!!

Amazing - my favorite practice so far. It combines the parable of the great elephant ;) with a challenging practice. Superb

We are here. That's so amazing. I just really love the talk and then the spirit filled (sorry, that's my words for it) meditation. This is just subtle and powerful. Thank you.

Very enjoyable and relaxing meditation. Thank you 🙄👌

Excellent! Gratitude.

Thank you for this lovely story upon a story that reminds me to remember.

Wonderful!!! So fantastic for our current world and who doesnt like Horton hears a who.