Welcome to the mindfulness meditation podcast presented by the Rubin Museum of Art.
We are a museum in Chelsea,
New York City that connects visitors to the art and ideas of the Himalayas and serves as a space for reflection and personal transformation.
I'm your host,
Dawn Eshelman.
Every Monday we present a meditation session inspired by a different artwork from the Rubin Museum's collection and led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area.
This podcast is a recording of our weekly practice currently held virtually.
In the description for each episode,
You will find information about the theme for that week's session,
Including an image of the related artwork.
Our mindfulness meditation podcast is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg and teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center,
The Interdependence Project,
And Parabola Magazine.
And now,
Please enjoy your practice.
Good afternoon,
Everybody.
Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Art and to our weekly mindfulness meditation practice online.
So nice to see you.
I feel like it's been a long time.
It's just been a couple of weeks,
But so much has happened in those two weeks and an inauguration.
We celebrated Martin Luther King Day and just have to shout out,
We inaugurated our very first vice president who was of a South Asian descent and also black and a woman.
And her name,
Kamala,
Happens to be in Lotus.
So it's pretty cool.
And we have a beautiful depiction of Lotus thrown in the artwork we'll look at today.
I'll get to that in just a moment.
But if you're new,
Welcome.
We,
The Rubin Museum of Art,
Are a museum of Himalayan art and ideas in Chelsea,
New York City.
And we're so glad to have all of you joining us from around the world for this weekly sit where we combine art and meditation online.
We'll take a look at the work of art.
We'll hear a brief talk from our wonderful teacher today,
Tracy Cochran.
And then we'll have a short sit,
15,
20 minutes with a guided meditation by Tracy.
And yeah,
Let's take a look.
All this month we've been talking about really beginning again,
Right?
And we've been focused on this theme of renewal and with the Gregorian calendar new year and then,
You know,
This idea that there are a few different new years to celebrate.
And also that includes the Lunar New Year coming up and the Tibetan New Year.
And we'll be celebrating here at the Rubin.
If you'd like to have another New Year's,
Please join us.
It's such a wonderful celebration.
I'll tell you a little bit more about it.
And it's free.
Yeah,
So we'll take another look quickly here.
This is Marici.
This is a beautiful sculpture from Mongolia,
1600s.
This is Buddhist.
And Marici is also known as or translated as goddess of the dawn.
So you know that I have an affinity for her because my name is Dawn too.
This deity is often seen in this instance,
Believed to have been a part of a statue with Tara at the center.
So they're very connected.
And she comes in many forms,
This goddess,
But commonly with three heads and six arms,
Which enable her to remove all obstacles to happiness.
Here though,
We're seeing her in this simpler form.
And she has a very relaxed and at ease posture where she has one leg out as Tara is often depicted,
Ready to kind of jump out and help at a moment's notice.
And her name just reminds us of this idea of renewal that comes even when we think it might not.
This idea of the sun just revisiting us every day.
So I'm so happy to have Tracy Cochran here with us today and she'll talk to us a little bit more about this idea of renewal and lead us in a sit.
So Tracy,
Welcome back.
Hi.
Hi.
I'm delighted to be back.
I'm delighted to be back with you,
Dawn,
And to talk a little bit more about the dawn,
About hope,
About an aspect of renewal that is being open to being surprised,
That maybe something will come that we don't expect in our dark nights.
And together in this past year,
Wherever we are,
We've shared a certain kind of darkness.
Even if we haven't been sick,
We've witnessed sickness and death.
Even if we haven't lost our work and feel anxious about even feeding our families,
We've witnessed this.
We've also witnessed ignorance and rage and delusion.
So a great deal of darkness.
And we've done that in conditions of solitude.
But it's interesting to remember that in the great story of the Buddha's awakening,
He retreated to the forest.
He had to let go of everything that had been a comfort and a joy and go off by himself into the dark.
And this doesn't get mentioned much,
But undoubtedly he felt grief at times as he sat meditating and waiting for something that hadn't yet come,
Something that nobody had found,
A way to be happy and free in the midst of the suffering of life.
He had to feel great uncertainty and sadness for the life he left behind.
And all of us have tasted that.
No matter what our conditions,
We have been in a situation where together we've reflected on a world that is past.
And yet,
As Dawn pointed out,
Just in the past week we experienced the joy of something new coming,
Something new happening,
Something outside of our worst fears.
The arising of Kamala,
This lotus,
And it doesn't just mean a person in a particular position,
It refers to those moments of joy and happiness that we find even in the midst of our solitude,
Even though we've let go of so much.
This is a time for discovering that the gift of this practice of meditation is to teach us a kind of hope that doesn't depend on a fixed belief or image about the way things have to be.
No,
It's an opening.
It's a way of being open,
Just a little bit open,
To something that may surprise us,
Some good that may come to the dawn that follows the darkness.
Hope is a practice,
Not a belief,
Not a fixed image.
It's opening to possibility moment by moment by moment.
We're allowing ourselves to become a new kind of creature.
And I had the joy of picking this particular artwork because she's so beautiful and surprising.
And it reminded me of this wonderful cartoon in The New Yorker where two butterflies are standing face to face and one butterfly is trying to stuff herself back into her old skin,
Her caterpillar form,
Saying,
Look,
Honey,
It still fits.
And of course it doesn't fit at all.
It's lumping and strange because she had been so changed and she had become not just so much more beautiful but so much more free.
She could fly.
So the thought experiment that I would like to leave you with before we sit is that sometimes in the midst of darkness we also touch a new possibility.
In that glorious poem that was recited at the inauguration last week,
Amanda Gorman said even as we grieved,
We grew.
Even as we have witnessed and suffered what we have witnessed and suffered in the past year,
Something new began to stir outside and also inside.
Something beautiful appeared and can continue to appear moment by moment as we allow ourselves to sit down right where we are and open to the possibility of something new.
So let's take our seats together.
And if you feel comfortable,
Let your eyes close.
And just notice how it feels to be here.
And you're in your own dwelling,
But at the same time you're with a community of people who share your wish.
And this wish doesn't have to have words to it.
It can be just the briefest feeling of I wonder.
I wonder if I can let myself relax.
And just notice that there are parts of your body that you can relax,
Your face perhaps.
Your shoulders,
Neck.
You can let your back straighten,
Stretch a bit.
And notice that there's an attention here that can take in your state without judging.
And notice that this attention is a light,
Not thinking.
It's just seeing.
Seeing without judging.
And see that when you start thinking,
This is perfectly natural.
This is what minds do.
And you can gently come back again to the sensation of sitting here in this body,
Breathing.
And notice that this attention settles down.
And notice that this attention settles you,
Relaxes you.
And it also opens you.
An ancient definition of mindfulness means to remember,
To remember the present moment.
We begin to remember that we're more than our thinking.
More than the thoughts that repeat in our heads.
More than our stories.
More than our tensions and fears.
We are also an attention that sees with kindness,
With interest,
With acceptance.
We are also an attention that sees with kindness.
We are also an attention that sees with kindness.
We are also an attention that sees with kindness.
Notice that the stillness that's present now is alive.
It's full of energy that touches and nourishes us.
We are also an attention that sees with kindness.
We are also an attention that sees with kindness.
See that there's a presence inside and outside that sees,
That receives without judging.
Thank you.
Allow yourself to come home to stillness,
To sensation,
To a presence that doesn't touch.
Notice that when you come home to sensation,
You open your eyes to the sensation that's inside.
You open to the life inside.
Remembering how alive you are,
How fluid and responsive.
How open you are to life.
And see that whenever you get lost in thinking,
Picturing,
You can come home again and rest in a presence that doesn't judge,
That sees with kindness and interest.
You can come home to stillness,
To a presence that doesn't judge,
That sees with kindness,
To a presence that doesn't judge,
That sees with kindness and interest.
You you See how it feels to come home and be completely accepted You You just like this You You Resting in stillness opening to what's here Here and welcome You You You Thank You Tracy,
Bye-bye take good care Bye-bye that concludes this week's practice If you would like to support the Rubin and this meditation series,
We invite you to become a member Thank you for listening You you
