Mindfulness Meditation Online At The Rubin Museum With Tracy Cochran 12/07/2020

The Rubin Museum of Art presents a weekly online meditation session led by a meditation teacher from the area, with each session focusing on a specific work of art. This podcast is a recording of a Mindfulness Meditation online session and a 20-minute sitting session, and a closing discussion. The guided practice begins at 13:48.

Transcript

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.

Tashi Delik,

Welcome to our weekly virtual mindfulness meditation with the Rubin Museum of Art.

This program is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg,

The Interdependence Project,

And the Parabola Magazine.

My name is Tashi Chodron.

We are a museum of Himalayan art and ideas in New York City,

And we are so glad to have all of you join us for today's session,

Where we combine art and meditation online.

We are delighted to have as our teacher today,

Tracy Cochran,

Who we will introduce in just a moment.

So for today's session,

We will take a look at a work of art from our collection.

We will have a brief talk from our teacher,

And then we will have a short sit,

About 15 to 20 minutes.

So for the month of December,

Our theme is generosity.

And so today,

The art connection is this beautiful viewer that you will see.

Yes.

So this is the beautiful art connection for today.

It's called Pumba in Tibetan word,

This beautiful,

Very intricate golden and silver,

About around the 19th century or so,

Mongolian and Tibetan aesthetic that has these beautiful intricate eight auspicious symbols and all of that.

Our teacher for today is Tracy Cochran.

Tracy is editorial director of Parabola Magazine.

It's a quarterly magazine that for 40 years has drawn on the world's cultural and wisdom traditions to explore the questions that all humans share.

Tracy practices and teaches meditation and mindfulness writing at New York Insight Meditation and throughout the greater New York.

For more information on Tracy,

Please visit TracyCochran.

Org.

So now let's bring Tracy.

Thank you.

Thank you,

Tracy.

Thank you,

Tashi.

And I'm very happy to be here with Tashi,

With Dawn,

With Elise,

And with all of you.

And I couldn't resist selecting this beautiful sacred object that had a dragon on it,

Even though the theme for the month is generosity,

Because 2020,

In my view,

Really demands to be illustrated by a dragon rather than a Buddha.

A dragon in every culture symbolizes what's fearsome and also what's unknown.

It's a symbol of enlightenment,

Which might seem shocking at first,

But it seems just perfect because when you think of ancient maps,

Often the dragon illustrated what was unknown.

And enlightenment is to see beyond our fears,

To really open our hearts and our minds to embrace what might seem frightening at first and to discover its deeper truth.

And what better time to begin to reflect on that?

And what came up for me,

It's always fun and fruitful to relate to these objects from something that we might know or might have lived.

And one thing that came up for me were some lines from Mary Oliver,

Who said,

Someone I loved once gave me a box of darkness.

It took me years to understand that this too was a gift.

And for many of us,

This whole past year,

In a sense,

Was a box of darkness,

A kind of dragon,

An unknown,

And something that was very frightening at times or very sad,

Something that confronted us with a way of living that's completely new.

So rather than to keep telling you something that you already know that you're living,

I thought I would tell you a short story.

Some of you were with me today,

Heard a version of it recently,

But there's always something new to hear about a confrontation with a kind of dragon.

And it takes place at this time of year,

As I think of it,

When King Arthur wandered into a haunted forest.

He was hunting,

And he had an impulse to be alone.

Many of us can relate to that.

And he went off into a forest that was unknown to him,

And he shot a deer and was immediately confronted by a big,

Fearful knight,

Covered in armor,

Who had a long-standing grudge against Arthur and said,

You killed a deer in my land,

And I will kill you.

And Arthur said,

But wait,

That wouldn't be honorable,

Because you are in full armor,

And I'm just in my greens with just a bow and arrow.

So the fearsome knight said,

Okay,

Okay,

I'll give you one year to answer a question.

And if you can answer it,

Come back,

I'll give you one year.

And the question was,

What do women want?

And poor Arthur was full of fear and confusion,

Because he hadn't been very happy in love,

And he didn't know.

So he went back to his court,

And Sir Gawain,

I learned this morning,

That was how it was pronounced,

Gawain,

His nephew,

And the noble knight,

Noticed his dejection,

His melancholy,

And said,

How can I help?

And Arthur explained,

And Gawain will search high and low,

Every place,

Every part of this kingdom,

And we will find an answer.

So the seasons pass,

The time draws closer,

And finally Arthur,

Wandering off on his own again,

Is confronted by a dragon of a woman,

Fearful in her appearance,

Dame Ragnow.

And he's quaking with fear,

And she said,

What can I do for you?

What can I do for you?

I can help you if you promise me one thing,

Give me the hand of Sir Gawain in marriage.

And Arthur went back to Gawain and said,

I really,

I can't do this to you,

Because this is a dragon of a person.

And Gawain said,

My king,

My uncle,

Let me do this,

If she can help you.

So back he went,

And Lady Ragnow said,

Women want sovereignty,

Sovereignty,

Just that word.

So a marriage was arranged,

And it was big and bright,

And this is what Lady Ragnow wanted,

She didn't want to be hidden.

And so Gawain wed this dragon of a woman,

This,

Think of the worst thing that you think of happening to you.

And he married her.

And that night,

On their honeymoon,

In the wedding bed,

She said,

Will you give me a kiss?

And he assured her that he would fully embrace her,

He would do far more than kiss her.

And the moment he said that,

She was transformed into something beautiful,

A beautiful woman.

And she said,

But now answer me this,

Would you like me to look dragon-like and loathsome during the day,

And like this,

Or would you like me to be beautiful during the day for everyone to see,

And at night,

Turn back into my loathsome form?

This is how they described her.

And being truly noble,

The way Buddha described a noble friend,

Truly authentic,

He said,

You choose.

And at that,

She was transformed into her beautiful self.

So what does this have to do with dragons and generosity?

This is a story that is deep in our culture,

That many children hear,

That expresses this word sovereignty,

Which means to live from the inside,

To be who you truly are,

To be granted,

To be given the gift,

The generous gift of being allowed to be yourself.

And this year,

When so many of us have spent so much time in our homes,

In our apartments,

On our own,

It's a time to experience both the fear that the whole plot,

The whole storyline of our life has come down,

Has just collapsed,

That sorrow,

That fear,

Will life ever be the same again,

But also the taste of what it's like to live from the inside,

Moment by moment by moment,

To begin to realize that our lives can be guided,

Can be illuminated by a light of attention that doesn't have anything to do with carrying out an image or a picture of what life should be,

But something that helps us find ourselves moment by moment.

So let's experience this right now and we'll see more what this story might mean.

So we take a comfortable seat with our feet on the floor and our back straight,

Letting our eyes close if we feel comfortable with closed eyes.

If you don't,

For any reason,

You can keep your gaze soft and lowered,

But it's really wonderful if you can close your eyes so that your experience can be very close to you.

And notice with eyes closed that there's an attention here right inside you that can open to receive what's present right now without insisting that it be a different way.

Let everything happen to you exactly as it's happening,

Let thinking appear,

Knowing that this is perfectly natural.

Our brains like to think.

Let sensation appear.

Pictures in the mind.

Perceptions.

Sounds.

Let everything happen just exactly as it's happening and see that you can bring the attention back to what it feels like to be in this body right now.

Feet on the floor.

Seat on a chair or a cushion.

The rhythm of the breath.

Without striving,

Just allowing.

And notice that when you begin to stray into thinking and dreaming,

You can gently come back again to sensation.

Noticing that when you do this,

When you make this movement of returning,

You open.

You open to what is here.

Inside and outside.

Noticing that there's a stillness here.

That we share.

Notice that you can rest in this stillness.

Noticing that everything that comes up,

Every edge,

Every thought,

Every feeling,

Even the most difficult,

Can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

That sees,

That embraces with kindness.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Notice that you can come back anytime.

Act to sensation.

Act to presence.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that when you make this move,

Home to the body in the present moment,

It relaxes and settles you.

Take root again in your life.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Notice how it feels to be sitting with other people from different places.

And feeling completely acceptable.

Being as you are.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Lost and thinking just come home again.

Back to sensation.

Noticing that this opens you.

It grounds you and it also opens you.

You begin to remember that you belong to life.

Just like this.

You are nothing to hide.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Notice how you relax.

Notice how you relax.

That there's a light and warmth inside you.

Notice how you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Notice breathing out.

We can help but belong to life.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing how it feels to take root in sensation and be seen by an attention that doesn't judge.

That sees with complete acceptance.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing how it feels to let yourself relax.

Noticing how it feels to let yourself relax and soften and open.

To be seen by a gaze that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing that you can be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing how it feels to come home to presence and touch the true beauty of your life.

Of being alive right now.

Held and received by life.

Noticing how it feels to be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing how it feels to be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing how it feels to be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing how it feels to be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Noticing how it feels to be touched by an attention that doesn't judge.

Reviews

So goodThank you Rubin museum and especially Tracey. Good story Box of darkness is such a great description and learned well from that again. 🙏🏼

Very nice thank you and Namaste

Extraordinary!!! Thank you so much ❤️🙏🏼