Mindfulness Meditation With Jon Aaron

The Rubin Museum of Art presents a weekly 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 13:13.

Recorded on: 03/09/2023

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,

Tashi Chodron.

Every Thursday,

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 in-person practice.

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 supported by the Frederick P.

Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism.

And now,

Please enjoy your practice.

Good afternoon,

Everybody.

Tashi Delek.

Welcome to the return of in-person Mindfulness Meditation with the Rubin Museum of Art.

I am Tashi Chodron,

Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador.

I'm so happy to be your host today.

So,

I'm curious to know how many of you have been attending this session post-pandemic regularly.

May you raise your hand.

Thank you.

And then,

How many of you have been attending in between?

All right.

And how many of you are first time?

Wow.

So,

This week,

Those of us from the Himalayas,

We've been really,

Really busy celebrating so many amazing festivals.

On March 8th,

It was Holi,

One of the most popular festivals celebrated by Hindus.

It's called Holi,

The Festival of Colors and the Arrival of Spring.

And then,

On March 7th,

The Tibetan Buddhists from all over the world,

Especially here in New York,

We celebrated Chodul Thubtchen,

Which is actually the last day of the Tibetan New Year.

On the 15th day,

It's called Chodul Thubtchen,

Buddha performing miraculous activities in order to tame the pride of those who consider themselves his rivals and also to inspire faith in pursuit of true awakening.

Now,

Those of you who are first time,

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 our weekly program where we combine art and meditation.

Inspired from our collection,

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

We will hear a brief talk from our teacher.

And today,

Our teacher is John Aaron.

And then,

We will have a short sit,

15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by him.

Now,

Let's take a look at today's theme and artwork.

We're still exploring on the theme of unity.

And the art connection for today is this painting depicting the four harmonious friends coming from this bigger painting of sacred earthly realms and heavenly paradises.

So,

The painting depicting the four harmonious friends,

They are characters from a parable that teaches the importance of unity,

Harmony,

And collaboration.

In this painting,

Tibet is depicted as an earthly paradise,

Much like the hidden land of Shambhala,

A heavenly realm believed to be concealed on our world.

The Western version of this is the mythical land of Shangri-La.

Tibet's sacred geography is mapped out as you see here with Wutai,

Often known as Wutai-shon.

And it's a distinctive five multicolored peaks on the east,

Looking here on the bottom left,

And then Mount Kailash's snowy peaks towering over nomadic scenes of the Tibetan northern plains to the west,

That is the top right on this big painting.

The central imagery in this painting accords with a prophecy in which a divine ruler known as a king,

Chakravartin,

Whose chariot wheel is rolling without obstruction.

In Tibetan,

He's known as Khorlo Dürwe Dyalpo,

And identified by a golden wheel,

Defeats enemies of humanity and restore goodness,

Again transforms the world into an ideal realm.

As you can see here,

The king sits in a palace surrounded by representatives of various races and nations who have come to make offerings to his feet,

Complementing this terrestrial paradise.

The top of the painting includes depictions of three bodhisattvas floating above in their own heavenly pure lands.

At the top left of the painting is a group of four animals,

An elephant,

Monkey,

Hare,

And petridge,

Known as the Four Harmonious Friends,

Often called elephant,

Monkey,

Rabbit,

And a bird.

They are characters from a parable that teaches the importance of unity,

Harmony,

And collaboration.

Sounds like a good teamwork,

Huh?

And this work of art represents later developments in the painting traditions from central Tibet,

Dominated by lush green landscape,

Highly decorated ornamentation,

And dramatic landscape.

So this is a gift from Shelley and Donald Rubin,

And it's a 17th-century painting from central Tibet,

And about 52.

5 x 74.

5 inches.

Now,

Let's bring on our teacher for today.

Our teacher is John Aaron.

John Aaron is well-known as a teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction,

MBSR,

As well as a trainer of new teachers of this seminal eight-weeks curriculum.

Among his primary interests are the use of meditation and somatic work in healing trauma and working with individuals with chronic pain and grief.

When the pandemic hit,

Along with his partner,

He co-founded Space to Meditate,

An online community of meditators that is still going strong six days a week.

John,

Thank you so much for being here.

So much.

So the theme of unity and the story of Four Harmonious Friends which were animals is actually I think a mirror of an earlier teaching in the early tradition of Buddhism about three harmonious friends who were practicing together in one of the forests near where the Buddha was and the Buddha went to see them and you know,

Asked how it was going and they were just in a way quite delighted to talk about how well they were getting along and how they practiced together and reached really high attainments of awakening by practicing together because they just all sort of melded so beautifully together.

And there is another teaching about qualities of friends,

The qualities of good friends.

And the Buddha talks about good hearted friends who are with you in good times and bad.

He talks about friends that are like counselors and mentors and he talks about friends that are compassionate.

So the four types of friends he refers to as a helper,

Somebody who's around all the time to pick you up when you're having hard times and basically,

You know,

People that are there always for you which is great.

We all need good friends like that.

But when I was thinking about the three friends in the forest who were practicing together,

I started,

I scratched my head and I thought well,

It's great that they were having such a wonderful time practicing together and that they got along so well.

But that's not really representative of the world as it is right now or as it's ever been really,

Right?

That we've always had division.

And so,

The real question of unity is like well,

How do we practice in a way that can bring this division whether it's red state,

Blue state,

Purple state,

Whether it's left or right,

Whether it's republican democrat,

Whether it's anarchist or the opposite,

You know,

When we look at all these divisions,

Where does that really start from?

And in a way,

It starts from here.

You know,

We have divisions within ourselves that we don't always acknowledge and our practice,

The practice of mindfulness,

Practice of meditation and certainly the practice that the buddhas taught are related to bringing these divisions together to create unity because unless we're sort of finding unity within ourselves,

How can we certainly expect to bring the world together?

And then the other aspect of that is what divides the world is this notion of self and other.

That's really what divides the world which from a buddhist context is a complete fabrication.

And we see it all the time,

Right?

That we're constantly being someone and we need to be someone in order to kind of get through our day.

But at the same time in being someone that creates someone else.

There's an other and sometimes that's not a problem but oftentimes we hold on to a view of who that other is and who I am.

And as we practice and start to see through that fabrication of self and other,

Then there's the possibility for true freedom and there's a possibility that these divisions that we kind of experience through life and that we see every day on the news,

That those divisions can actually start to soften.

And that may seem like pie in the sky,

Complete fantasy,

You know,

That we're always going to have divisions which is to some degree true of course.

But at least if we can transform our own heart to recognize the possibility that these divisions can fall away,

Then there's a possibility for true unity.

And so,

We need to unify ourselves and then we can bring that into the world and you know,

Unify at least our small part of the world.

And this is what's often referred to by I would say,

The main teacher who talks about this is Joanna Macy,

The great turning,

You know,

And in this day of really divisiveness,

Real divisiveness on so many levels within this country,

Within this continent,

Within this world,

This great turning is going to be essential.

And it's the only thing that really gives me faith and it's through these practices that you know,

We can start to experience that ourselves.

So,

I'm just going to guide a practice that's kind of related to this,

How we can sort of see ourselves becoming at any given moment and letting that go and just being.

And as we are just being,

You know,

We can sort of feel this boundary between self and other start to fall away.

Mindfulness in a sense is starting to see those boundaries,

Starting to see those obstacles that separate ourselves from ourselves,

Let alone ourselves from others.

And that's really what we're practicing when we're practicing mindfulness.

When we start to see what's causing our suffering,

Our stress has been built up over the course of our life and we haven't even noticed and we start to see through that,

Then we can be at least momentarily relieved from our stress,

Momentarily relieved from any form of suffering that we might be in the midst of,

Whether that's physical suffering,

Emotional suffering,

Domestic suffering,

Financial suffering,

You name it.

This is why we practice to start to see through these obstacles,

Which isn't always fun,

But it's always transformative if we open ourselves up to that possibility.

So,

Let's find a place,

Find a posture,

Find a posture which is upright,

Find a posture which is comfortable yet feels balanced.

So,

Rather than just kind of hanging out in your seat,

We actually have an upright dignified posture,

Finding our feet on the floor,

Taking a few deep and deliberate breaths just to settle the body,

Feeling the contact with the chair,

The contact with the floor,

The contact of your hands,

Contact with the air,

Just knowing this body sitting here as it is just now and for a moment,

Bringing to mind all of your best qualities.

And as you bring those qualities to mind,

Just notice how that's experienced in the body.

It might help when you also recollect how others see those qualities in you,

How that's experienced in the body.

And maybe bringing to mind some of those qualities that you're not so crazy about in yourself that may cause another feeling in the body.

And just recognize that these two aspects of yourself seem to be existing okay.

Those good qualities can care for those qualities that you're not so crazy about.

Recognizing that those qualities,

Whether good or bad,

Are a result of all sorts of causes and conditions,

Most of which are beyond our control.

And just like you,

Others also have good qualities,

As well as qualities that are less desirable,

Such as a lack of self-confidence,

A lack of self-worth,

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