Mindfulness Meditation With Tracy Cochran 10/24/2022

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 14:38.

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 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 supported by the Frederick Lance Foundation for American Buddhism.

And now,

Please enjoy your practice.

Hello,

Tashi Dalek and happy Diwali.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for joining our Mindfulness Meditation Online with Rubin Museum of Art.

I'm Tashi Chodron and welcome and very happy Diwali to all of you.

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 online.

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 then we will have a short set,

15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by our teacher.

We're still continuing on the theme,

Openness,

As we've been exploring last two Mondays for this month and the art connection.

The theme,

Openness,

Is openness of the path to realization and the art connection.

So the art connection for today is this very special sculpture of Mahasiddha Jalendra.

So the Mahasiddha Jalendra,

The Dakinis chosen one who appeared in 9th century,

Great Indian master,

Legendary men and women called Mahasiddhas or great spiritually accomplished ones are considered to be among the first teachers of tantric Buddhist practice.

Maha Siddha means great realized one.

Maha means great Siddha,

Means realized one in Sanskrit.

And usually they come as an ordinary background occupation,

Such as wandering monks,

Weavers or farmers or fishermen.

They are often depicted in various yogic posture,

As you see here,

Or flying or dancing,

Sometimes wearing little or no clothing,

Drinking alcohol in their wide variety and very unconventional behavior.

The Mahasiddhas exemplify,

They are the tantric Buddhist practices,

Which often offers many paths to realization.

So esoteric tantric means many methods or many,

Many paths to realization.

So they are celebrated as real people who embodied enlightenment through tantric practice.

And this particular master,

As we're looking at in this very yogic fluidity,

The openness of the physical body is Indian Siddha Jalendra depicted here in a very active posture,

As you see,

Known for his many yogic feats.

It is said that he could manifest his body in many places,

In fact,

At the same time and live in many bodily forms and widely desperate lands simultaneously.

He's known to be the founder of Hatha Yoga.

Those of you who are familiar in the different types of yoga and to transform the physical into awakened perceptions,

Which is absolute reality taught practices that unify male and female forces,

Dissolving the subject and object dichotomy and spent in a learning or awakening into a known dual forces,

Which is actually awakening or the wisdom opening.

And now let us bring our teacher for today,

Regretfully and unfortunately,

Sharon,

Not available today.

And she sends her blessing.

But fortunately,

Tracy is available for us.

And so let's bring our teacher,

Tracy Cochran,

Who has been a student and teacher of meditation and spiritual practice for decades.

She's the founder of the Hudson River Sangha,

Which is now virtual and open to all.

The link for her weekly meditation can be found on our website,

Tracy Cochran dot org.

In addition,

Tracy has taught mindfulness meditation and mindful writing at the Rubin Museum of Art and the New York Insight Meditation Center,

As well as in school corporations and other venues worldwide.

She's also a writer and editorial director of Parabola,

An acclaimed quarterly magazine that seeks to bring timeless spiritual wisdom to the burning questions of the day.

Her writings,

Podcast and other details can be found on our website and on parabola.

Org.

Tracy has her new edition,

The Overcoming Darkness,

And Tracy will share more deeper into that.

Thank you so much for being here,

Tracy.

Thank you so much,

Tashi,

And happy dwelling to everyone.

And thank you for being open to having me here this week.

I know it's a surprise,

Surprise for me too.

And so I invite all of us,

Even as I am talking to you,

To make yourself comfortable with yourself in the most simple way.

That means be aware of the body,

Be comfortable as you're listening.

You might not feel great today,

But you can welcome yourself to be just like you are,

To make space for it.

And I chose this figure,

In fact,

Because it's an invitation for us to remember that there's this beautiful form of the tradition,

This form of meditation,

And this long heritage that Tashi has so much to share about after the place of these great figures.

But to invite all of us to open to an approach to what it can mean to make a distinction between a form,

A particular monastic form,

And the real juice or the light or the life of the wisdom itself.

So there are these figures that break all the rules.

We saw this beautiful image of someone.

He looks like he's dancing scantily clad,

They're tales of these wild women who take on monks and teach them the difference between the living truth and their forms,

Their rules.

And the living truth starts right here when we sit right now inviting ourselves to be comfortable being here for ourselves,

Not just reaching out for someone else to tell us the truth or a pithy quote that we can hang onto,

But the truth of how it feels to be here right now.

And then adding the piece of attention to how it feels to be here,

To be me.

And then finally if we wish to open to the heart,

Which doesn't again have to feel happy that we're open,

But it's an invitation to draw closer to ourselves,

To have a sense of intimacy with ourselves,

With our experience,

To let it be our own,

To know that the truth appears from our own living truth.

So some of my friends who sit with me regularly and know me well know that cozy is one of my favorite words,

To be cozy,

To let ourselves be at ease and be at ease with each other.

But I discovered to my delight,

And I want to share with you,

That there's a whole new dimension to the word cozy,

And I heard it and I experienced it by listening to and watching a video of Beyonce sing cozy from her magnificent new album.

And the reason I'm bringing it up in this context is as an invitation for you to lay yourselves,

Remember or notice figures,

And they can be great artists like Beyonce,

Who remind you of your own deepest potential.

And in this song,

Which I will make no attempt to sing,

It includes a refrain that's very applicable to the talk today,

Where she is goddess-like and proclaiming herself a goddess and saying,

I'm comfortable in my skin.

I'm cozy with who I am.

And it's Diwali,

She goes on to say,

I've been dark,

I've been light,

Inviting us to see and for ourselves,

What do you know about that?

In other words,

She is a wisdom figure,

A wisdom teacher,

Who has found the truth in her own life,

Going through darkness,

Emerging into light,

Being broke,

Being back.

Diwali goes on showing us that the real truth,

The spiritual truth that we seek isn't something that's up above,

Out of the mess and difficulty and challenge of life,

But something we find as we open.

There's that word in that thing.

As we open to our own deepest experience,

Our own deepest awareness,

Which can begin now again as we sit.

We can do it even before we shut our eyes and that is how it feels.

To let yourself fully be here,

Be you as you're feeling today.

In a sense,

Proclaiming your right to be here,

To be you.

Noticing no other person,

No person far away,

But right here and noticing that there's an attention that you can turn and bring to yourself that's not closed and telling you to be this way and that way and sit up straight and look like this,

Sit cross-legged or sit in a chair.

There's an open attention that's inviting you to be comfortable in your own skin.

Opening and making space for all that you've been through.

You don't have to list it in your head,

But you're inviting it to be present with you.

All that experience of being up and down in light,

In darkness,

Emerging into this moment and noticing that in the center of your chest,

In the center of my chest,

All of us,

There's a heart,

We can make our attention to it and that this heart opens into an experience of being deeply and intimately close,

Cozy with experience,

With life.

So let's let our eyes close and we'll go from here into 20 minutes of meditation.

Just notice feet on the floor,

Back straight,

Sitting in the middle of your own life.

Letting the eyes close or look down.

Notice that there's an attention that's already here that can come to rest on the sensation of the body.

Notice that this attention isn't full of comments and opinions,

It simply sees.

It meets sensation as it is.

And notice that you can bring the attention also to the chest,

To the region of the heart without asking it to be one way or another,

Just being open to our innate potential to be intimate with experience,

With life,

To draw close to it.

Notice that if you become distracted,

First of all,

This is natural and second,

You can come back again to the body,

To stillness,

Which is not rigid but letting be.

Letting yourself be just like this.

Noticing that there is a light of attention inside you,

Of awareness that's kind.

That accepts you just like this.

Notice that there's a sense of awareness inside you,

It is open and light and also deep.

It includes sensation,

It includes the whole of your experience.

You don't need to think about it,

Just make space,

Allowing yourself to be comfortable,

To just be.

Noticing that stillness can be causing a refuge.

And that darkness can contain light.

Noticing how it feels to come back.

How it feels to come back to sensation,

Back to the body,

To experience it as deep,

Grounding and connecting us to Earth.

Experiencing the vibrancy of your life inside.

Noticing that the darkness or depth of sensation of the body,

The physical experience of being alive also includes the light of awareness.

An awareness that sees and accepts with compassion.

Noticing that arises.

Notice how it feels to let go of striving to be apart from life.

To think about it and name it.

Just let yourself be.

There is the low And header feature,

You can use bottom lineplays to adjust it.

Or you can write up a Nine Out of ten.

Noticing the light in the darkness,

The life in you behind closed eyes.

How connected you are to life.

How connected you are to life.

Just let yourself sink into the darkness of not knowing,

Not naming everything with thought.

Noticing how it feels to just let yourself be connected to life,

To be open,

To be comfortable.

With what's beyond the borders of thinking.

Noticing that there's a light of awareness here that you can trust.

That you can soften it to.

Noticing that there's a light of awareness here that you can trust.

Noticing how it feels to be cozy with the living.

Noticing how it feels to be cozy with the living truth of your life.

To be comfortable here.

Noticing how it feels to be comfortable here.

Noticing how it feels to be comfortable here.

Noticing how it feels to be comfortable here.

Noticing how it feels to be comfortable here.

Noticing how it feels to be comfortable here.

Reviews

I always love anytime spent with the wisdom of Tracy Cochran. I was fortunate enough to attend this practice at the Rubin Museum many years ago 🙏🏼

Thank you 🙏🏼