Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 02/03/2016 with Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: February 11, 2016

Every Wednesday, the Rubin Museum of Art presents a meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area. This podcast is a recording of the weekly practice. If you would like to attend in person, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation to learn more. We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and the teachers from the Interdependence Project and the New York Insight Meditation Center. This week’s session will be led by Sharon Salzberg focusing on the Sangha and the Three Jewels. To view a related artwork from the Rubin Museum's permanent collection, please visit: rma.cm/oa

Thank you. If you would like to join us in person, please visit our website at rubemuseum.org. We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and the teachers from the Interdependence Project on 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 museum's permanent collection. And now, please enjoy your practice. Sharon Salzberg is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barrie, Massachusetts, has been teaching and practicing for many years, and is the author of many fabulous books, which you can find from the bookshop including Real

Happiness at Work. Please welcome back Sharon Salzberg. This is the third of this particular three-part series of discussing the Three Refuges or the Three three jewels of the Buddhist teaching. And these are like our North Star when we get confused, when we get overwhelmed. When things are just falling apart, it's all chaotic. We can remember, oh, there are people who've walked this kind of path, or there have been people who have been audacious enough to try to see differently and not just be bound by conventional understanding.

And there are people who've gone before me, and it's a good thing, isn't it? So, you know, in those times of overwhelm or feeling that confused, we tend to feel very alone. Times when things are really difficult, it's not that easy to actually remember, oh, it's not just me, that this is a part of the human condition. There's change or there's adversity. And even when things are joyful and wonderful, it's not that easy to have that sense of sharing always

and just being open-hearted about it. There's often something in us that says, this is too embarrassing. Things are going too well, I think I'll just leave this, you know, in some little corner, something like that. And so this idea of being part of a community is really a tremendous reminder of how things actually are and also of how much we might tend to overlook. So the word sangha in Pali or Sanskrit has three different connected but somewhat distinct

meanings or ways that it's used. The first is really in the sense of the monastic Sangha. The monks and the nuns who for generations were charged with keeping these teachings alive, transmitting them. It was your personal responsibilities like a heart-to-heart transmission to make sure you really had kind of a sense of forging a lineage, that this would not end with you and that this would be a vibrant and ongoing tradition. And some of these people hearing that nothing in the Buddhist teaching was written down for many hundreds of years feel that somehow discredits it in some way. And I've heard anthropologists say, in contrast, that oral traditions are sometimes more authentic.

And I can kind of understand that because everyone invests. It's like my responsibility to really remember this so I can pass it on. And I know in contrast someone like myself where I might Google something and I won't really bother to remember it because I think I'll just Google it again tomorrow. Right? So I don't have that sense of like oh I've got to really get this you know so I can I can transmit it. So that first meaning of Sangha is that sense of respect that people have devoted their time and their lives and we are the lucky recipients of a tradition because of that. The second meaning of Sangha has to do with people

who've actually realized something more deeply about the nature of life, who've broken through the bonds of conditioning, who've seen much more clearly, who've developed tremendous wisdom, tremendous compassion, and they are like exemplars for us because they too were people, are and were. Kind of ordinary people, just like us, who from the beginnings of time, men, women, even children, have taken risks and dared to be different and actually practiced or learned,

it doesn't have to be within this tradition by any means, but have really exploded lots of the myths about life and have really seen much more deeply. So that's a tremendous reassurance, isn't it? You're like, wow. And of course, the thought comes, which is not a bad thought. Well, if you could do it, maybe I could do it too. That's actually a good thought.

That's what it's all about. Because that, in fact, is the truth. So we say we take refuge in the Sangha in this sense, in that it's a kind of gratitude, like, wow. And it's important to recollect, yeah, it's true. This is not meant to be something that's just theoretical or abstract or we think, oh, well, it's fine for them. They lived in a cave.

They didn't have to deal with Manhattan. It's not like that. It's like they are real exemplars and inspirations. Like, wow, maybe I can do it too. And then the third most contemporary meaning of sangha is the one that's really expressed in that piece of art, in that photo, which is like all of us.

It's a gathering. It's those of us who are on the path, not necessarily already highly realized, although perhaps, but on the path. We share the same values. Whatever kind of tradition or lack of tradition, it doesn't really matter, but it's those values. It's that seeking the truth,

wanting to have a deeper understanding of life, not just live mechanically. We want to know kindness in a whole other way. We want to have generosity of the spirit. really come to explore where happiness is actually to be found, which automatically means stepping away from a lot of messages and a lot of influences. And what about a community that can be different together and support one another, who can look at things like pain and suffering, which isn't always that appealing in the larger world or allowed in the larger world?

What about being able to think about an adventure in simplicity and morality and generosity rather than in acquiring and getting and competing and having? It's not that easy to do all by oneself, but together we can have tremendous support. We can give support to one another, and we can receive support from one another. So I love that photo. In many Asian cultures, the so-called value of a piece of art

is not an objective measure. It's based on the state of mind of the creator of that piece of art. So if one is getting more enlightened in the process of creating, then that's considered really wondrous. That's a beautiful and valuable thing, which is confounding in a lot of ways, right?

Because we don't necessarily think like that. But I often wonder, like going up in one of the galleries or something like that, and sometimes I'm just sort of walking, and then I feel transfixed by something my eye falls on. And I wonder, I wonder how many years it took them to create. I wonder what process they went through themselves in the act of creation. I wonder who they became by the end. You know, that's an inspiring kind of sangha. And so we all, we come together. I mean, look at us here now. We come together and it's so supportive

on a Wednesday afternoon. So that's a lovely meaning of sangha. It's a being, any one of us, who is growing and changing, learning how to care, and being the best that we can in concert with one another. So, let's sit together. See if your back can be straight without being strained or over arched. wherever you feel most at ease.

Let's start by listening to sound. Just letting the sound wash through you. And bring your attention to feeling your body sitting. Then bring your attention to the feeling of your breath, just the normal natural breath, wherever you feel it most distinctly. The nostrils, the chest, or the abdomen. You can find that spot. Bring your attention there and just rest. See if you can feel one breath. That's all. You don't have to worry about what's already gone by.

You don't have to lean forward for even the very next breath.. And if you like, you can use a quiet mental notation, like in, out, or rising, falling, to help support the awareness of the breath. But very quiet. So your attention is really going to feeling the breath, one breath at a time. Thank you. If images or sounds or sensations or emotions should arise, but they're not all that strong, just let them flow on by.

You don't have to fight them. You don't have to follow them. The image is used of seeing a friend in a crowd. You don't have to shove aside everybody else and say, go away, you're bothering me. But your interest, your enthusiasm is going, hey, there's my friend. There's the breath. There's the breath. Thank you.... and if you find yourself spun out in thought

lost in a fantasy or you've fallen asleep don't worry about it remember that the most important moment is the next moment after we've been gone we practice letting go we practice beginning again Remember that the most important moment is the next moment after we've been gone. We practice letting go. We practice beginning again.

Just gently bring your attention back to the feeling of the breath. Thank you. Thank you. No matter how many times you might have to let go and begin again, it's fine. That's the practice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.. Isn't it amazing that no matter where our attention goes, we can actually begin again? So you can treasure those moments of letting go and starting over. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Takk for ating mediet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes this week's practice. If you'd like to attend in person, please check out our website,

rubinmuseum.org slash meditation to learn more. Sessions are free to Rubin Museum members, just one of the many benefits of membership. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.