Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 04/05/2017 with Tracy Cochran

Episode Date: April 6, 2017

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. Presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg and the New York Insight Meditation Center. Tracy Cochran led this meditation session on April 5, 2017. To view a related artwork for this week's session, please visit: http://bit.ly/2oKxbMv

Welcome to the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast. I'm your host, Dawn Eshelman. Every Wednesday at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea, we present a meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area. This podcast is a recording of our weekly practice. If you would like to join us in person, please visit our website at rubinmuseum.org meditation. We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and the teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center. In the description for each episode, you will find information about the theme for that week's I'm proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and the teachers from 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 Rubin Museum's permanent collection. And now, please enjoy your practice. Aum. Aum. Hello. Welcome to a month of mantra. We're talking about mantra all month in our mindfulness meditation practice here. And we're kicking off with the essential mantra, Aum. And you see Aum depicted here behind me in a few different languages. So the first on the left is Jain, and then we have Japanese, Sanskrit, Sikh, and Tibetan.

And Aum is the essential mantra, as I mentioned. It's also known as a seed syllable, and it is often used on its own as a mantra or to kind of kick off other mantras. And the reason for that is that Aum is considered to be the most kind of powerful and potent, and all mantras kind of develop from Aum within these traditions here. Aum is a little bit hard to talk about because the power of Aum is really in experiencing the sound of Aum and in making the sound. So definitions vary from tradition to tradition, but in the ancient Indian Vedic tradition, Aum is thought to be the sound of the creation of the universe. It is thought to encompass the totality of everything in existence. And it is thought to represent what is thought of as the unstruck sound. So if you clap your hands, that sound is a struck sound. It sort of takes the sound that is

primordial and existing already and brings it into being. And om is the sound of the sound that is already existing within the cosmos, within each of us. So we'll back up just a little bit and talk about this concept of mantra. And mantra, as we'll be exploring throughout the month, is the sound of a potent syllable or phrase that is spoken and that is meant to be repeated in order to bring the speaker into a focus and into a higher realm of awareness for spiritual practice and sometimes for meditation.

And we can also think about mantra as kind of a more conceptual. I think there is a more conceptual way into thinking about it. So you can think about what are the conscious and unconscious mantras that you have in your secular lives as well? And what are the mantras that you want to really put out there into your daily life? And what are maybe some of the more subconscious kind of mantras that are being repeated that actually you want to become aware of and let go of. So I think that this concept of mantra we can think of really as kind of a playful exploration of how it is that we talk to ourselves and what it is we want to be saying. so um tracy cochran is back with us and um she's i'm so glad she's here to kick off this month of mantra and then also she'll be here at the end of the month to wrap it up with us she is a writer

and editorial director of the quarterly magazine parabola which can be found online at parabola.org and also up in the shop and it's a beautiful poetic soulful publication if you haven't had a chance to take a look please do she has been a student of meditation and other spiritual practices for decades and in addition to teaching at the Rubin she teaches at the New York Insight Meditation Center and every Thursday and Sunday at Tarrytown Insight. Her writings and teachings can be found online and along with her teaching schedule via Parabola on Facebook and Twitter and TracyCochran.org.

Please welcome her back, Tracy Cochran. Well, I'm delighted to be back here. I was daunted at first when I got to kick off Mantra because I have a voice that reminds me of a story a monk told me where a famous teacher, Ajahn Chah, told him that there was a donkey that always tried to sing like a cricket. So he would drink this nectar, because that's what he thought the trick was, and then open his mouth. But of course, it doesn't matter how we sound.

We all have our own sound, outwardly and also inwardly. and also inwardly. And this is a very special place where we get to sit down and open to unknown things, all of us, to explore them ourselves. So I thought of two little examples. One happened to me last night.

I woke up at two in the morning. I don't know if this has ever happened to you. I had insomnia. And I found my thoughts circling and circling. Have you ever had that? Even, you don't really know what you're worried about, but there must be something. So you search for something because there's this edge of anxiety. And then it occurred to me

to repeat the phrases of metta, which is a practice in this tradition. May I be safe. May I be well. May I be happy. So this is a mantra in English. And the meaning of mantra, one of the definitions from its root is mind protection. Mind protection. And it means it lifts us out of that self-enclosed little loop of thought and reminds us that we're in a bigger world. So I was soothed and I went back to sleep. And I thought of a story that was once shared in Parabola, in fact, about great mantras.

How do we approach them if we didn't grow up with them, like Aum? Think of a time when you were lost, a little kid lost in the woods, or just imagine it. And you begin to feel anxious. Will I ever, ever find my way home? And you hear a sound. And it's familiar to you. You might not have heard it before, but it feels familiar. And you have images of what it's like inside your home.

Let's say there are fairytale images with fire crackling away and loved ones smiling at you. So you go towards the sound. This is mantra. This is Aum. Aum is the symbol Aum, was found in a book that is arguably the oldest book in the world,

the Rig Veda. Veda means sacred knowledge. But according to one of my teachers, Bhikkhu Bodhi, it also means knowledge that you feel. You don't just think. Veda. So that Aum is something you feel inside. And I gave myself and I give you complete permission to think of it as home. Home. Home. So it was written as a symbol, a sacred syllable, 3,000 years ago.

But it existed before that. People have been wanting to come home. You walk into this room, if you're anything like me, a lot of times you feel like a brain on a stick. Am I right? Just this like frantic brain on a stick. Really. And you sit down and you might not even know why you come exactly. And you might have misgivings. You can barely squeeze it in. But as you sit down, you begin to remember you're more than a brain on a stick. There's an awareness in you that's not thinking. And there's also a vibration, a sound. And it doesn't have to be a sound that you make,

although I encourage you to try in a few minutes, because if I can do it you can also do it it's a shift from feeling alone in the universe to living taking your part in a greater wholeness

in a world full of vibrations opening to vibrations. Just like I did last night in the midst of my insomnia. Remember, mantras, Sanskrit has a special quality of being created to represent sounds. But mantras exist in every single language, including your own.

There are Christian monks who repeat the mantra, Lord have mercy, until it's just a vibration. They go about their work. They cut wood. They carry water. Chanting, Lord have mercy. Or just mercy. Or sometimes you find yourself just saying, help. It's the same impulse. To attune yourself to another vibration, to emerge into a greater wholeness.

So Aum, Aum is special. And in a way, all of the Upanishads, all of the ancient texts are hymns to Aum because it's an expression of creation and the creator, but also Atman, also our innermost connection

to this creation. That we have a home here. We're meant to be here. We're welcome here. So as Don said, it's very difficult to talk about. So I thought that, and Don thought, that it would be nice if we try something together that's called a rolling om. I really kind of love that sound. I'm gonna put my mic down in a minute and we will all say om in our own way, with our own breath, in our own pitch. And we're going to do that for a few minutes, and then we will go into stillness, straight into the meditation.

Okay? So let's have an experience together, because that's the way we're going to know. So let's have an experience together, because that's the way we're going to know. And I'll ring the bell very gently after a little while. And then that will be our signal together to go into stillness and to let that vibration sound in our sitting. Okay? in our sitting, okay? Rho LSp4 2.70 Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooioooooioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioio SILENT PRAISE. ... I love you. Gå in. Thank you. Gullu 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, Thank you. Noticing that still body is of vibration. Thank you for watching! Takk for ating med.. Noticing that when we get taken we come home to the breathing, to the body and take our world. Thank you for watching. Takk for ating med.. Noticing as we breathe in and breathe out we are in a state of exchange with life. and receiving. Thank you for watching! Gullu Thank you for watching. When we fall asleep or get carried away in thinking, we come home without judgment, knowing knowing will be welcome every time no judgment back to the breath and the body and being here Thank you. Thank you for watching. Noticing that as we relax, as we soften through this return, we also open, we expand, we feel more part of life. Thank you. Takk for ating mediet. Thank you. Rekord. Takk for ating mediet. Thank you for watching. Rekord. Sati, the Pali word for mindfulness, means to remember. In stillness with others and chanting, we begin to remember who we are. That we're so much more than we think. Thank you for watching. Takk for ating med. 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.