Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 04/17/2019 with Kimberly Brown

Episode Date: April 18, 2019

The Rubin Museum of Art presents a weekly meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area, with each session focusing on a specific work of art. This podcast is recorded in front of a live audience, and includes an opening talk, a 20-minute sitting session, and a closing discussion. The guided meditation begins at 17:20. If you would like to attend Mindfulness Meditation sessions in person or learn more, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation. This program is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine. Kimberly Brown led this meditation session on April 17, 2019. To view a related artwork for this week's session, please visit: rubinmuseum.org/events/event/kimberly-brown-04-17-2019

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 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. Good afternoon, everyone. Hello. Welcome. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Art and to our weekly mindfulness meditation practice. My name's Dawn Eshelman. It's great to be here with you guys. I've been looking forward to this, I have to say. Needed a little moment here to take. And yeah, I feel so lucky I get to do that with you all. So we've been talking about action this month. This is all a part of our conversation about power and the power within us and between

us that we're having all year long here at the Rubin Museum of Art. And kind of the cycle we've been looking at over the last few months has been intention setting, so looking toward the future, reflection, thinking back, and then this month we're talking about the actual step of taking action and what an action might be. And I know throughout the course of this month, we've thought about not just what action is, but quality of action, or even taking action that might seem a little bit more subtle, but is certainly still a very strong action. For example, strong action. For example, the action of opening, right? Or just the simple action of sitting and deciding to meditate, which you have all done today. So the artwork that we're looking at today depicts an action of a particular kind. In fact, it's nice to be able to look at art as a form of taking action, right?

And often in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhism at large, the act of making art often has a particular motivating factor, right? To pay tribute, to cultivate merit, or simply to share a story or history, right? So today we get to look at a contemporary artwork, which is fun. We don't get to do that very often. And this is actually a work that's up in our galleries right now. And that is part of our collection. This is called The Wish-Fulfilling Tree. And it's by Sering Sherpa from 2016.

And it is a memorial to the destruction of the earthquake that struck Nepal almost four years ago to the day, actually. And this artwork, I think we can kind of easily deduce there were a lot of different motivations behind creating it. But one of them that we know the artist has shared with us is that it is a kind of a protest in some ways that he has made this artwork to call attention to the fact that Kathmandu is still in need of a lot of support from the government.

And he's just really trying to call attention to that. So what we're looking at here is a mandala, right? So often when we see them depicted in the tankas, we're seeing that bird's eye view of the mandala. But here we're seeing it in 3D form. And this is a mandala that he created with local craftsmen in Kathmandu in Nepal. And it is seven layers.

It is bronze. And this is an idealized representation of the cosmic universe. So it's interesting that we have this kind of earthly with the kind of dirt and dust underneath, and then beyond represented in the cosmos there. And the rubble and debris and the found objects down below that are certainly meant to evoke the aftermath

of the earthquake were actually found within five blocks of this museum. So on the streets here. And just kind of, you know, reminding us that we're all linked here and all connected. So Kimberly Brown is back here with us today, and she'll be guiding us in our meditation. It's wonderful to have you back, Kimberly. She'll be guiding us in our meditation. It's wonderful to have you back, Kimberly.

She's the executive director of the Interdependence Project and a graduate of its meditation teacher training program. And she leads mindfulness and compassion classes, workshops, and retreats for groups and individuals throughout New York City. She studies American and Tibetan Buddhism and particularly practices loving-kindness meditation. And her teaching methods integrate depth psychology, compassion training, and traditional Buddhist techniques

as a means to help everyone reconnect to their inherent clarity and openness. Please welcome her back, Kimberly Brown. Thanks, Don. Hi, everybody. You know, this wish-fulfilling tree, which I know of through studying with Tibetans as a jewel tree as well, and in that tradition, the wish-fulfilling tree or the jewel tree, it's a metaphor for the Dharma, for Buddhism.

If you practice compassion and mindfulness and clear seeing and ethical behavior, this brings about the fulfillment of wishes. What wishes? Well, the wish for ourselves and others to be happy and free from suffering. Okay? Don mentioned that the last few months at the Rubin have been focused on how action is created through intention and reflection.

And also wishes and aspirations are bound up with intention. They help guide the intention. They help motivate it. They also can not only be the outcome, but the process, right? An intention for happiness may be both the outcome and the process of it. So in this tradition, actions are thoughts and speech and behaviors. speech and behaviors. And all of these have countless outcomes. Every word that you

speak, every thought that you have, every action you take. Right now I'm just moving molecules. Because of that our lives are incredibly valuable, right? So we can begin setting intentions, contemplating, and creating intentions that are harmonious, that are beneficial, that are compassionate to ourselves and each other. And in that way, we really have

a lot of power. There is a great book called The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. It was written by a teacher called Shantideva. And it was written, I think, about 2,000 years ago, Shantideva. And he describes in it three types of wise action. The first wise action, Shantideva tells us, is an action that is not harmful. Actions of not harming. And this corresponds more or less with the eightfold path in Buddhism, being honest, having a skillful livelihood that doesn't cause harm, having speech that's correct and skillful and wise. And this first, this non-harming, it has also an association with refraining from, right? Maybe not stealing, maybe not saying that critical judgment out loud. Okay. Now, the second type of wise action, Shantideva says, is actions that bring benefit, beneficial actions.

And these actions more or less correspond with what are called the perfections, the paramitas in Buddhism. And the great perfections are generosity, practicing ethics, patience, diligence, practicing wisdom, and practicing meditation or contemplation. And you can begin to see that cultivating generosity, for example, is beneficial for yourself and others.

Cultivating patience is beneficial. It often will cool down anger, allow us to see more clearly. The third type of beneficial action is an action that cultivates our wholesome qualities. Actions that cultivate our own qualities, our mind states. We all have them. They're inherent in being a human. And the four that are the most well-known

and most talked about in Buddhism are the four Brahma-viharas, the four immeasurable mind states. These are loving-kindness and compassion and joy and balance or equanimity. And in cultivating, for example, loving-kindness. cultivating, for example, loving kindness. Loving kindness is a wish, an aspiration that I am happy and free from mental suffering. That all of us here

are happy. You can see how that sort of cultivation of that mind state would support an intention that is not harming and beneficial. So the same with compassion. Compassion is a wish, an intention, an aspiration to alleviate suffering, to be able to be with your suffering and alleviate it, help it as I can. Joy, which is often described as appreciative joy, is being able to delight in your success,

delight when something wonderful happens to you or me. Right? To share that. And there you can see very clearly how that would support beneficial action. And the fourth balance or equanimity. This is the wisdom, right? This is our inherent wisdom. Practicing equanimity is, it allows us to be in times of happiness and not desperately cling to them and also be in times of struggle

and not push it away. This is with a wisdom of knowing impermanence, everything's going to change. And it's also with a wisdom of knowing we cannot control all outcomes or circumstances, but we can, within ourselves, create an abiding sense of happiness, peace, wisdom. an abiding sense of happiness, peace, wisdom.

So Shantideva was, he was a student at this university called Nalanda University. It's a very big, prestigious university in northern India, a Buddhist college. And his classmates used to call him Eat Poop Sleep. So, Eat Poop Sleep, because the stories tell us that there was nothing impressive about him, that his fellow

classmates thought he was kind of lazy and kind of stupid. They really did not expect for him to come out with this great teaching. And I'm relating this because all of us are like Shanti Deva. All of us at times are eat, poop, sleep, right? And we may not feel like, wow, I can perfect patience. I can always have skillful speech, right? I see many students, including myself sometimes, what did they say? Perfection is the enemy of the good. I see this a lot. And there's also, well, for example, I make a lot of mistakes. Like, I mean, all the time I make mistakes. I forget to send that email or I get off on the wrong subway stop.

I often am totally wrong about someone. and that is not pointing to anything wrong with me or my inability to practice. All it is pointing at is I'm human, right? And the nature of human is that you do your best and you practice and you practice, and you get to come back and start again. Okay? I want to also mention that the intention that underlies your action,

that's the valuable part. Okay? That's the valuable part. That's the valuable part. And it's said in the Buddhist tradition that the outcome doesn't really matter. If you have an intention, if I have an intention to help someone up because that intention is to be kind, to alleviate suffering, and as I help them up, they fall down again, I still have performed a valuable action. And as I help them up, they fall down again.

I still have performed a valuable action. Okay? So that's one way to start working with what we call mistakes, humanness. Okay? And another thing to remember, this is from, there's a teacher named Kemposoltram Joltsin. He's in his late 80s, and he lives in India, and he gave this pith instruction. Making mistake after mistake, I walk the unmistaken path. Confused and confused, I rely on my unconfused nature. Forgetting and forgiving, I return to unforgetting mindfulness. That instruction is the same as Sharon Salzberg's instruction, which is

the essence of practice is to begin again. We can always come back. If we get lost in anger and greed and upset and confusion, we can always come back. The reason we can come back is because our mind, our presence is stainless. It cannot be harmed by all this confusion. So we get to come back. We get to try again and again and again. harmed by all this confusion.

So we get to come back. We get to try again and again and again. Today we're going to practice a little bit of the third wise action, cultivating our wholesome qualities. We're going to practice a little loving-kindness meditation. And the way we'll do it today is we will first offer loving kindness to ourself. We will then move to dear one is probably the best way to think of it. Think of someone that you love

with whom you have an easy relationship. You might love your sister and have been fighting with her for 20 years. Don't use your sister and have been fighting with her for 20 years. Don't use your sister today, okay? Use someone dear. Someone so easy for you to open your heart to, and it could be a pet. I sometimes do it for my little cat, Rachel, because it's so easy to do it, right? So yourself, a dear one, and then we're going to offer to the group. Okay? And because many of us practice with our eyes closed, I'm going to ask you all right now to take a moment

and look at everybody around you. Right? Different hair colors, different skin colors, different ages and genders. We're going to bring all of us into our practice today. Okay. So today, and I'll guide you, but today's phrases that we'll use will be, may I be filled with loving kindness, may I be free from fear, may I be safe, may I be healthy.

Okay? And you can practice, as I said, with your eyes open or closed. If you choose to keep your eyes open, just don't move them around. Just find a little spot, probably on the back of the seat in front of you. Okay? If you're feeling tired, you can stand up. You can also open your eyes. So go ahead and take your meditation seat. Go ahead and take three conscious breaths. Noticing your feet and your seat and your belly, relaxing your shoulder blades, relaxing your forehead and your cheeks and your jaw, allowing sound to enter your ears.

And allowing your intention to arise, whatever brought you here today to want to practice meditation, to learn, to be in this group, to extend your kindnesses to yourself and others? Allow that motivation, that intention to arise and really appreciate it. You might even say thank you to yourself. Bringing your attention to your feet, your seat, your belly, feeling your shoulder blades, gently noticing your forehead and your cheeks and your jaw, and allowing sound to enter your ears. Feeling your feet and your seat and your belly, resting your attention on the center of your chest, your heart center, and allowing a sense of yourself to arise. Now you could visualize yourself as though you're looking in the mirror.

You could imagine yourself as a child, or you could just have a sense of your presence here. Making this connection and offering loving kindness. May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be free from fear. May I be safe. May I be healthy. May I be filled with loving kindness May I be free from fear May I be safe May I be healthy May I be filled with loving kindness May I be free from fear May I be safe

May I be healthy Continuing on your own silently as though you're giving yourself a gift. Thank you.. May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be free from fear. May I be safe. May I be healthy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be free from fear.

May I be safe. May I be healthy. Moving your attention away from the phrases and the sense of yourself. Just noticing your feet, experiencing your seat, your belly, your shoulder blades, noticing your forehead and your cheeks and your jaw, allowing sound to enter your ears,

bringing your attention to your heart center the center of your chest and allowing the presence of this dear one to arise you might imagine them have an image of them as you know them or just have their presence or their smell offering loving kindness or just have their presence or their smell. Offering loving kindness. May you be filled with loving kindness.

May you be free from fear. May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you be filled with loving kindness. May you be free from fear. May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you be filled with loving kindness. May you be free from fear. May you be safe. May you be healthy. Continuing on your own. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. May you be filled with loving kindness. May you be free from fear.

May you be safe. May you be healthy. Moving your attention away from this dear one. Noticing your feet. Experiencing your seat, relaxing your shoulder blades and the back of your head, feeling your forehead and cheeks and jaw, allowing sound to enter your ears, feeling your feet and your seat and your belly, and bringing your attention to the center of your chest, your heart center, and allowing the presence of everyone here to arise for you.

Now, you might imagine everyone that you just saw. You might just have a sense of connection of everyone's presence here. And offering the phrases, may we be filled with loving kindness. May we be free from fear. May we be safe. May we be healthy. May we be filled with loving kindness. May we be free from fear. May we be safe. May we be healthy. May we be filled with loving kindness. May we be free from fear.

May we be safe. May we be healthy. Continuing on your own as though you're giving a gift to everyone. Thank you. Thank you. May we be filled with loving kindness. May we be free from fear. May we be safe. May we be filled with loving kindness. May we be free from fear. May we be safe. May we be healthy. Moving your attention away from the phrases and just feeling your feet,

experiencing your seat, your belly, bringing your attention to your heart center, and just taking a moment to allow these wholesome qualities, your loving kindness, your caring, your compassion, allow this to radiate in front of you, to all the beings in front of you, to all the beings in front of you, all the beings behind you, to your right, to your left, above and below. So now you're like a little sun, radiating kindness, loving,

lovingness, compassion, joy. Everyone in front of you, below, around, insects, fish, Republicans, Democrats, people in Europe and Asia, people in South America and Africa, above, below, flying creatures, horrible centipedes,

dogs and cats, old and young people you like and you don't like strangers may all be safe may all be free from suffering may all have enough to eat health may all be

free from fear we all have great joy and happiness the Buddhist texts say when we radiate like that we're like a great trumpeter and our wholesome qualities are indiscriminate. Everyone around us. Feeling your feet and your seat and your belly. Bringing your attention to your heart center.

You can go ahead and take a breath or two, and when you're ready, you can open your eyes. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. 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. you