Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 08/17/16 with Tracy Cochran

Episode Date: August 29, 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 NY Insight Meditation Center. This week’s session is led by Tracy Cochran on the theme of Determination. To view a related artwork from the Rubin Museum's permanent collection, please visit: rma.cm/17c

Thank you. join us in person, please visit our website at ribbonmuseum.org slash 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 session, including an image of a related artwork chosen from the ribbon museum's permanent So we'll hear a little bit more about that idea of determination from Tracy Cochran. She's the editorial director of Parabola, which is a quarterly magazine that for 40 years has drawn on the wisdom traditions of the world. She's a student of meditation and has been learning and also teaching for decades, mindfulness meditation in particular, through the New York Insight Meditation Center, one of our partners that I mentioned. And her writing has appeared in the

New York Times, Psychology Today, O Magazine, and many other publications and anthologies. Please welcome her back, Tracy Cochran. Now that I'm amplified, my voice has a quality of like leaning close to the bedside and someone's going to tell you a secret. And I am going to tell you a secret. Determination really matters. And at first, I thought I would also borrow crutches to come up on stage. crutches to come up on stage. Because naturally, when I woke up with no voice, I thought, oh no, I have to cancel. But what would be speaking if I canceled? Because my deeper wish was to show up for my friends. Because it doesn't hurt. And I'm not sick.

And I think of you all as friends. We're here to do something together. And automatically, you start to listen more. Or you may feel sorry for me. Or be glad that you're not me. But the truth is, when we think of determination, when they first proposed it,

I thought, I'd rather do something more summary. But it turned out to be perfect. Because determination is showing up no matter what we find. You know, in the Olympic athletes, they talk about showing up day after day after day. day after day. And we quickly find out that life doesn't let us impose our will, our ego will, on the world. Right? The ego always wants to sound good. It always wants to look good. But when we want something deeper, we become willing to show up no matter what. We're willing to be here. So I thought of this wonderful moment in the great story of the Buddha when he was completely, completely overwhelmed. He was sitting under the tree and Mara, a devil, overwhelmed him with temptations.

He wanted to show him that he could be a great leader, a great businessman with piles of money and beautiful women and always winning. If only he would... Who does this sound like? Yeah. A real winner who can make India great again.

Yeah. Winning. All he had to do was to get up and do something to work that ego. But the Buddha didn't move. So Mara sent fear. He sent armies. Horrible images of what would happen. That he would lose his voice in public. That he would be destroyed.

But the Buddha never moved. You know what he did? He reached down and touched the earth. And in the great story, that symbol is pointing to his lifetimes of effort. Like in the image behind us. Lifetime means showing up. Effort.

They didn't say pointing to his very special status. Or to his unique talent. But to his willingness to show up exactly as he was and fail and fail and fail again. There's a famous quote from Beckett, fail, fail again, no matter, fail again, Fail better. Fail better. So he sat there until he achieved awakening. And I was thinking of other ways we can understand that gesture of touching the earth. Have you ever gone through a bad time? Has anyone here ever had a hard time? Yeah, I see a few hands.

It's interesting. There are times that cause us to reach down inside ourselves, to touch the earth of what really, really matters. And it turns out what matters isn't our vaunted ambitions. For those of you who came for the first time, I don't always talk like this. who came for the first time, I don't always talk like this, but something deeper, our wish to be alive. In addition to the Olympics, there are all these images of people going through floods and fires. And when they're interviewed, they say, I'm so glad to be alive, to be here, no matter what. So the beautiful thing about this practice is that it invites us to use everything that happens to us. Everything.

So that we see what matters. What matters to me today is being here and being with you. Touching the earth. And when I find, I read a quote from Nelson Mandela. He said, my years of silence in prison taught me what words can mean. That I can put behind my words something good and true. Those words can change the world. Even if you're whispering.

We can go deep here. It's very special. So we'll do that now. Exactly as we are, we'll take a comfortable seat. We take ourselves exactly as we find ourselves. So you put your feet firmly on the floor, touching the earth of your deepest life, the life in the body, the life inside you. we allow ourselves to open

to soften to know we're safe here nothing that arises needs to be rejected needs to be rejected. So as we begin to relax, we bring the attention to our breathing without it to change. We are part of life. And when our attention strays, we bring it home to the breathing and to the life in this body, on this earth. As we begin to relax, we notice a vibrancy, a light. It's our own attention. Naturally existing inside. Thank you. Noticing that stillness can be full of life. Thank you. Noticing as we breathe that a settling, a steadiness appears.

We feel safer and stronger and more open. Thank you. When we get lost in thought, we simply bring the attention home again to the breath in the body in this moment now. Thank you. Thank you.... noticing as we relax and open, it feels as if life is here to support us, pouring in energy, impressions, life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. When we start to drift, we come home. Noticing the vibrancy in the body, the life. Thank you. Thank you. Meeting everything that arises, fear, desire, thinking, with with kind attention and gently coming home. Thank you. Thank you. As we continue to relax and open, we begin to touch the truth that there's more to us than we thought. and loves that we don't know most of the time. There's something in us that wishes, deeply wishes,

to be part of life. To give and receive. Thank you. Knowing that one way to expand our lives, to live longer, is to live deeper, to open to our experience. Thank you. Takk for ating med. Thank you for your kind, deep listening. I just wanted to share that way back in the early 1980s, Parabola featured one of the first ever interviews with the Dalai Lama, who was still young, who had recently lost his home, like so many people in Louisiana. And he said to Parabola, when these obstacles come up, when adversity arises, we discover these deeper capacities and resources that we don't usually tap into. So I just wanted to share, and I know my voice will come back in a couple of days,

but a lot of times in life, we don't know what is going to happen. We might be very afraid. But this quality of determination allows us to touch deeper values in ourselves. You begin to know what really matters. Showing up. Being part of life. And you can trust that. Even when you don't know

what will happen. So determination is one of those qualities that will give you a much bigger life. We're so used to only valuing products, achievement. Trust yourself. I'll leave it there. Thank you very much. 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.