Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 09/07/16 with Gyetrul Jigme Rinpoche

Episode Date: September 21, 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 NY Insight Meditation Center. This week’s session is led by Gyetrul Jigme Rinpoche focusing on the theme of Equanamity. To view a related artwork from the Rubin Museum's permanent collection, please visit: rma.cm/1cp

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. please visit our website at rubenmuseum.org. We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and the teachers from the Interdependence Project and 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 Ruben Museum's permanent collection. And now, please enjoy your practice.

Gaitul Jigme Rinpoche is a socially engaged Buddhist whose philanthropic projects have become central to his work. He was born in India and has had firsthand experience of the plight of Tibetan refugees and local villagers in finding and retrieving potable water. This inspired him to found the Pure Water Project, for which he received a citation from the Dalai Lama

and the Tibetan government in exile. He has many other amazing projects as well, including malaria prevention and treatment, the support of orphans, school children and monks, and the elderly, and of course, , the rebuilding project that I just spoke about. He is the son of the renowned terton, or treasure revealer, Namka Dhrimidh Rupjam Rinpoche, the holder of the rupa lineage.

And he oversees the rupa monasteries in both Nepal and India along with their growing monastic communities. Please give him a warm welcome. Gaitul Jigme Rinpoche. Thank you. Thank you, Don. I'm reminded strictly about the time.

And I can share with her, sympathize with her, how the lamas are difficult to be on time, or to be within the time limit. So have a, I don't know what to say today, a good afternoon or or good day. Everyone here to talk about mindfulness, meditation on equanimity. And it's a very interesting middle of the day time.

And meditation in the middle of the daytime is always challenging. I remember one lama leading a meditation on mindfulness around the middle of the day. And as soon as the gong starts, the lama was dozing off. And then the next gong was mindfulness. Everybody wakes up. So I hope it's not going to be that season today. Then the central to meditation, I think everyone is doing some kind of meditation, I believe so. And so we all know that the mindfulness or for that matter shamatha or vipassana or any kind of meditation, basically is about being aware.

And being aware also means to be connected, basically. And I think that's the core of our quest in life about meditation. It's about finding this connection. This connection, not necessarily just outer material connection, but more deeper sense of connection. And beginning with oneself, on the deeper level of connecting to oneself, and from then onward connecting to the world or others. And so we often find that there's a sense of loneliness, I would say, in the

deep in our heart. Whenever, even though we do lead a normal, regular life, lots of things going on in life, many other engagements in life. Somehow, somewhere, even though we live in the very middle of the city, surrounded by so many millions of people, but there's still a sense of loneliness. I think a deep sense of loneliness. Something is there. And so it's a sense of opening, you see, a sense of acceptance. I think it's essential, it's what I call connecting on a deeper sense to oneself, which brings certain warmth, certain joy of being myself. I think that's the core of meditation.

Because if we do not feel good or comfortable or at ease within whatever we are, it's not a question of who I can be or what I was, it's a whole question of what I am available right now, right here. So the whole question is about really feeling that that goodness, that that joyful about being oneself, opens the door to connecting to others. And this is what really is about meditation, what I believe so. Now, then the other part is to see how the interconnectedness and how interrelated we are, because the reason that we could really develop a sense of equanimity or sameness,

which enables us to open to others, basically, the platform, the vehicle from which brings us our ability to open to others, is on the basis of sameness, economity, not because we are different. It will be impossible to really connect profoundly to each other or understand each other profoundly if things are based on a difference. each other or understand each other profoundly if things are based on a difference. So I'm not talking about outer, superficial, secondary sense of differences. But what is most important is on the fundamental, primary level, the sameness. This is what Don has just also repeated what I said,

what I experienced during the earthquake in Nepal. That there was this, of course, tremendous tragedy. I was there in the middle of this earthquake, but the seconds after that, what I saw is this outpouring sense of humanity.

Everyone, that moment, becomes same. No one is different rich poor educated not educated religious different things nothing matters at all at that moment everyone stands together sameness human feeling sameness wanting 同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時,同時 come to that sense of understanding. And therefore, I think the important things about economity, connections, is to feel the sense of sameness. The sense of sameness goes deeper than just our outer circumstances or surroundings. Deep inside of us we have the same urge, same longingness, same want to be happy, to be at peace, to be joyful, to be healthy.

That everybody shares. Otherwise, when we talk about the meditation of mindfulness, we have, of course, metta meditation. We have karuna meditation, loving kindness and compassion. We also have the mudita, joyful or rejoice meditation. But all of this act of meditation, all of these actions being followed through the meditation will not be fully complete if it is based on the sense of I am different from others.

So there is still a sense of impartiality, partiality sorry. Still a sense of impartiality, partiality sorry, still a sense of discrimination. See? So since I consider myself a socially engaged Buddhist, I've worked in many fields, and I've understood this very well, that as long as there is a sense of difference in me, I could never fully engage myself with other people. Because I'm the same, that's why I'm able to give. If I'm different, no, I'm not able to really give fully. So this is the part of the meditation on economity which I would like to, how to say, instruct and practice together today.

And as the statue here is Ratnasambhava, presented richness, this richness is something available within us all the time. There is an opening acceptance and sharing that richness of our own inner qualities, inner strength, inner values. So whether it is loving kindness or compassion or other form of giving materially also, if it is practiced on the basis of equanimity see a sense of sameness Then it becomes full and profound So my time is up Yeah, you know I was one time in Patagonia, and I want to just repeat this. I love nature, and I was in Patagonia, and I had the chance of seeing the whales who have just given birth. It's a mother and child whale.

So wherever you can see, you can see always the big head and a small head popping up it's very very beautiful and i had also a chance to go by boat to have some closer connection or closer look at it and i was with some other people who are also tourists probably so then obviously of course the whales are not so interested in us, which is good. But then after a while, there was a particular mother and a child whale. Took very keen interest with their eyes really popping up and then came closer and closer and closer. And I felt really, really joyful. And I just stood still watching them. We just came very, very close to each other.

And I just kept looking and looking and looking. So they were also kind of startled and looking at me, and probably saw that this is another exotic animal from the Himalayas. So we kept looking at each other, and in the middle of that there was a full silence, a complete silence as if the whole world kind of just disappeared. And in that kind of deepest sense of silence, there was a communication taking place. So beautiful.

Something is there. We are connected. There is a full sense of acceptance. No judgment. No opinion. Nothing. And I began to feel so good, so happy. And I was also beginning to think, what is common between me and you?

So I began to realize that there are so many things in common. We share the same earth, same air, same water, feelings, longing to be happy. And that was very beautiful, profound, and really inspired me so deeply. So I think that one of the reasons that our meditation sometimes becomes difficult is when there is a sense of unequality, inequality. A feeling of sameness is so important and central to the progress of meditation. That's where loving kindness takes place, compassion takes place. Otherwise I can help someone on the basis of I'm different from the other one, you know, that doesn't really sound very intimate, very open. So I will go with the sequel of meditation,

of mindfulness on the upeksha, meaning equanimity or sameness. So my meditation guide style so to speak is probably a sequence containing three gongs for one stage and probably we'll go on couple of them. Is the first gong we begin posture, which is the first important part, because what you need in meditation is body, breath and thought. Three most basic importance and everyone has it, so we begin by body first, physical sitting posture, gong first. first, physical sitting posture, gong first. Gong second, I would then bring you into the mindfulness or the meditation on economity by bringing certain things in image I will speak as we go through.

Then the third gong is always the good news is you stop and you just relax, you open eyes and that's it. So we begin like that. Are you ready? Now gently bring your attention to your body. beginning with your bottom seated solidly on the ground Then bring your mindfulness to your back which is straight up. Then bring your mindfulness to your shoulder, which is slightly tucked in. Now bring your mindfulness to your eyes, touching upper plate with the mouth gently closed.

Now bring your mindfulness to your hands, and rest it gently on your knees or over your lap. Remain fully mindfulness in your breathing. You breathe in through your nostril towards your heart. Hold the breath in your heart for a slight moment. Feel the heart expand, open, then breathe out gently, fully. fully gently, feel your heart open, then breathe out fully gently. Breathe in, breathe out, continuously. Continuous. Be with the breathing. Now, bring to your mind an image of a person or place or situation unpleasant, someone you have difficulty with. Bring the full image completely. As you bring the full image, someone you find uncomfortable, Selepas anda membawa gambar penuh, seseorang yang anda rasa tidak selesa, without judgment. Now, as you breathe in, bring, envelop in your heart.

Breathe in fully, completely.. And now repeat these verses silently while having the image of the person in your heart. You be happy. May you be healthy. May you be free from all fears and pains.. Now slowly open your eyes and relax. So we will go next cycle again. Once more, bring your attention to your sitting posture. Bring your mindfulness to your bottom, straight up. Then bring your attention to your shoulder wide open. Open. Now bring your attention to your head, slightly tucked in. to your eyes, gently gazing in the front. Now bring attention to your tongue, touching upper plate with the mouth gently closed. Now bring your attention to your hands, rested gently on your knees or over the lap. Now,

your mindfulness, Your mindfulness right now, right your focus to your breathing. Breathing in gently,, fully, to your heart, hold for a slight moment, feel the heart expand your heart, and breathe out. Breathing in, breathing out. You are with the breathing. Thank you. Now slowly bring to your mind image of a person or a situation that you love, that gives such pleasant pleasure. Bring the full image in your mind. Someone you love, you care, someone such a pleasure to see. Now, as you breathe in, bring that person the person fully in your heart. And then repeat the following verses silently. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be free from fear and pain. Now slowly open your eyes. Relax.

Thank you. So now, definite. I think you can hang on. 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.