Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 10/17/2018 with Tracy Cochran

Episode Date: October 19, 2018

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 17:00. 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 supported in part by the Hemera Foundation with thanks to our presenting partners Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine. Tracy Cochran led this meditation session on October 17, 2018. To view a related artwork for this week's session, please visit: http://rubinmuseum.org/events/event/tracy-cochran-10-17-2018

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. The series is supported in part by the Hemera Foundation.

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. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Art and Mindfulness Meditation, every Wednesday at 1 p.m. I'm Tim McHenry. I direct programs and engagement here. And today, we're going to continue our theme for the month, which is the interesting dynamic between hopes and anxieties. How many of you were anxious that you might not get a seat today?

Well, thank you again for joining us. And Tracy Cochran, of course, is our teacher who will guide us through. But as always, we try to draw inspiration from the high Himalayas in the form of an artwork and bring them to you here in the foothills of Chelsea. So we have taken a painting that you can see on the sixth floor in the second Buddha exhibition. And the painting seems to be a swirl of images both peaceful and wrathful, and indeed that it's its title. It's called Peaceful and Wrathful Deities of the Transition State. And the transition state, well, you were in a transition state from sleeping to waking this

morning. You were in a transition state from focus to daydreaming at some point this morning, I'm sure. And the transition state, however, that we're talking about and illustrating in this painting is probably the most important one, which is the transition that happens when consciousness is freed from the physical trappings of your body. In the English language, we call it death. And the Tibetan translation of this transitional process is called the liberation upon hearing in the intermediate state because the transmission is by listening to instructions that you have memorized

and trained for. Some of you all heard of this in the form of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, but the Tibetan title is Liberation Upon Hearing in the Intermediate State. And so these esoteric teachings that came to us later in the Buddhist canon because Padmasambhava, who is the key protagonist in the second Buddha exhibition, had this extraordinary ability, we are told, to project teachings into the spiritual landscape of the

future. And the Tibetan Book of the Dead, these teachings, these tantric teachings, were part of that transmission that were discovered hundreds of years later. So that's why, although there's no tour scheduled for today, if you do make your way up to the sixth floor, you'll get the connection between these treasure revelations that Padmasambhava brought to Tibetan culture and elsewhere. Padmasambhava brought to Tibetan culture and elsewhere. So Tracy Cochran is a regular here, of course. Most of you know her. But for those of you who are new here, she's a writer and editorial director of Parabola magazine,

which has both an online presence at parabola.org, but also a physical presence in our very own gift shop upstairs, if you want to secure a copy. She's been a student of meditation and spiritual practices virtually all of her adult life, and she can be regularly visited in Tarrytown if you want to make your way up to the Hudson River Sangha there in New York State. But also if you want a more immediate access to her writings and her teachings online, you can find her both on Facebook and Twitter and TracyCochran.org. But now we have the good grace of her presence here at the Rubin Museum of Art. Tracy, guide us through the transitions of hopes and anxieties, please.

We need you. Tracy Cochran, everyone. Thank you. I had thought of starting with a simple comment about the shift in the weather before that wonderful introduction, that it's cool that fall is here. And I had the thought how remarkable it would be if I could be as excited about entering the autumn of my life. Like, oh, how exciting the pumpkin spice season of my life is. But of course, transitions and change and ultimately death is a reality. And we know this in our bodies,

even if we didn't grow up with this great tradition. And I think most of us, myself included, we live each day preparing for what our anxieties tell us may come. We gird up. We live like warriors, like ninjas. Certainly in New York we do. We stay focused on our task at hand, whether it's making it to the Rubin Museum on time or any number of other tasks.

We try to maintain a positive attitude. And for a time we can feel as if we're really open and in receiving the rest of life. We're ready. And then that one unexpected thing happens. Have you noticed that? That one unwanted demand, that accident, that delay. accident, that delay. And instantly the body seems to shut down. The focus narrows. It's like shutters are closing and drawbridges are coming up and you're an embattled little fortress in a world that's suddenly gone completely dark. Do you know what I'm talking about? You are separate from life, completely cut off and afraid.

What will help you? Because suddenly what's coming seems unmeetable. What will you do? What will guide you? And then sometimes you can experience something that feels like just giving up. Have you ever been so anxious that you just finally exhausted yourself? You just, yeah, there are lots of nodding heads in here, like we know that one. Our thoughts have circled and circled and circled and

circled and our anticipatory anxiety has become so great that we're almost bored with it. And as we give up, we can sometimes glimpse a mind under that ordinary mind, a mind that's just an attentiveness, a responsiveness, a mind that says simple things like, I'll just deal with it when it comes. So that seemingly ordinary state is the beginning of something that we practice here when we sit,

and something that is so beautifully elaborated in this work of art and all the sacred art here. And in this one, it's what will meet us, light or dark, what will meet us, a glimpse of awakening, how things are, are simply a repetition of our familiar fears and defenses and thoughts. And I wanted to share a story from my life because I have a feeling it might strike a chord with you from your lives. We all have families. As Ram Dass said, if you think you're enlightened,

go spend a week with your family. think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family. And one of my family members didn't just live like a warrior, he was a warrior. He was a commander in the Navy and he flew jet planes off an aircraft carrier, like the aircraft carriers we so often see in the news. He was, he had a PhD in plasma physics.

He had super keen eyesight, which he needed because he could take off and land a jet plane in the dark in rolling seas. He was then a test pilot and in an astronaut's training program. We couldn't have been more different. I can't tell you what my Thanksgiving dinners were like between my brother-in-law and myself, where I was kind of an arch hippie. But then cancer and he began to die. And my sister, his wife, described visiting him at a hospital in Maryland, near where they lived, and he was on a floor with other people with terminal cancer, and he had a roommate, a man who had also been powerful in his life. And my sister described coming to the door one day and seeing two bald men, bald from radiation or chemo, sitting side by side in

chairs holding hands. And later she asked him, what was that about? So uncharacteristic of this warrior, this pilot, this brave and disciplined man. And he said, well, my friend, it was his anniversary, and he waited all day for his wife and daughter to come. daughter to come. He struggled out of bed. It was very painful and was dressed in a dignified way, also a laborer, but they never came. So I got out of bed, which was also a great effort for him at that point, and I waited with him. And then he turned to my sister and said, I finally understood the power of kindness. He understood the power of power, of courage. He understood at the end of his life other qualities. And I know you've seen this too, and you've seen it in yourself. approaches, people who have been enormously difficult, begin to soften. People who lived, I know another man, and not unlike my brother-in-law, who lived seemingly for the sole purpose of proving that he was right, suddenly turn into something more like a big, warm campfire, a presence that you wanted to be near.

And he started to manifest an interest in listening, not just speaking. And listening so deeply he could give you a sense of possibilities you didn't know that you had. And great works like the one that kicked off today are also guides and reminders to us to see that we can open to receive help, including other qualities of heart. Think about how you are when someone is really suffering, the qualities it draws out. Usually you're not full of advice. Usually your first impulse is to be with them, to be warm, to be present. And I invite you to realize how strange it is that we rarely consider

that this might be the same when we die. We might be met by kindness, by love, by great teachers like Padmasambhava, great teachings, light, guidance. Isn't it interesting to consider that we don't have to take the counsel of our fears or our fears only. They could be present, but at the same time, through this practice and through our presence presence here, we can begin to soften and invite the possibility that there is more that awaits us. clarity and insight and compassion and love and kindness. So why don't we take our seats?

And we have our feet planted firmly on the floor, our back straight, just noticing how it feels to land here, how it feels for the body to be here, without seeking to change anything, just notice the body. Noticing that the attention that comes to the body and our present moment experience is or judgment. This light of attention is not thinking, it's a seeing. separate from acceptance, from opening to us as we are. You may notice that this attention begins to soften and relax the body. And as this happens, allow the attention to come to the breath without seeking to change it in any way. Just notice in-breath and out-breath and the sensation of sitting here in a body in this moment. Noticing thoughts, sensations, pictures in the mind, and letting everything be with no

judgments. When we get taken, carried away by our thoughts or any other sensation, we gently come back to the breath and the sensation of being here. Thank you.... . . . . .

. . . . .. Noticing that as we make this movement of coming home to the body and the breath, we don't shut down but open, we open to the life that is coming in, that is present now. Thank you. Noticing that the stillness is in silence but non-resistance and opening and attentiveness. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Noticing that we can go away for a long time and be welcome back into the present moment. Welcome to a presence that's very alive. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Noticing that coming back to the breath opens us to a presence that's very vibrant, that accompanies us, that sees without judging. Thank you. Thank you.... . .

. . . . . . . .. Noticing that letting go of thinking of dreams and coming home opens us to life. Thank you. R1-2 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.