Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 1/23/2019 with Kimberly Brown

Episode Date: January 25, 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 15:00. 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 with thanks to our presenting partners Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine. Kimberly Brown led this meditation session on January 23, 2019. To view a related artwork for this week's session, please visit: http://rubinmuseum.org/events/event/kimberly-brown-01-23-2019

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. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Art and to our weekly mindfulness meditation practice. Nice to have you all here. You survived the cold, cold last few days. And hopefully a broken water main has not impeded your travel here today. We've all made it through whatever obstacles might have been in our path. Or maybe it was just easy to get here today, which've all made it through whatever obstacles might have been in our path, or maybe it was just easy to get here today, which would be nice too. We are talking about intention this

month. And this is brought about through a couple of exhibitions that we are having here at the Rubin Museum all about intentionality and creating intention, turning it into action. And also just with the new year, the Gregorian calendar and the upcoming lunar calendar as well. And this being this time of opportunity to kind of reflect, start over and renew or create new intentions. When we meditate, or create new intentions. When we meditate, we have our own set of intentions or reasons why we're there. And it's great to bring Tara, green Tara, behind me here into this discussion.

The beautiful green Tara. And it was an accident that I wore green today, but as I was saying to my colleagues who pointed out to me here, just taking on as much green tar energy as possible here. She is indeed beautiful and really exuding a very particular quality here. We can see that she is seated in half lotus with her leg kind of sticking out. And this is a significant gesture. She is able to kind of jump out and assist at any moment, help.

And that is a core kind of tenant and part of what Tara symbolizes and what we turn to her for. what Tara symbolizes and what we turn to her for. She is realized as a full Buddha who has come to her fruition as an awakened, fully awakened being, as all of us have the potential to be. And she is adorned beautifully here. So we can see her crown, her earrings. She has some necklaces on and a belt and even some, you know, down onto her ankles and toes. She has some jewels there. And this signifies to us that she is a Bodhisattva.

So she attained full enlightenment as a Buddha, but then chose to remain on earth in this form of a woman, of a bodhisattva, because she wants to help. She wants to remain on earth until all beings have achieved enlightenment, and only then will go on her way. So that's a pretty hefty intention right there. Thank you, Tara. I appreciate the help. It's so nice to have Kimberly Brown back here with us. Kimberly Brown is the executive director of the Interdependence Project and a graduate of its meditation teacher training program.

She leads mindfulness and compassion classes, workshops, and retreats of the Interdependence Project and a graduate of its meditation teacher training program. She leads mindfulness and compassion classes, workshops, and retreats for groups and individuals in New York City. She studies American and Tibetan Buddhism and practices loving-kindness meditation. 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. Another beautiful intention. Please welcome her back, Kimberly Brown. Hi, everyone. Happy New Year. You know, I'm always glad to be here and really rejoice to see that all of you keep up your practice and you're here every Wednesday. Thank you. Today, I am really especially honored to share the stage with Green Tara. As Dawn described, you know,

Tara is a bodhisattva and a deity in the Tibetan tradition. She's considered to be the main deity of compassion. Compassion being the ability or the quality to be present for suffering for yourself for others being present being noticing and not looking away and finally having this urge to alleviate to help so as don said tara is about to move. Any depiction I've seen of Green Tara, it shows her with that right leg just jumping into action. The Tibetan teachers that I've studied with and Tibetan people will tell you that if you are in trouble or in need or really suffering to call Tara and she'll appear. You say her mantra, Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Soha. When I've expressed skepticism about her appearing, one of my teachers said, Kim, of course she'll come.

It's her job. So Tara not only has this deep intention, the greatest intention to alleviate all of our suffering and her suffering by awakening. She also, you can see she has like a little smile on her face. She has a lot of confidence. And as I was thinking about being here today, you know, I've been teaching Dharma for a long time, but I teach in much smaller groups and much smaller spaces. Most of the time I don't have shoes on. So to come here, I feel always a little anxious, a little nervous. Also some very great teachers have graced this stage.

And I actually did think of Tara and said her mantra this week and recognized that self-confidence is one of the qualities that supports my work and supports everyone in our endeavors to wake up. The Dalai Lama says that it's probably the most important quality that we really need in order to wake up. Waking up means recognizing our interdependence, seeing ours and others' suffering, seeing cause and effect are real.

And, you know, in these teachings, you just don't take it on faith that you can wake up. You start to recognize it in yourself and in others. Tara reminds us that it's our nature to awaken. And in the Buddhist tradition, Tara is what's called a Yidam, Y-I-D-A-M. And if she's part of your practice, she's not separate. It's not like there's a God here and then you bow to them. Tara is part of our mind stream. So in that way, each of us are Tara. And we can trust that confidence that we have what it takes to wake up and to support our intention to wake up.

So intention is supported by the self-confidence, and we cultivate it with practice. the intentions from a Buddhist point of view, and I think it's supported by science really, is that it underlies all of our actions. Now, actions are thought and word and deed, right? So everything I say, all of my speech, all of your speech has outcomes, right? It affects many, many beings. All of our actions have outcomes that affect many, many beings. And if we can strengthen and support and create intentions that are rooting our actions in benefit for ourselves and each other in a way of not harming ourselves and each other, we can start to bring about and orient our lives

in a direction that is more conscious, clear, and awake. Sometimes it seems like, well, you know, intention is only when I think about it and choose to have one. But the truth is that everything we do has an intention, an underlying motivation that we might not be conscious of, right? Just to go to lunch after this meditation would require us to leave this building. So although we don't know it, we have an us to leave this building. So although we don't know it, we have an intention to leave this building. And for most of us, we have these unconscious intentions, and sometimes they are arising out of confusion.

From the Buddhist point of view, confusion is ignorance, greed, neediness, fear. And intentions and motivations arising out of this confusion generally will lead to decisions and actions that may not be what we would like to bring about for ourselves and each other. So we cultivate these intentions in order to make our intentions conscious and clear. There's a very, I guess he's kind of a famous lama. I think he's spoken here. His name is the Galwang Drukpa. And he's a Tibetan person. He's the head of a lineage.

You know, he has hundreds of thousands of followers. And the organization that I work with, the Interdependence Project, we were able to meet with him a few times, our teachers. And we asked him, you know, what's the most important thing that you think a meditation student, a Dharma student should take away from a teaching? And he said, they should know that their lives are valuable. This is what he thought was the most important thing.

He didn't say they need to practice mindfulness or, you know, run out and do good deeds. And what he was pointing to, the reason our lives are so valuable, is because of these actions of speech, of word, of deed, that we can start to orient them in ways of not harming, in ways of benefit, and to remind each of us that the result of our action, all of those outcomes, will outlive us.

Each one of us here today is proof, is evidence, of the outcome of many, many dead people's actions. So we can start to plant our intention, our seeds, water them, cultivate them, and orient ourselves in a way that we have these actions that affect others, and we can feel less guilt, less shame, and less regret, knowing that our actions are oriented in these virtuous, is what they would say in the tradition, virtuous ways, motivations. So today, in order to strengthen our intention,

to reinforce it, there are many kind of tricks. Mindfulness is a trick, right? Making sure you know what's going on kind of tricks. Mindfulness is a trick, right? Making sure you know what's going on in this moment. Concentration practice, being able to notice when you've drifted away and come back here. Practices of ethics, of right speech, right? Being careful with being honest. And another way to cultivate our intention is to practice loving-kindness meditation, which is what we will do a little practice of today.

So if everyone can take a seat that you're comfortable in. If you're feeling tired today, please keep your eyes open. Just keep them kind of half lowered if you think you're going to fall asleep. Also, it is flu and cold season. Some of you may have a cough or have to sneeze, and that's okay. All right? And when the rest of us hear that cough and sneeze, we can just allow that. It's also possible to say, may you be healthy, right, and come back to your meditation. So like I said, if you're feeling sleepy, keep your eyes open,

and otherwise you can go ahead and close them. And go ahead and take a few conscious breaths, maybe a little deeper than what you've been normally breathing. Noticing where you are, you're here at the Rubin Museum. You have chosen, you've made a decision to practice meditation here in New York City on a breezy Wednesday afternoon, and you could really be doing anything. So honoring and appreciating that you're here practicing together for yourself with each other.

Bringing your attention to your feet, experiencing your feet on the floor, noticing your seat, your shoulder blades, the back of your head, bringing your attention to your forehead, your cheeks, and your jaw, allowing sound to enter your ears. Feeling your feet. Noticing your seat, your belly.

Bringing your attention to your shoulder blades, the back of your head, your forehead, your cheeks, and your jaw, allowing sound to enter your ears. Relaxing your feet, relaxing your seat, relaxing your belly, relaxing your shoulder blades, relaxing your forehead, your cheeks, your jaw, allowing sound to enter your ears. And now bringing to your mind, your heart, a sense of yourself. Now you could imagine yourself as if you're looking in the mirror.

You could imagine yourself as a child, or you can just have a sense of your presence. And offering these phrases of 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 love and kindness. May I be free from fear. May I be safe. May I be healthy.

Continuing on your own as though you're giving yourself a gift by repeating these phrases to yourself. Thank you. Thank you. If you've strayed from the phrases, if you're planning or remembering, gently coming back, may I be filled with loving kindness. May I be free from fear. May I be safe. May I be healthy. Thank you.... May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be free from fear.

May I be safe. May I be healthy. You can move your attention away from these phrases and just experience your feet, experiencing your seat, relaxing your belly, relaxing your shoulder blades, bringing your attention to your forehead, your cheeks, and your jaw,

allowing sound to enter your ears. And now bringing to your heart, to your mind, the presence of someone very dear to you. This could be a friend or family member. It could be a pet. Choose someone with whom you have an easy relationship, very clear and loving. You might imagine this being. You might just have their presence here or their smell and offering these phrases to this dear one.

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 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. I'm taking a moment to silently offer these phrases to this dear one as though you're giving them a gift. Thank you. So so noticing where you are, if you're planning or remembering, gently coming back, beginning again, connecting with this dear one.

May you be filled with loving kindness. May you be free from fear. May you be safe. May you be healthy. Thank you. May you be filled with loving kindness. May you be free from fear. May you be safe, may you be healthy, you can move your attention away from this dear one, experiencing your feet, relaxing your seat, relaxing your belly, relaxing your shoulder blades, allowing sound to enter your ears and now allowing to arise in your mind

a sense of the presence of everyone here in this room today all of us and offering loving kindness 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.

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 filled with loving kindness may we be free from fear may we be safe may we be healthy continuing silently on your own Thank you. Thank you.... noticing where your mind is

if you've wandered from the phrases gently coming back if you're feeling sleepy you can open your eyes and lower your gaze and continue may we be safe may we be filled with love and 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. Thank you. May we be filled with loving kindness. May we be free from fear. May we be safe. May we be healthy. And you can move your attention away from these phrases, away from this group, just noticing your feet, noticing your seat, your belly, allowing sound to enter your ears,

bringing your attention to your heart center, relaxing your belly, noticing the palms of your hands. Bringing your attention to your heart center, and allowing a visualization of your mind as though there is a screen, a blank screen in your mind. You might imagine this as a movie screen, as a big blank whiteboard, chalkboard. And now imagining upon it, your intention is written in your handwriting in bright pink neon upon this screen.

Take a moment to allow this intention to arise, to see it written in your handwriting on this screen in bright pink neon, your intention Thank you. Seeing this intention appearing on the screen, on the screen. The bright pink neon letters, words, maybe one word, sentence. And now imagining that the screen vanishes, the letters begin to dissolve into a point of light. The screen is dissolving. The letters dissolve into a bright pink neon dot of light. You might notice this light is on your forehead, and allow it to sink into your brain. So it would be a couple inches behind your forehead.

It's a bright pink dot. And now envisioning it slowly moving down, down to your spine, through your throat, through your chest, through your heart center, past your abdomen and your stomach, down into your pelvis, to the base of the spine. There's a bright pink dot, your intention, in the base of your spine. And it begins to sparkle and glow. As it does this, the pink light begins to travel. As it does this, the pink light begins to travel.

It's traveling down your legs, your thighs, your calves, and it's surrounding you. This pretty, bright pink light over your legs and feet and up along your torso, your back, your shoulders, down each arm, around your fingers, over your head, your face, your ears, and you're covered in this pink glitter. your intention is now rooted in your body and your mind it's become part of you, part of your mind stream you can allow this visualization to fade.

Noticing your feet, your seat, your belly, bringing your attention to your shoulder blades and the back of your head. Allowing sound to enter your ears. And when you're ready, you can bring your attention back to our group in this room and open your eyes. to our group in this room. And open your eyes. Thank you all so much.

It's a delight to see 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.