Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 1/3/2018 with Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: January 5, 2018

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. This program is supported in part by the Hemera Foundation with thanks to our presenting partners Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine. Sharon Salzberg led this meditation session on January 3, 2018. To view a related artwork for this week's session, please visit: http://rubinmuseum.org/events/event/sharon-salzberg-01-03-2018

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, the teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and the Shambhala 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. Happy New Year! Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Rubin Museum and to our weekly mindfulness meditation practice.

My name's Donna Schulman. This month, to honor the New year, we are beginning again. That is our theme this month, beginning again. And that's kind of our take on the whole New Year's resolution concept. Just begin again. That's it. No resolutions necessary here in mindfulness meditation, but it's always great to have you all here. And wonderful to just remember that that action of beginning again is available to us at any moment,

whether it is around the time of the Gregorian New Year or it is simply something we do time and time again in the middle of this sitting practice that we do together, our meditation. And it's something that our teacher today, Sharon Salzberg, is so helpful at reminding us about, that there is this compassionate act that you can do for yourself during a meditation practice, which is just begin again. So the art object that we're looking at today comes from an exhibition that is just about to end, and that is The World is Sound. So if you haven't had a chance to check that out, you can do that right after our practice here today. Jeremy will take you upstairs for a closer look at this object.

But The World is Sound is coming to a close in just about a week. And one concept that is explored within the exhibition is the Tibetan bardo, the Book of the Dead, and the practice of preparing for the transition between lives that Tibetan Buddhist practitioners really practice their whole lives for. And it is believed that sound is the last sense to go when someone passes. And so the Tibetan Book of the Dead, the bardo, is read aloud to that person as they pass as a way of helping them transition as auspiciously as possible to the next life, to a better life. And during that transition period, it is also believed that that person may encounter challenges in a way and hallucinations.

challenges in a way and hallucinations. And that is what is being depicted here. This is the assembly of peaceful and wrathful deities. This is a Tonka painting from the 19th century. And it includes a whole bevy of wrathful figures in the center there and also in the two rings that surround that center. And then an entire, you know, village of entourages there of peaceful deities as well. And what's interesting is that it's not only the person who is experiencing these visions is basically given the opportunity to have a mindful response to not simply react, and that the quality of their response is important to both the wrathful and the peaceful deities. And it's within that Bardo period and these series of encounters that they then may go on to a more promising next life. So whether we're talking about beginning again in terms of beginning a new life, beginning a new

year, beginning a new breath. I hope that this concept of beginning again is something that will be useful for you, not only now in this practice, but throughout the year. So Sharon Salzberg is here with us today and really for most of the month. Aren't we lucky? So she will talk to us a little bit more today about this idea of beginning again and how we can use it in our practice. She is, of course, the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barrie, Massachusetts, and the author of many wonderful books. And if you're looking to inject your meditation practice with a little extra oomph at the beginning of this year, I would highly recommend one of her books. You can find them in the shop or online, inject your meditation practice with a little extra oomph at the beginning of this year,

I would highly recommend one of her books. You can find them in the shop or online. Her latest is Real Love. So please welcome her back, Sharon Salzberg. It's so beautiful, isn't it? We wanted to be sure to show it before it went away. So hi there, happy new year. I am spending most of the month of January here. I don't know why. Every year I say next year I'm gonna go somewhere warm for the winter and

then but somehow January in New York is so alluring I don't know exactly but I'm going for a week to Baring Massachusetts instead of Miami so other than that I will be here so this is the first of four Wednesdays with a little gap in the middle and because of that I had to look at the topic and really try to break it down since it's the same topic. And so I thought I'd start with the concept of aspiration or motivation. And of course, when we practice, we'll work very specifically with beginning again and beginning again. But aspiration also comes up. I mean, what are those intentions? And it always reminds me of when we were first debating whether to buy the property that became the Insight Meditation Society.

It was 1975, and Joseph and I, Joseph Goldstein and I had met in India. Jack Kornfield, at the same time, was having a parallel life in Thailand. And we met up in Boulder, Colorado in 1974 when we'd each come back. And it had not been that long that we were teaching. And it was kind of a big mystery, you know, like how many people in this country will be interested in meditation? How many will be interested in this form of meditation? But somebody suggested to us that we started a retreat center. And in our innocence, we thought, oh, that sounds like a good idea. And they also, this person also told us the people who could really help us were in Massachusetts, which was true. So we looked up and down the East Coast. And finally, we ended up

in Barry, Massachusetts. Someone had suggested that we check out the Catholic archdiocese, because they were selling a lot of property then. We were in the midst of what we quaintly called the gas crisis. Do you remember that? Gas prices were going up. These facilities, like the novitiates and so on, were often quite big and hard to heat. So they were selling a lot of them. And this one place was a novitiate in Barry.

So we went there in 1975 to look at the property, and we were really torn about what to do. On the one hand, it seemed perfect for a retreat center. It's very pretty. It's very placid. It's about two miles outside of the town of Barry. But on the other hand, it seemed really big. And there we were, not really knowing.

We hadn't been back from Asia that long. And it was so unclear how many people would want to learn this form of meditation. So we went to downtown Barry for lunch. And Barry's a very classical New England town with a town green and a bandstand and things on it. In those days, there was a monument on the town green, which had the Barry town motto engraved on it, which is tranquil and alert.

So we took a look at that and we thought, OK, that's an omen. Any town that has a motto like tranquil and alert, because not only are we always talking about those qualities in meditation, we're always talking about balancing those qualities in meditation. We're always talking about balancing those qualities in meditation, right? We're deepening calm and peace and tranquility, but we're also strengthening alertness and energy and interest and so on. So we said, okay, let's buy it. And we did. So that's the first part of the story. The second part of the story is it was a novitiate when we bought it, and it had gone through the original building, and then someone bought that and added wings, and it was some, you know, so we were in the last incarnation for that. And the original building, the main part of the, you know, one structure,

had been built as a private home. It was a mansion. one structure, had been built as a private home. It was a mansion. It was owned by, built by someone who at one point was the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, Colonel Gaston. And there's a rather slim volume in the Barrytown Library, which has the Barry history in it. And there's a whole section on Colonel Gaston.

And it said that Colonel Gaston had his own personal motto that he tried to live by, which was, you should live every day so you can look any damn man in the eye and tell him to go to hell. So it immediately made me wonder how well he was getting along with his neighbors, you know? Maybe we're going around trying to be tranquil and alert. But I usually tell those stories in juxtaposition

because I think we basically do tend to have a personal motto, a kind of theme, something that makes us, it kind of lays out the ground of where we think our lives should be, what will give us meaning, what will make us happy. That's our aspiration, right? It's like that big, bigger vision. And maybe it is, you know, we should live every day so we can live any day, man, and the items go to hell, but it doesn't need to be that. So I had a Tibetan teacher who used to

say to us, basically, why is your sense of what's possible, why is your sense of happiness, your sense of what your life is about so small? Why is it so meager? Why not aspire to be a fully liberated being for the sake of all beings? Like, why not? And from that point of view, you know, we tend to live in a time of kind of blunted aspiration.

We think we want so much, but we don't necessarily want the right things, or we don't necessarily want enough. And so the invitation is to really look deeper and look bigger. You know, you may think, you know, you want a lot of money, but you don't really want piles of money, right? You want security or some feeling that money gives you. It's some sense of leisure time, of fun, of, you know, and then you look at the many possible ways, including a lot of money, but not limited to a lot of money at all. You might get a greater sense of security,

more fun, more leisure time, and so on. Or I know I will never jump out of an airplane voluntarily. But I can also aspire to be more skillful with the things I'm afraid of, like heights. So usually we focus on the smaller thing. I want to get a lot of money. I want to jump out of an airplane this year. I'm going to whatever.

But we can go bigger. Let's really kind of dissolve that sense of limitation of what we're capable of in terms of happiness and open it up. That's the aspiration part. And then there's the very steady moment by moment by moment expression of that aspiration, which tends to include a lot of falling down,

forgetting, losing sight of, and so on. And we absolutely, more than anything, need that skill of beginning again. I don't know if you saw a few days ago in the New York Times, which I've, since I've come back to New York as an adult, I've learned to call the paper. So there's only one paper. I don't even read it in paper form either, you know?

But it's the paper. I don't know if you saw it in the paper there was an article on self-compassion and the power of self-compassion which I thought was pretty terrific so the compassion toward ourself and the ability to begin again is not consolation, it's actually effective it's the most effective means to really make progress

in expressing that aspiration again or remembering it or being back in touch with our values. It is actually the most effective way of getting it done rather than just holding some kind of dream. So let's turn off our cell phones because it's a new year. Why not? And we're going to sit.

Okay, so you can sit comfortably, close your eyes or not, however you feel most at ease. If you like, you can start just by listening to sound. Sounds of my voice or other sounds. It's a way of relaxing deep inside, allowing your experience to come and go. And bring your attention to your hands and see if you can switch your attention from the more conceptual level

to the world of direct sensation, picking up, throbbing, pressure, whatever it is. You don't have to name these things, but feel them. And bring your attention to the feeling of your breath, just the normal, natural breath, wherever you feel it most distinctly, nostrils, chest, or abdomen. You can bring your attention there and just rest. See if you can use a quiet mental notation like in-out or rising-falling, but very quiet. So your energy is really going to feeling the breath one breath at a time.... And if you find your mind has wandered, you've gotten lost in thought, you've fallen asleep, truly don't worry about it.

See if you can let go gently and with compassion towards yourself. Begin again by returning your attention to the feeling of the breath. Gå in. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, Gå ut.. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 56, 57, 59, 52, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, Gå ut. Gå ut. Vem?. Thank you. Gå ut.. Nandini Gå inn i ditt hjerte. Gå inn i kroppen. Gå ut. Gå inn i hjertet ditt. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good week. 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 Ruben Museum members, just one of the many benefits of membership. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.