Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 2/01/2017 with Tracy Cochran

Episode Date: February 2, 2017

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. Presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg and the New York Insight Meditation Center. Tracy Cochran led this meditation session on February 1, 2017. To view a related artwork for this week's session, please visit: http://bit.ly/2mB2yDU

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 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 Rubin Museum's permanent collection.

And now, please enjoy your practice. So we have Tracy Cochran here with us today, and she is the editorial director of Parabola, which is this beautiful quarterly magazine that for 40 years has drawn upon the wisdom traditions of the world. And we do sell this upstairs in the shop if you're interested in taking a closer look. And she also teaches at the New York Insight Meditation Center. So let's welcome her back, Tracy Cochran.

Thank you. It's lovely to be here, sitting together, knowing that the Latin root of the word conspire means to breathe together, to breathe with. So we're engaged in this wonderful and crucial conspiracy. Right? right so as Don was saying we have been flooded

with things to perceive and then thoughts come up and feelings and we fear fear is so real and then when we sit down together one breath at a time, there can be a space. We can remember that there's another attention, another finer attention. But we've all been through so much this week that I thought I would tell you a little story instead of lecture you.

And it's something that I have been carrying inside me for weeks and weeks. Remember, the Buddha once reached a point where things were so dark, and he had a memory from childhood. Do you remember that? I've mentioned it more and more in the year. So that happened to me.

And I remembered a great wisdom story that I would like to share with you. And it's called Horton Hears a Who. I'm not kidding. By Dr. Seuss, who is a great spiritual teacher and a great activist at the same time. So in this story, Horton is an elephant. And throughout this museum, you'll see these magnificent images of an elephant named Ganesh, overcomer of obstacles. Well, Horton is

an American name for Ganesh. So when the story opens Horton is bathing in a pool. I know this is all written in verse but I'll just give it to you in prose. And Horton's bathing in a pool is not unlike what we do when we sit down. Horton is in a tranquil jungle pool, settling down, becoming more quiet. And you know what happens when we do that? We stop freaking out. We turn the light of attention towards ourselves. And we remember, we experience the dawning of a finer attention.

So in that state, this little piece of fluff drifts by, and Horton hears something. Help, help. In an ordinary state, he wouldn't have heard it. And not only does he hear something, but he's in a more concentrated state. So he decides, I'll help. I'll be responsive. So he takes this little piece of fluff and he listens closer.

And he realizes there's somebody on here. Maybe two, maybe three, maybe more. I'll stop risking rhyming. So he carries the fluff to a little piece of clover. He gets back in touch with nature. He settles down like the Buddha did when he touched the earth and he puts this little speck on a piece of clover. And just then, these bitter, reactive kangaroos, mother and baby came up to him and said, What are you doing? Talking to yourself. There's no one there.

They couldn't dare to believe that there was another world that they couldn't hear. But he stuck to his guns, even though they mocked him. But they were so reactive and so afraid, they sent these monkeys, mean, reactive, cynical monkeys who said, not only do we not believe that there's anything finer to hear or feel, but we are going to banish that speck. We're going to ban it.

So they give it to this eagle named Vlad. It was a very dark and ominous evil, evil eagle. And he takes this fluff, and he flies, and he flies, and he flies, and he flies. And he puts it down in a field of clover, saying to poor Horton, you will never, ever find it. But what did Horton do? He persisted. It's just like practice. We come into the room and we might hope for not much because we're so afraid and we're so freaked out. What can this do, this gentle movement of return? Well, Horton kept on. He listened to one piece of clover another hour after hour. And it can feel like this when you sit.

It really can. Finally, he finds it. He hears them. And he's like, how are you? How are you? And they're like, oh, we're so glad you're here. When that big bird dropped us, all of our clocks stopped. All of our buildings were jumbled.

And he's like, you have buildings. You have buildings. They're like, we have a whole town. There are thousands of us and please keep protecting us and he's like oh I will I will so he carries it he carries it

and the monkeys come back and they're even more threatened saying you're just making a fool of yourself talking like this it's like protesting in the streets what do you we're gonna put a stop to all of this we're going to tie you up we're going to put you in a cage we're going to put an end to it all. So Horton turns to this invisible little town. They tell them they're Who's and they live in a town called Whoville. And he turns to them and says, help me now. you have to make yourself known.

Now this is the interesting point in the story for our Dharma practice. It doesn't mean freak out. It doesn't mean just scream and be afraid. It means be present. Be present. present, be present. Remember when you're present there's a finer attention, there's a feeling of compassion. We remember another attention. So they all do this. And he said, speak from that. And they say, we are here. We are here. And the kangaroo who's shown up again. And the monkeys say, we don't hear anything.

We just hear the wind. We don't hear anything. And Horton says to the Who's of Whoville, somebody must be missing. Somebody must be missing. So the mayor of Whoville runs through the streets and checks out the buildings and finally comes to one apartment complex where there's one little Who who's contracted in fear probably and spacing out and just playing with his yo-yo and not making any sounds. And the mayor said, you have to come. Your presence counts.

Your presence counts. So the little kid goes with the mirror. Everybody in Whoville gathers. Everybody takes a breath and grounds themselves. And together they say, we are here. And one more time, everybody in full presence, we are here. And the kangaroos and the monkeys here, and they say, it's so wonderful. We get it. and they say, it's so wonderful. We get it. We get it. We've been completely swept away by our fear and our perceptions. But now we're here.

And you know what we're going to do? We are going to help protect the who's of Whoville. Because everybody matters, no matter how small. So that is the story of Horton Hears a Who. And it's interesting. It's interesting. You can see for yourself. I had the big orange book on the Metro North, and it made me think, I love New York,

you know, that I could be reading the storybook. Now it bats an eye. But the broader takeaway, like the Buddha knew, like we all know, every time we sit down to practice, every child knows, we remember. That's the word for mindfulness, remembering. We're more than we think. We're more than we fear. We're more than our perceptions. our perceptions, there are deep capacities of awareness and compassion and receptivity and they're never lost. So let's discover that together now, taking a comfortable seat, thinking of Horton and his pool, taking refuge in the safety of this beautiful space. blend and we let ourselves settle down, return, unplug. And as the body begins to feel like it's relaxing, we bring the attention to rest on the breathing notice the in-breath and the out-breath.

Noticing it either at the nostrils as a feeling of air or in the rise and fall of the chest or the diaphragm. And almost instantly we notice all kinds of sensations and feelings and thinking, and we allow that to be present. We welcome the whole of our experience with kind attention. And as we do this we begin the life in the body. Noticing that there's a light inside us and it comes softly like dawn. We begin to remember that we're more than we think and feel and believe that we're more than we think and feel and believe, that we are also this awareness. When we get taken by thinking or we start to contract intention, we gently notice this And continue. Thank you. When we get lost, we simply start again, noticing that we're welcome every time. Thank you.. Noticing as we begin to soften and relax the receptivity and openness to the life inside and outside. Thank you. Noticing that stillness doesn't require perfect quiet. It's non-reactivity, softness, openness. Thank you. And as we keep making this movement of return, we begin to sense finer energies in us, an energy of attention that's finer than than thinking. It can know and see. And it's not separate from compassion. Thank you. We remember we're supported by forces inside and outside, air, earth, all kinds of forces and elements. Thank you.... When we drift off, we come back again to the breathing and the body and the moment, noticing to not be judged, to be welcome, all of us. Thank you. We begin to remember what it means to be present, vibrantly alive. Noticing that we're grounded in life. We're part of it. Thank you. When we get lost, we come back again without judgment or comment, basking in the light Thank you.. Noticing as we grow more still that we can hear more. Thank you. Noticing as we relax that we can feel fleeting feelings of joy, steadfastness, other things, responsiveness. Thank you. Noticing as we prepare to stop that we can return to this light anytime. And always find welcome. Thank you. There's a beautiful presence in the room right now to think together, we are here to have that intention to know that we have each other and that we can act from here.

Let's just continue. Let's do that. knowing that there's something very fine present something that we share, and that this energy, this current, this willingness is more us than our perceptions, fears, thoughts. Thank you. We remember that this light of compassion is present. Remember that each one of us is welcome, part of it. Thank you. Remembering that this attention can never be taken from us, can never be lost. Okay. So now we dedicate this beautiful practice we've shared together to everybody, everywhere, everybody, without exception. May everyone, everywhere, feel safe and welcome into this light. into this light. May everyone everywhere feel welcome on earth. May they remember who they really are. And may they be free. We are here. Thank you. 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.