Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 2/15/2017 with Kate Johnson

Episode Date: February 17, 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 Interdependence Project. Kate Johnson led this meditation session on February 15, 2017. To view a related artwork for this week's session, please visit: http://bit.ly/2nAEbIf

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 Interdependence Project. 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 there are two things that I want to mention before we get going. And one is just to acknowledge the sad passing of Gele Grimpoche this morning. of Gelec Rinpoche this morning. Gelec Rinpoche was instrumental in really supporting the vision to create the Rubin Museum here. He was the presiding lama at the opening of the museum on the second of October 2004, and he was last here on stage a few years ago

with the artist Francesco Clemente talking about the student-teacher relationship. And I think we'll want to post that online so that you can all receive his wisdom as his final gesture towards us. So today we're going to be talking about perception, which is actually what we're talking about for the next few months, because we have an ongoing series called Brain Wave, in which we place neuroscientists, mind scientists on stage with people from other walks of life. And you might particularly want to put March the 12th down

in your books, because Kentrel Tukhman-Pesce will be here from Bhutan together with the Harvard scientist Gael Debord talking about the transformational aspect of meditation and whether it can actually change the world. I know it changes your world because that's why you're here, but can it have reach beyond that? That is what we're going to be discussing on March the 12th. So perception, how we receive reality

through the limitations of our senses, that's one idea. And our senses are utilized in visualizing what is possible. And for that, we have art. And much of that art is found on the galleries above us, and in particular, today we're going to study Vajragini. Vajragini is a very special deity. She's pictured here as a nubile 16-year-old, athletic, powerful being,

in a sort of warrior pose, trampling the obstructions to enlightenment underfoot. And in her left hand, she would hold a cup forged out of a human skull out of which she'd be drinking blood. This is a very fierce image. And the reason it's fierce is because she is the deity you go to when you want to enter tantric practice and you have rather unruly desires. And she is the one who will translate, or help you translate those unruly desires into this fierce vigilance, which is

something I think we probably all need to summon in this day and time. So she is also thought of as the real, really the sort of the dakinis of Buddhist essence. So she's our go-to gal today, of Buddhist essence. So she's our go-to gal today and a really important figure in the pantheon of Tibetan Buddhist practice. So we'll be meditating on the aspects of her today with the help of Kate Johnson and let me tell you a little about Kate. I'm sure you're familiar with her if you've come to any of these sessions before but Kate teaches mindful yoga at New York City schools and Buddhist meditation at IDP. She holds a BFA in dance, which she acquired from the Alvin Ailey School at Fordham University and a master's in performance studies from NYU. She's trained at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, the IDP, Laughing

Lotus Yoga, and the Presencing Institute. And she's currently writing a very timely book. It's about waking up to power and oppression as a spiritual practice. And it is due out this fall, 2017. So welcome to Mindfulness Meditation here at the Rubin Museum of Art, presented with Sharon Salzberg, the New York Insight Meditation Center, and the Interdependence Project. And to guide us this afternoon is Kate Johnson. Thank you, Kate, for being here. Hi, everybody. So I'm really pleased to be back here today with my girl, Vajrayogini. She's really living, as you can see.

She's, I love this pose. And Vajrayogini is a feminine manifestation of divine wisdom. She's also considered the queen of all the dakinis who are these divine beings that are sky dancers and so you see her here pictured dancing that they have this capacity to dance with between our relative mundane, just everyday ordinary reality and the absolute reality of ultimate consciousness,

emptiness and formlessness that is said to be concurrent with what we can see and perceive. And I wanted to talk a little bit about what the figure of the Dakini invites us into in terms of our perception of everyday reality. So what the teachings say is that for our ordinary perception, and in some ways, it's absolutely true that there is, from the perspective of ethics, good and bad. There's right and wrong. And the mind has this tendency to delineate

and group people, right, to friends and enemies. And even to group experiences, like this is a pleasant, wholesome experience, this is unpleasant and it's bad. What the tantric path offers us a window into is a shift in perspective where it's possible that any experience at all, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant,

whether it appears to be great or it appears to be a total shitstorm, actually has within it the possibility, it could be used as a path for awakening. So that kind of whatever the experience is, Vajrayogini and the tantric path opens up a possibility that within that there is a seed of awakening and that we can actually mine that experience for spiritual growth, personally and collectively. So that's good news, right? That even in the midst of fear, that even in the midst of anger,

That even in the midst of fear, that even in the midst of anger, certainly within blissful experiences and calm experiences too, but not only those. You know, that there is something within us, something between us that is awake. And if we can start to train our awareness towards that, we can kind of progress on our path to greater freedom. So there's a lot of the teachings around Vajrayogini that are secret. They're offered in a transmissional way from teacher to student. I've done some of these practices, but I'm not authorized to teach them to you today. So we're not going to be doing any secret mantras or any visualizations in that way,

although if that's something that you're interested in, I certainly encourage you to seek out a Vajrayana teacher who can start you on the path. But I think we can still use the principle of Vajrayogini and the invitation to contemplate, well, what, you know, even in this very seemingly ordinary mundane moment, you know, sitting on a chair in an auditorium, what's awake right now? And we'll be dropping in this contemplation in the frame of our mindfulness of breath meditation so it'll go something like this we'll you know we'll sit i'll kind of talk you through how to set up your posture and what to pay attention to and we'll spend most of the time

focusing on the feeling of our breath so So we'll notice it in the chest, we'll notice it at the nostrils or in the belly, just what it feels like to breathe. And this is a wonderful way, I think a critical way even, to start to gather and unify our experience and create a powerful, focused attention. So it's meant to be relaxing, it's meant to be grounding.

But you'll notice, as I notice every time I sit down, and so I think maybe I will for the rest of my life, that after a few breaths or a few minutes, the mind wanders, it goes to something that happened several breaths ago or something that might happen several breaths from now. And we notice that, don't worry about it so much, just invite yourself back to this one breath that you're on.

So that's the main kind of body of instruction. And from time to time, I'll invite you to drop in a contemplation and it's just like, it's not like something to really like think about, like, you know, drop the breath and just like, you know, figure this out. But more like dropping a pebble in a pond or a little bit of dye in a glass of water. And that question will just be, it doesn't need to be a surprise. I'll just tell you now. It's what is awake in this moment? It doesn't need to be a surprise. I'll just tell you now.

It's what is awake in this moment? So you can just kind of let that question ripple through the mind. And then when it's kind of rippled through a bit, come back to that sense of breathing again. So what we hope that will do is create a mental space where we have the confidence that wakefulness, we're both cultivating it and

it's already here. So one more thing before we go into practice and then we'll is it about the instructions? by the visualizations. Yes. So I'm thinking to myself, I'm angry at somebody. Do I try to visualize my anger? That's not asking me to go and. Or if I'm worried about something or fearful of something, then I'm trying to see what I'm fearful of. Well, I'll definitely walk you through the instructions. So the short answer is no.

And the question was, in this moment, are we supposed to kind of visualize our anger or our fear? I would say no. I mean, oftentimes with anger and fear, you don't have to go looking so far for them. They just kind of come up, you know? And so if they come up, you know, you can deal with them in the moment.

But the instructions will be totally guided. I feel confident that any question you have will be answered now or then after the practice. Just last thing before we dive into practice. I was doing a period of study with a teacher who teaches around the wisdom model of the five wisdom dakinis. And she was giving us some instructions about how to work with this. And one of the other students in the class said something like, you know, what happens, what do we do if we meet the dakinis in the elemental realm because that's opened up as a possibility in these practices that you might actually come face to face with the dakinis with her

skull cup of blood and her Katmanga staff and what you do when you come face to face with her and the teacher kind of smiled she said do when you come face to face with her, and the teacher kind of smiled. She said, well, when you meet the dakinis in the elemental realm, you dance. And so just to remember that this is not a static sculpture, that she's in movement, that in our practice, we're not training to be sculptures, you know, but that we're learning to dance with our experience. And that's kind of the meta lesson for me in this. So does that sound good? We'll just do a little practice and then talk a little after? Okay. So go ahead and find a seat that feels comfortable to you. If you can

put both feet on the ground, great. You can take your hands and place them on your thighs, palm down or palm up or clasp in your lap if you'd like. And if you feel comfortable to do so, I'd invite you to close your eyes. If that's not comfortable for any reason, you can also open your eyes, but just keep them half open and lower the space in front of you. So we're giving the message to the eyes that we don't have to look outside for

anything, that we're actually starting to train our attention towards our inner experience. And to do that, just starting to feel the soles of the feet where they're resting on the ground. Feeling the hands resting on the thighs. Strong back. Open heart. Belly relaxed. And soft face. Letting your awareness receive the sensations in your entire body, places of pressure, lightness, heaviness, density, or spaciousness, warmth, coolness. Just dropping in the question, what is awake right now? And as that question fades, just starting to turn your awareness towards feeling your breath in one of those places we mentioned, the nose or the heart or at the belly. So we're gathering our attention in one spot in the body.

And as you feel yourself breathing in, you can say breathing in. As you feel yourself breathing out, you can silently say breathing out. Thank you. What is awake in this moment? And then as you're ready, returning to feeling the in-breath, knowing that you're breathing in, feeling without breath, and silently saying, breathing out, letting the awareness ride the breath like a series of waves. Thank you. Thank you. What is awake in this moment? Seeing if it's possible to lean into that wakefulness for a moment or two. And then once again, resting the awareness and the feeling of breathing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. What is awake right now? Thank you. And settling the mind back into sensation of breath. Feeling the breath in and feeling the breath out. Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor, Gullivor okay E aí Thank you. Thank you. In this very moment, what is awake? And then starting to let your awareness spread out in your entire body again, feeling the feet where they're resting, feeling the hands touching each other, touching the thighs. The strength of the back.

Openness of the heart. Relaxed belly, soft face. I'm just taking a moment to acknowledge your practice today. You could have done anything else with your midday hour, but you came to work with your mind and heart. So allowing yourself to feel good about that choice. that choice. And if you'd like, you can connect with the intention that that choice might be a benefit not just to you, but to the other beings that we share this city, this country, this planet with. Silence. So as you're ready, you can float your eyes open, stretch your body if you'd like. You don't have to stop being mindful.

Thank you for your practice today. 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.