Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 3/1/2017 with Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: March 3, 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, the New York Insight Meditation Center, and the Interdependence Project. Sharon Salzberg led this meditation session on March 1, 2017. To view a related artwork for this week's session, please visit: http://bit.ly/2nNDZF9

Dawn Eshelman, CFP®, is the director of Profile Investment Services and the founder of the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast. Dawn Eshelman is the director of Profile Investment Services and the founder of 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. Thank you for joining us. Mindfulness Meditation, as you know, is presented with Sharon Salzberg, the New York Insight Meditation Center and the Interdependence Project. And you today are just part, a fraction really,

of the whole experience of what the Reuben could be. really of the whole experience of what the Rubin could be. You're taking part in a space that is separated from the rest of the museum, and yet you know the rest of the museum exists, and you know there are other experiences to be had. For example, you could take part and contribute your voice to the OM Lab on the sixth floor, where your voice, your chant of the seminal sublime syllable OM, will then be accumulated along with every other visitor's OM. And there have been over 3,000 people who have contributed their chant since we opened that experience just over two weeks ago. So your voice is also then becoming part of a communal voice of everybody who's come to the museum and wanted to take part in a ritual, if you will. So this afternoon, Sharon is going to guide us into how we can be whole. Being whole, what does that mean?

When we all just see, through our limited perception, a fractal of existence. And so that's what we're going to explore, not only today, but for all the sessions that Sharon Saltzwood's going to be here for the month of March, which is a happy thing indeed. So what you have just seen as you came in were these fractal impressions, these are stills from Khandroma, which is a video installation on the fourth floor, part of our Sacred Spaces exhibition. And this was an artwork that was created by an art collective called Soundwalk, who walked the Himalayas recording found sounds and installed those sounds in the sacred spaces exhibition on the fourth floor they also custom made a kaleidoscope which they then focused on things that were

ephemeral like prayer flags and so that kind of the castle kaleidoscope effect that you see here is actually in video form mesmerically upstairs on the fourth floor. So I hope you want to follow Jeremy upstairs afterwards to experience that in real time. But that's an example of the fractal impression of what we perceive only part, ever part of the whole. So how do we understand what that whole is? Well, fortunately, we have the accomplished meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg to guide us there. Sharon, if you need an introduction to Sharon, let me just do it for you. Not only is she the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Center in Barrie, Massachusetts, I've been teaching and being a pioneer of meditation practices for over 45 years, ever since birth, basically. And she does not stop making her teachings and insights

available. And her latest book is called Real Love, The Art of Mindful Connection, comes out in June. And I'm sure we'll be celebrating that publication here as well, because basically the Reuben is Sharon's home, we hope, and yours as well. So Sharon, will you make us whole again? Sharon Salzberg, everyone. We're already whole. That's the secret. Now you don't have to come back three more times.

Hello. This is kind of my home, actually, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing to be able to say. I'm real sick, as you can hear, but I feel okay. I've just been traveling, and so my flight from San Francisco was delayed five and a half, or maybe it was six hours the other day. Walked into my apartment at 4.15 in the morning. Somewhere in my really low period at the San Francisco airport after five hours, somebody came up to me and said, are you Sharon Salzberg? And I thought, thank goodness I'm not having a temper tantrum.

Like on the ground. So I really felt like doing, you know. I said, oh, are you on this flight? And she said, no, I'm on this other flight, but I saw you. And I was like, okay. So it is a great delight to be here. And I've been fascinated with fractals. I'm not sure I fully understand them at all,

but I've been fascinated with fractals for a long time, as I do understand that a fractal is when a part of something can represent the whole. Like if you look at a part of a coastline, it represents the entire coastline. If you look at a part of a fern, it is representative of the entire fern, right? It is representative of the entire fern, right? So that glimpse of just a part brings us to a sense of the whole inherently. And as soon as I began to hear about that and see these representations,

I started thinking about the path to liberation, because I think it is exactly like that. Our mind, certainly my mind, is conditioned to want more, to get more instruction, the more elaborate, sophisticated instruction, a different method, instruction, a different method, a more esoteric, exotic, elaborate explanation. And to think that you kind of got it already can be very frustrating because that implies we have to live it, right?

There's something else we have to do to make that real. So I have often spoken, I'm sure many of you have heard me talk about my first meditation course, which was the first time I sat, which was in India in January of 1971. January of 1971. And the first instruction I received was, sit and feel your breath. Just sit and feel your breath. And even then I was disappointed.

I thought, you know, where's the magical, esoteric, fantastic technique that's going to wipe out all my suffering and make me a totally happy person? So I waited and waited and waited and kept doing what they suggested I do. And it's been over 45 years. Sometimes it's not that different, right? I mean, there are lots of different approaches. There are lots of different techniques.

But it's not like that was one-on-one, you know, never to be seen again, once mastered, because right in there, that seemingly simple instruction, it's like a fractal. There's a tremendous amount about the entire path. Sit down, put your attention on the feeling of the breath. There's a lot, spoken or unspoken, about balance there. Sometimes people feel, you know, if they get a death grip on the breath, their minds won't wander, and actually they'll wander more. The instruction actually is rest your attention lightly, like a butterfly resting on a flower. That's something different. I think one of the things we see about our lives,

if we start bringing mindfulness to activities, is that we often apply inappropriate force. We try too hard. I have a friend who decided, we were just kind of choosing activities throughout the day, and he decided that brushing his teeth was going to be his mindfulness exercise. And he said the first thing he noticed was that he was holding onto that toothbrush so tightly

it might as well have been a jackhammer about to leap out of his hand and cut off his head. And he found that interesting. He thought, I wonder if I do that a lot. And I think we kind of do do that a lot. So we rest our attention lightly. That's not that easy. And just as I was surprised to discover,

most of us discover it's not like 900 breaths before your mind wanders, right? It's two. Or one. Maybe it's four. And then we're gone. We're lost in the past somewhere. Not in a useful way, but in a kind of useless way.

Very often they say when our minds go to the past, we go back to some incident where we now have some regret, but not to see how we might make amends or for lessons learned. We just go over it and over it and over it and over it. And or our minds go to the future. And we create a scenario that has not happened and may never happen. But we're filled with anxiety because of it. Like I don't know, I have to book this flight. What if I book another flight and it's going to be at 1 o'clock and maybe there'll be a blizzard, God knows.

And I'm going to be at Kennedy for 24 hours. I'll never get to Maui. Really? First of all, it's like May or something. It's just because I'm in that mood now. Nothing's going to work. So our minds jump to the past, jump to the future. And there comes this magic moment when we realize,

oh, it's been quite some time since I last felt a breath. There's mindfulness there. That's significant. We realize when we're present, we realize I've been lost. I've been disconnected. That's part of the whole. I have a teacher who

had a kind of trick question he used to ask people which was something like, how many breaths can you be with before your mind starts to wander? And the reason it was a trick question was because they felt it took a good degree of mindfulness to notice how much your mind wandered. So a good answer was like two breaths. If you said, I can be with my breath for 45 minutes and my mind never wanders,

they thought you were so lost in space that you don't have a clue what was going on. And sometimes I used to be in the back of the room, and I'd hear them ask people that, and they'd say, I can be with the breath for 45 minutes, and my mind never wanders, and I think, don't say that. Do you think that's such a good answer? It's not such a good answer. So shining a light on when we're present,

when we're distracted what we're feeling what's going on is a part of the whole we do that right in that moment oh it's been quite some time since I last felt a breath we practice letting go which is essential

to the entire path if we learn nothing else and we learn that, that's enormous. It's also not so easy. When we think of letting go, we think of rejection and spurning something and saying it's worthless. This is very different. It's a very gentle relinquishing. It's like saying, not quite now.

Either my attention needs to be here, or I've done this 90 billion times in the last 15 minutes. That's kind of enough. Or what's it like to recognize what I'm feeling and realize I have a choice. I can follow it, into it, or I can let it go. That's the power of awareness. Not because we hate what's going on or we fear it,

because we kind of don't need it right now. It's what one of my teachers once called exercising and letting go muscle. That's enormous. And we begin again. We bring our attention back to the feeling of the breath, which inevitably, to do that well, means we're doing it with kindness toward ourselves.

Because that's also not so easy. More commonly, it's like, damn it, I'm thinking. Why am I always thinking? No one else in the room is thinking. I'm like the worst meditator that ever lived. You know, all of which, like, not only extends the period of the distraction, sometimes considerably, but it's so demoralizing.

It's so exhausting. There's something so pure, in a way, about letting go and beginning again. It is an expression of our wholeness. So it's not like we're seeking wholeness. In each of these moments we're resting in a kind of integrity or wholeness. And it's expressing itself in that moment. Through recognition, through presence.

Through being able to let go. Through kindness. So that's why we do the same old instruction. Not always, but very often. Because it's enough. Because we're enough. And that's the process. Okay, so let's sit together.

We'll have a fractal experience. See if you can sit comfortably. There's some balance, I'd say, already reflected in our posture. We want some energy in your body. We're not like so much. You also want to be relaxed and at ease. If you like, before you get to the breath,

you can start by listening to sound. The sound of my raspy voice. Other sounds. If you like, before you get to the breath, you can start by listening to sound, the sound of my raspy voice, other sounds. It's a way of relaxing deep inside, whatever sensations you discover. Thank you. And bring your attention to the feeling of your breath. Just a normal, natural breath. Wherever you feel it most clearly. Bring your attention there and rest.

See if you can feel one breath. 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, 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, Thank you. And when you find your attention has wandered, remember the entire path is right there. Your attention will wander. But what happens next? See if you can let go gently. See if you could begin again with a full heart, with kindness towards yourself. Even if you have to do that over and over and over again, that's the path. Takk for ating mediet. Gull. Takk for watching! 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, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 59, 52, 53, 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, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 1. Takk for ating mediet. Thank you for watching! Gå in. I'm going to make a Amen. Gå. I'm going to take a picture of the 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, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 51, 52, 53, 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, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, 53, Gullu Takk for ating mediet! I'm going to show you how to use the Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for watching! I'm going to make a GONG 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.