Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 5/11/16 with Kate Johnson

Episode Date: May 17, 2016

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. We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and the teachers from the Interdependence Project. This week’s session is led by Kate Johnson focusing on the theme of Feminine Power. To view a related artwork from the Rubin Museum's permanent collection, please visit: rma.cm/-m

Thank you. join us in person, please visit our website at rhythmmuseum.org. 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 Urban Museum's permanent collection. And now, please enjoy your practice. permanent collection. And now, please enjoy your practice. Kate Johnson is here with us today and is our teacher. She currently teaches mindful yoga in the New York City public schools and Buddhist meditation at the Interdependence Project. She holds a BFA in dance from the Alvin Ailey School, Fordham University, and an MA in performance studies from NYU.

She's trained at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, Laughing Lotus Yoga, and the Presencing Institute. Please welcome her back, Kate Johnson. I'm really excited to talk about this topic, the power of the feminine. Certainly, there can be a depiction of the feminine as receptive and nurturing, and these are all aspects of what this feminine energy can provide or embody. But I love the opportunity to actually broaden that and see what else might be there in terms of the energy of the feminine, both internally and externally.

So with Durga here, she's described as a mother goddess, a Hindu mother goddess. And in that, not only someone who initiates life and sustains it, but that also has the power to destroy, as we see here depicted in the image. So, you know, on a, I guess, external or relational level, this could be like the quality of a mother who sees her child running out to the street and yells no and pulls the child back forcefully, that that's a quick,

clear-seeing act, and it's an act of love, an act of fierce love. I think on the internal level, this can be like our own wisdom that arises when we notice that we're caught in a habitual pattern that is harmful, you know, and that one day out of nowhere, there's this energy that says, enough, stop, and we stop. So I'd like to frame that as another aspect of the power of the feminine. So the practice that I'd like to offer today is one that would help us to foreground this kind of clear seeing and protective energy of the Divine Mother. I was reminded of a Buddhist sutta called the Metta Sutta, and I heard that last week you were working with Love and Kindness Meditation with Sharon.

So this is the Buddhist sutta where the Buddha is said to have offered these instructions about love and kindness, how we should offer love in the world. And it's said that he offered this instruction as an antidote to fear. So there's a line in the sutta that says not just the what, like the phrases that we offer, but the how, the attitude of mind that we should embody when offering these phrases. And the how of it is, he says, just as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, protects with her life her child, her only child. So with a boundless heart, should we cherish all beings, radiating kindness over the entire world? So just imagine were each of us to regard each other with that fierce, protective mother love, what kind of world we could create together.

So the beautiful thing about this quality is that it's said to be inherent in all beings, you know, whatever our gender, whatever our parental status, that this is an indwelling, powerful feminine principle that is natural, but that we can also cultivate through practice. And so that's what my hope is to offer today, a way to kind of cultivate through practice. And so that's what my hope is to offer today, a way to kind of cultivate that protective feminine energy quality and bring it into the foreground. So we'll do that. I'll just briefly describe the arc of the practice I'll lead,

and then we'll practice together. So we'll start. The first step will be just to kind of settle into the chair that we are in and feel our bodies and drop into the space that we're in. And after that, I'll offer a little contemplation using one of the traditional phrases of love and kindness or metta practice. metta practice. After that, we'll sit mostly quietly for a while, focusing on the feeling of breathing in the belly. And this is a mindfulness of breathing practice, but it's also a way of cultivating this don't be fooled quality that Don spoke of, that there's something almost like an alchemical transformation that happens when we actually pause in the middle of our life and allow the dust to settle.

And then suddenly what's real and what's true and what's important to us can present itself so clearly. So giving us an opportunity to have that kind of moment of discovery. kind of moment of discovery. And then at the last part of the practice I'll lead you in a brief contemplation about what it is we feel compelled to protect, maybe even with our own lives. So does that sound okay for everybody? So go ahead and settle into whatever arrangement you'd like to meditate in this afternoon. Maybe it's setting your bag down, or I don't mind if you kick off your shoes. you can close your eyes if you'd like to or just let them soften and settle to maybe to your lap or to the floor in front of you just as a way to start to draw the focus inside to the internal landscape of the body and maybe taking a couple deep breaths here

just to give the nervous system a signal that it's okay to relax. Noticing the feeling of the feet on the floor and the seat on the cushion or the chair, and then relaxing the body into that support so that there's this very physical sense of being supported in this moment,

being safe in this moment, being protected in this moment, and allowing the whole system to really absorb that sense of being safe and being protected. We'll start the practice today with just offering that wish to ourselves a few times. So in the space of your mind, picturing yourself,

your own tender heart, and silently offering yourself the wish, may I be safe and protected from inner and outer harm. We know the world is uncertain. We can't always control circumstances, but may I be safe. May I be protected from inner and outer harm. Just receiving that wish from yourself as best you can. Diolch yn fawr iawn am wylio'r fideo. Thank you. And now having primed the mind and heart with that intention to cultivate a space of safety and protection for ourselves,

I'd like to invite you to let your awareness light up the space of your belly, your abdomen. Noticing if there's any tension in the abdomen and inviting it to relax. So at this moment, the belly gets to be as big and as soft as it wants to be. No need to hold it. And seeing if you can notice that as you breathe, the belly actually moves a bit.

So if it's relaxed when we breathe in, the belly expands. When we breathe out, the sensations of the body breathing. Breathing. Breath in the belly. Diolch yn fawr iawn am wylio'r fideo.. So as we receive the sensations of breathing here, the mind and the heart are calmed by studying themselves against the sensations of the body. And the body is nurtured by the attention of the mind. So this simple act of paying attention

is one of the most basic forms of love. Thank you. From time to time you might notice the mind slips onto something else or the awareness becomes fuzzy and that's natural. It happens. Just whenever you can, guiding the awareness back to the sensation of breathing at the belly. With all the patience of a mother gently guiding her child back to whatever task is at hand. guiding her child back to whatever task is at hand. Just this breath. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn am wylio'r fideo. Thank you. Takk for at du så med. Thank you.. From time to time, noticing where the mind is and without shaming, without blaming, just gently redirecting the awareness back. Almost like this quality of a mother saying, hey, sweetie, look at this. It's the breath.

All right, come back, honey. Let's watch the breath. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn am wylio'r fideo. Thank you. And returning the awareness back into the breathing. Thank you.... and then having studied our awareness a bit through the mindfulness of breathing practice relax a little bit allow for our natural clarity of mind to begin to shine forth I'll just guide you in a brief contemplation. So taking a moment to reflect on

the qualities that you value in yourself. Perhaps your loyalty or your generosity, patience, humor, gentleness, boldness. Just taking an honest look and really bringing to mind those qualities that you care about in your own self, qualities that you'd be willing to protect. And just notice the tone of the heart as you contemplate these aspects of yourselves that are worth protecting.

That this is really the powerful feminine, divine feminine, protective quality of the heart. protective quality of the heart. It's noticing that heart quality and letting it resonate. As you contemplate the question, what in myself am I willing to protect? And then starting to expand that contemplation to bring in people in your life who you care about, people who you would vow to protect or maybe you've committed to protecting in your life,

who you'd stand up for, who you'd stand up for, who you'd advocate for, who you would stand in front of in the face of harm. Just letting your mind open to who might come in as you start to contemplate people that you care about, that you love in this fierce way. And notice, too, the quality of your own heart as you contemplate this. the arising of the powerful feminine love And then finally expanding even further to include perhaps groups of beings or values or causes, places,

that you feel this heartfelt desire to protect. So what is it in this world, in your world, that's worth standing up for? And noticing the quality of your own heart when you think about standing up for that which you love, that which you're willing to protect. And then start to just let that contemplation go for a few breaths, starting to bring your awareness back into your body for a moment. So noticing again and bring attention to the feeling of the feet on the floor. And the seat on the chair. Dignity of the spine.

The openness of the heart and the softness of the belly. And in the next moment, I'll close the practice with a ringing of the bell, at which point you can feel free to open your eyes and stretch your limbs and just look around the room. So thank you very much for coming to practice today. It's been such a pleasure, as always. Thank you, Dawn. 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.