Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 6/22/16 with Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: June 30, 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 and the NY Insight Meditation Center. This week’s session is led by Sharon Salzberg focusing on the theme of Removing Obstacles. To view a related artwork from the Rubin Museum's permanent collection, please visit: rma.cm/14n

Thank you. join us in person, please visit our website at rubemuseum.org. We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and the teachers from the Interdependence Project and the New York Onsite 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 Rubem Museum's permanent collection. And now, please enjoy your practice. Sharon Salzberg is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society. She has been studying and teaching for over 45 years, and she is the author of many fabulous books,

so helpful if you want to dive a little bit deeper and take your practice to the next level. And one of those books are most recent is real happiness at work which you can find upstairs in our shop or online please give a warm welcome to sharon salzburg uh for those of you who don't follow me on Twitter or such things, I officiated at Ethan Nickturn's wedding this last weekend, which I don't do in general, by the way, ever.

But we kept saying, you know, there was a certain kind of, some people were kind of tense that maybe some things would go wrong, and I kept saying, no, no, that's what makes for memories, right? You know, that's what makes for that fond recollection. I remember when, you know, as long as nothing falls on the officiant or something like that, and actually one of the little boys was sort of, I guess, I don't know, it wasn't the ring bearer who was like slightly older,

but just sort of had a meltdown walking down the aisle, you know, weeping and crying. His father had to pick him up. And I thought, okay, that's the memory. It's going to haunt him his entire life. The kid's going to graduate college, and someone's going to say, I haven't seen you since you were weeping. Ethan Nickturn's wedding. So I love that Ganesh was flickering.

I actually love Ganesh. I have a tremendous feeling for just the iconography. On all my years of living in India, which were very significant years for me, and first learning how to meditate and being very supported in my practice, there were Ganesh statues in every household because it's the symbol of an opening, right? Life inevitably has its ups and downs. We go through all these changes. Sometimes things are kind of ordinary, and we're just

coasting. Sometimes things are exhilarating, and they're wonderful, and there are, of course, very, very difficult challenges that come our way. The obstacles, in some way, are not so much about what arises. They're almost more about how we relate about what arises. They're almost more about how we relate to what arises, because that's what's in our hands. You know, with a deity, a symbol of possibility like Ganesh, one would maybe conventionally think, oh, well, I'll do offerings in front of Ganesh, one would maybe conventionally think, oh, well, I'll do offerings in front of Ganesh, and the bill collector won't come, or something like that.

Or my internet speed's going to pick up miraculously, or whatever it is, you know. But it's not really the circumstance, but our relationship to the circumstance, that the creativity and the possibility and the chance to be different, that's where it exists. So as we often talk about in talking about mindfulness, how do we relate to the pleasant and wonderful and beautiful things that come up? Are we so distracted we don't take them in? Are we just kind of lost in some concept about what should be happening instead? Are we just in the habit of complaining?

In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, they have certain days which astrologically they say count like 10 million times more karmically than other days. So Monday was one. I think it was Monday. It might have been Sunday. Recently we just had one. But I knew on the day that it was the day. And so every time I saw my mind moving toward complaining,

I'd say, no, no. Let's not go there today. It's going to count 10 million times more as a habit, as an impression, as getting to be a routine way of being. Not now, which was really fun. So how do we relate to pleasure? How do we relate to the thoughts that come up in our minds? How do we relate to difficulty, to adversity? And one of the beautiful things about iconography, about an actual statue as a symbol, is that it's a reminder.

If nothing else, it's a reminder that we're not alone. We can feel so isolated and so cut off as we face some kind of challenge in our day, in our life. And just to have the sense of, this is actually a part of life. This isn't just me. This isn't that I'm aberrant, that I'm weird, that I'm bad, that I did something to kind of deserve this. But it's a reminder. Yeah, this is a part of life.

People have been seeking compassion and understanding forever. And that we may find it in a group with other people. We may find it in a group with other people. We may find it through some sense of the positive force in the universe. But we can find it. There's a part of loving kindness practice, for example, where we offer loving kindness to all beings everywhere, to all

existence. And one year, some years ago, I was teaching in Switzerland, and this woman came up to me and she said, I've had a terrible year. I've had so much go wrong this year. I've had a terrible year. I've had so much go wrong this year. And she said the one thought that's really kept me going all year is that somewhere in the world someone was offering loving kindness to all beings everywhere and I'm a being. And therefore not because I did anything special to deserve it, not because I sort of went out of my way and someone felt obliged to wish me well,

but through the commitment of their own heart to include rather than exclude, to care about others, even if they've never met them and never would meet them, to have that kind of open-hearted sense of connection, which people of all traditions and outside of kind of formal traditions do, out of their own personal sensibility. And she said, I'm a being

therefore somewhere in the world someone is wishing me well someone is kind of on my side someone is hoping I get through okay and not just okay like survive but with some resource, with some greater compassion, with something left over to offer to others. And as soon as she said it, this was my book, my first book, Loving Kindness, came out in 1995. So this is probably 1995, a little later in the

year, in 96. So of course, as soon as she said it, I thought, oh, I wish that were in my book. Because it is so beautiful. And I realized how rarely I stop and recognize that. But we could, couldn't we? That somewhere in the world, someone is wishing us well. Just like on our side, just from that commitment of the heart. And not only can we stop and receive it, which is an awfully good idea, we can be part of what is extending that.

So that's the kind of feeling that looking at a statue of Ganesh can give one, right? Someone is on my side. Here he is, so cute too, right? Someone is on my side. Here he is. So cute, too, right? And here to help me deal differently with the pleasure and pain and everything in between that may be coming my way. So we're going to sit together. Do you all have somewhere to sit?

Some of you are standing. Is that okay? You doing okay back there? I'm sitting next to you. Why don't you raise your hand? Anybody? Yes, Summer. You were just talking about me trudging over here in the winter.

Okay. Okay, so if you want to sit comfortably, if you can sit comfortably. And you can close your eyes or not, however you feel most at ease. Remember, our goal is not to have certain things arise and to somehow reject or resent other things, but to simply recognize what's happening in our present moment's experience. We start by settling our attention on the feeling of the breath, the actual sensation of the in and out breath. And in this system, it's just the normal, natural breath.

You don't have to try to make it deeper or different. It's however it's appearing, however it changes. And we're not really focusing on an image of the breath or the sound of the breath. It's actually the feeling of the breath. You can find that place where your breath is strongest for you or clearest for you. Maybe it's the nostrils or the chest or the abdomen. Bring your attention there and just rest. See if you can, you can use a quiet mental notation,

like in, out, or rising, falling to help support the awareness of the breath. But very quiet if you use one at all. So your attention is really going to feeling the breath, one breath at a time. Thank you. And if sounds or images or sensations or emotions should arise, but they're not all that strong, if you can stay connected to the feeling of the breath, just let them flow on by. It's okay. You're breathing. You don't have to follow after them, and you don't have to push them away. It's just one breath. Thank you.... But if something really comes up with a bang, it pulls you away.

You get lost in thought, spun out in a fantasy. Remember that this isn't actually a problem, but rather a moment when we can practice letting go of whatever. And see if you can begin again by bringing your attention back to the feeling of the breath. You don't have to judge your experience or blame yourself or feel like a failure, our practice is actually exemplified by that moment of letting go and starting over. So if you have to do that a few billion times in the course of this sitting, it's fine. Takk for watching! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. No matter what may arise, you can look at it, recognize it,

let it go, and come back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.... So thank you. Thank you. If you want 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.