Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 8/12/15 with Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: August 12, 2015

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 New York Insight Meditation Center. This week’s session will be led by Sharon Salzberg. To view a related artwork from the Rubin Museum's permanent collection, please visit: http://rma.cm/cw

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 meditation to learn more. We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and the teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center. This week's session will be led by Sharon Salzberg. 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 I did want to start by talking about concentration. I'm sort of weaving in and out of this series at different times with different themes, but many paths of meditation begin with a consideration of concentration, and not just begin in the sense of we start there, then we dismiss it, and we move on to more sophisticated things, but we keep coming back to that as well because concentration really means stability.

It's almost like cultivating a kind of wherewithal that we can bring with us as we then expand our field of awareness and look at different elements of our experience. Concentration is really like the foundation. So once I was teaching somewhere. It was a non-residential weekend, and it was Saturday just before lunch. I was teaching somewhere. It was a non-residential weekend,

and it was Saturday just before lunch. And somebody came to me and he said, how much money would it take for me to offer you for you to promise not to use the word concentration again for the rest of the weekend? So I said, let's talk. rest of the weekend. So I said, let's talk. And clearly for him, concentration, the very word, had a lot of associations. I would imagine something really fierce and uptight, like grabbing onto something, trying to stick to it like glue, resenting and trying to reject anything else that might come up, might come your way.

So it's a pretty stressful proposition. And I said to him, would it work for you if every time I use the word I'm used to, you mentally translated that to stabilize, center, settle your attention. And he said that would work. So I said, you just saved yourself a lot of money. We can have some pretty intense associations with the word concentration, just like I described.

A very common practice, which we'll do in a few minutes together, is to settle your attention on the feeling of the breath, the actual sensations of the breath. And sometimes people think, well, if I just get a stranglehold on the breath, my mind won't wander. Of course, it will wander more. There are many elements of balance that are inherent, even to the beginning, this foundational exercise. The word, actually, is rest. We rest our attention on what we call a primary object, a chosen object. Doesn't mean it's the only thing that will happen in the course of the 20 minutes. But it's our home base, right?

It's where we begin. It's what we keep coming back to. When I was writing this book, Real Happiness, which is like a text on how to begin or renew a meditation practice. So a lot of meditations in there. And I got the manuscript back for the first time from the editor. She said, you're using the word rest a lot. Are you very tired? And I said, well, probably, lot. Are you very tired? And I said, well, probably, but that's also the word. We rest our attention. The whole nature of the art of concentration, and it is like an art, it's twofold. It's resting our attention in a balanced way, simply settling. In the Buddhist tradition, they say the Buddha said, rest your attention lightly, like a butterfly resting on a flower.

And then the key to any practice, and certainly to this practice, is being able to begin again. Because it is so unlikely that, since we're going to use the breath, it's going to be 4,000 breaths before your mind wanders. Probably very unlikely. Maybe it'll be two.

Maybe it'll be eight. Maybe it'll be half a breath. And then usually we're just gone. Our minds jump to the past, and we go over and over and over some situation, often one where we have a certain amount of regret. Not going over it to learn a lesson or see how we might make amends.

We're just going over it and over it and over it and over it. Or our minds jump to the future, and we create a scenario that has not happened and may never happen, and we're filled with anxiety about that. That's an awful lot of energy we expend in the past, in the future, not in a useful way or a skillful way,

because, of course, we need to recoll a useful way or a skillful way, because of course we need to recollect or plan in a skillful way. This is just wasting it all over the place. And we feel so bad. We emerge kind of drained and anxious. The process of concentration is realizing that has happened, not warding it off, not being able to prevent it, not punishing yourself severely enough so it doesn't happen again. It's realizing it has happened, being able to let go,

and being able to start again, to begin again, bringing your attention back to that chosen object. In our case, for now, it's going to be the feeling of the breath we let go we begin again we let go we begin again that doesn't mean you're doing it wrong that's not like remedial practice that is the practice and it's one of the great great ways meditation moves into life because what i say now at this stage of my life is nothing is a straight shot right we go forward we fall down we have to pick ourselves up or let someone help us up we we start again. We have a huge aspiration and we forget it. We have to be reminded we have to begin again. We make a mistake. We have to adjust. We have to

begin again. That's what we're actually practicing. So, you know, we can be so judgmental. People freak out all the time, like, I can't get more than three breaths before my mind wanders. But it doesn't matter. That's a challenge in itself. It doesn't matter. We're not, like, counting. Right?

We're not stockpiling breaths. It's the act of being able to let go more and more gracefully, being able to start over with more and more kindness toward ourselves, with less judgment. That's the transformation. Okay, so in developing concentration, usually we choose an object of awareness, and it could be anything.

And here you have some of the many, many varieties of meditative experience. You could have a mantra, sound, an image, visualization, contemplation or reflection, something happening in your body, loving kindness. And commonly, it is something like the feeling of the breath. Because as my early teachers would say, first of all, you don't have to believe anything in order to feel your breath, right? You don't have to call yourself something or reject anything else. If you're breathing, you can be meditating. And as one teacher said, I've always felt very charmingly, he said, the breath is very portable. So we're going to practice here together for about 20 minutes.

But the breath's going to go back to work with you or commute with you or go shopping with you or whatever it is. Every once in a while, and certainly in a time of turmoil, see if you can remember. Just take a breath. Just connect to it. Simply feel it. You don't have to make it a certain take a breath. Just connect to it. Simply feel it. You don't have to make it a certain kind of breath. This, unlike other systems, yogic systems, which may be based on changing the way you're breathing or deliberately breathing in a certain way,

in this system, it's just the normal, natural breath. And then practice and see how you can just inject it into your life every now and then. Remember to breathe. And see what happens. Okay, so you can sit comfortably. See if your back can be straight without being strained or over arched you want to have some energy in your body but you also want to be relaxed and at ease sometimes even before we get to the breath, we start by listening to sound.

The sound of my voice or other sounds. It's a way of relaxing deep inside, allowing your experience to come and go. Of course, we like certain sounds and we don't like others, but we don't have to chase after them to hold on or push away. Just let them come, let them go. Gå in på en viss måte. Bring your attention to your hands. And make a shift from the more conceptual level, let go fingers, to the world of direct sensation. Picking up pulsing, throbbing, pressure, whatever

it might be. You don't have to name these things, but feel them. Gullfors sted. And then bring your awareness to the feeling of the breath. Just the normal of the breath. Just the normal, natural breath. Wherever you feel it most distinctly. Maybe that's the nostrils or the chest or the abdomen. Wherever it's strongest for you. Find that place, bring your attention there, and just rest.

See if you can feel one breath without concern for what's already gone by, without leaning forward for even the very next breath just this one Takk for ating med. If you like, you can use a quiet mental notation of in, out, or rising, falling, to help support the awareness of the breath, but very quiet, so your attention is really going to feeling the breath, one breath at a time. And if images or sounds or sensations or emotions should arise, if they're not very strong, if you can stay connected to the feeling of the breath, just let them flow on by. You're breathing.

It's just one breath. breath. And if something comes up with a bang, it just pulls you away. You get lost in thought, spun out in a fantasy, or you fall asleep. Truly, don't worry about it. The most important moment is the next moment. We realize you've been gone. You practice letting go

and practice beginning again. Gulland, Gulland Thank you. Takk for ating med. Thank you. Takk for ating med. Thank you. Takk for ating med. 1,5 kg of pork belly It's the most amazing thing. Our attention can go anywhere for however long, and we can always let go and begin again. Nothing's been lost, nothing's been ruined. That's the actual practice. Takk for ating med. Thank you. 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. Takk for at du så med. Thank you. Takk for ating med. Thank you. Takk for ating med. Thank you. And when you feel ready, you can open your eyes. So 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.