Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 9/23/15 with Tracy Cochran

Episode Date: September 22, 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 Tracy Cochran. To view a related artwork from the Rubin Museum's permanent collection, please visit: http://rma.cm/fp

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. 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'm very happy to be here.

And I sat waiting, wondering if any of you have ever faced any inner or outer obstacles of any kind. I'm wondering. Has anybody ever missed a train or caught a cold? And more pressingly, has anyone ever been gripped with fear or anger or gripped with an overwhelming desire to hit the refrigerator when you know you're not really hungry. Distressed. And the good news is that it's fair to say

that the practice of mindfulness meditation is really a way to relate to obstacles, inner and outer obstacles, in a new way. And as I was preparing, thinking about how I can personally relate to this subject, I have been reflecting on what happens to me every time I inevitably face an obstacle. How often, especially living in or near this city, we kind of suit up inwardly like little ninjas. We have our plan. Even to get here today, it takes planning. It takes effort.

It takes intention. And sometimes there's that one last thing that throws you off. And sometimes that one thing that gets in the path of your plan to control your reality is tiny, a late train like I had today. And sometimes it's huge. Sometimes it's a diagnosis that's the last thing you want to hear. Sometimes it's getting laid off from a job that you depend on. But what's interesting is that no matter what the scale, there comes a moment, in my experience, when you get past what the, to just giving up at certain moments. practice. I don't often read this or hear it taught, but a good synonym for let it go is give up. Give it up. And in that moment, when everything is going wrong, it can be technology,

taking something simple, which is happening to me almost daily. There's a moment when I'm here. I'm just here. Have you ever felt that? Your plans for yourself, your self-image just goes up in smoke. And you realize in that moment, you can hear the birds singing. You can notice the leaves starting to change. You're just here. And I'm not talking about big, permanent moments of letting go. Seconds. Moments. One of the most useful definitions I ever heard about what it means to wake up, which is another word for this practice, is small moments many times. Isn't that a relief? Enlightenment isn't a permanent state that you have to worry about attaining. It's just

a moment of softening and opening. And it can feel very, very close to giving up. And at that moment, you're with life and including your life in a different way. So what does this have to do with this beautiful elephant? Not only is an elephant one of my favorite animals by far. Not only does it represent this power of presence and determination, but in the ancient earliest written Buddhist texts, one of the words for mindfulness was elephant's neck, which was just weird enough to attract my attention. And apparently, an elephant never swivels its head.

It turns its whole body. I haven't personally seen this, but I invite you to investigate. And apparently, the Buddha had that same quality. He would turn and bring his whole body and mind. And that's this practice of mindfulness in a nutshell. It could just as easily be called bodyfulness, except it doesn't sound as good. That mindfulness, and I'm going to guide you in meditation starting in about half a minute, is an action of returning to presence, to the simple, observable presence of being in a body, breathing, just being here, which is the taste that we have in those moments when we give up,

when we let go, we're here. We're not thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking about our list or even how we look. We're just here. And in that moment, we can relate to life in a new way. But don't take my word for it. Well, we're going to see. See for yourself. That was the most precious of the Buddha's instructions. So now we take a comfortable seat with our feet squarely on the floor

in front of us, planted firmly. The aim of this is to give us the most solid experience of the body we can have. So we're going to allow the eyes to close. Sometimes a person doesn't feel comfortable with closed eyes. In that rare case, avert your gaze to the floor in front of you. But it's best, if you can, to close your eyes. and closing our eyes,

we let the body return. We let it land here. We've all made trips to get to this room. Now we let it land. noticing that when we let it allow the attention to come to rest on the breathing. Without changing it in any way, we just let it be carried by the rhythm of the breath wherever we happen to feel it today. That could be the rise and fall of the diaphragm or the sensation at the nostrils. Allow the body to choose one focus for today and stick with that one. And as you do this, you begin to notice thinking. Thinking arises.

Sensations, sometimes feelings. And we don't push them away. We don't entertain them either. We don't entertain them either. We just let it come. Let it be. Let it pass. And when you notice that you've been taken by a thought, a sensation, whatever. You simply notice that without commentary,

without judgment, without evaluation, and very gently bring the attention home again to the breathing. Welcoming the whole of our experience today without judgment, excluding nothing, and gently returning to the breath. Mindfulness, sati, in the earliest word for it, means to remember. To remember the experience of the present moment, sitting here in a body, breathing. Allowing everything to arise without excluding, without judging, and gently coming home to the breath. Thank you.. together, that there is a stillness that doesn't depend on silence or perfect conditions inside or outside. It's a movement of return, of presence. It brings a stability. Stability. Noticing that we can be open to sensations and sounds and thoughts and still be still, return Thank you. Takk for ating med. Welcoming everything that arises. There can be moments of restlessness and worry, doubt, anger, fear.

doubt, anger, fear. Noticing without judgment and bringing the attention home to the breath, to presence. Takk for ating med. As we relax and open, we begin to notice that there's another awareness, another mind that has nothing to do with thinking. That it's a kind of light in the body that can receive. Receive and release. is.... As we practice this movement of sati, of return, of mindfulness, we remember that we're open systems. We're not just thinking. And we're not just thinking and we're not isolated. We're open to what's outside. Related to the world. And to the forces that hold the world.

Knowing this is as direct as a breath. Thank you. As we continue to relax, allowing ourselves to remember that the air that we breathe comes to us from trees, from jungles far away, shared by animals and people far away and nearby. That we live in a shared world. And that our suffering, our obstacles are also shared. allowing ourselves to relax into the vastness of the present moment. Knowing that we're supported by forces near and far. That qualities like love, compassion, strength, loyalty, interest are also shared by us. As naturally as breathing. Thank you.... Knowing that even if you've been sleeping this whole time,

you can start right now with one breath, coming home, no judgment, no commentary. noticing that coming home, we discover a softness, a resilience, a capacity to meet life as it arises. It doesn't depend on thinking.... noticing that this movement of coming home to the breath happens in the midst of everything, in the midst of the thinking, in the midst of sensations, sounds.

It doesn't depend on perfect conditions, as we might define it. Thank you. Allowing everything to happen to you, knowing it's going to happen anyway, and allowing yourself to come home. Rekordmelodien... So, among other things today is Yom Kippur, a day of seeing things and releasing. And I am reminded of a great Buddhist practitioner who also happens to be Jewish, Leonard Cohen, who said, ring the bells that still can ring. He actually sang it. Forget your perfect offering. There's a crack in everything.

That's how the light gets in. Words to live by. Because it means, first of all, it's always something. There's always something. Some little crack, some little obstacle. And it's also a beautiful way of describing this practice. One of the great secrets of it, which is that the light comes through those little cracks, those moments when your plans, your self-image cracks open just a little bit. And you come back to presence. And a great story of that, there's a great Tibetan Buddhist sage, since we're in a Tibetan Buddhist space, Asian space, named Milarepa. And I will tell you a version of his wonderful story at warp speed

because our time is brief. But basically, he suffered a horrible injustice. He and his mother and his little sister were left impoverished and basically like indentured servants after their prosperous father died, and it was bitterly unjust. All the property, all the money was stolen from them, basically, and he was consumed with a desire for revenge, which was right. For his mother's sake, he traveled to a great sorcerer who listened to his bitter story of suffering, impoverishment, and basically enslavement. And the sorcerer agreed that it wasn't fair. It was a great injustice. So he taught Milarepa powerful black magic and sent him to another lama, but I'm making the story briefer. So Milarepa destroyed his mother's enemies and his enemies. And not content with that,

brought a deadly hailstorm down on his village, wiped it out. This was sweet revenge at first, but it didn't make him happy. He had to carry this. And he carried it and carried it and carried it. And then he got really tired of carrying it. So he asked for and discovered a great Buddhist teacher who could help him let go and find freedom. And the great Buddhist teacher, Marpa,

and I do encourage you to look up the story because I have to let go of some of my favorite details on it. Marpa had a dream and he had a sense when he met Milarepa that this was no ordinary disciple, that this was a person of uncommon qualities. But he told Milarepa he could take him on only after he did a couple of chores, which were actually extraordinary labors.

He made him build a tower. And halfway through the building of the tower he was doing the work of many men all by himself Marbus said I I don't like it here build it somewhere else this is insane he started building another tower to different specifications. And Marpa said, I'm sorry, I was drunk when I told you that. Take it down, return all the rocks where you got them. Milarepa is like, what? What?

This is insane. This is so cruel. Even Marpa's wife was going, I don't understand it. Marpa would give these teachings freely to a dog. So a third time and a last time. And the whole time, imagine how you would feel as Milarepa. First of all, your life has been scarred by injustice. Not of your making.

You've lived in poverty and bitterness. And you've done your best to stand up to it then you go to this insane teacher who instead of helping you is just increasing the obstacles in your path so to make a glorious story short miller repa covered with scars and horrible sores, years wasted, his life wasted, discovers that the qualities that started to appear in the midst of this insanity, patience, what the, giving way to this feeling of being with. He just, it totally obliterated his ego. And on a smaller scale, I know the feeling. There are things that can happen to us where all of a sudden the electrified fence of the ego just shorts out. And in that moment, you realize that you can be with life in a new way, mindful way.

So, really, you know, I'm racing to the end of the story. The happy ending is that Marpa says, yes, I saw this extraordinary possibility in you and I knew you would get it. The happier end is that we're unlikely to meet teachers who are going to do this to us these days. Because life is hard enough. Life is hard enough. In 1980, Parabola has been around that long. Someone went to Dharamsala to interview the still young Dalai Lama in exile for the obstacles issue of Parabola. We had a whole issue on it. And the Dalai Lama said, don't forget, there's a way to

take obstacles, whatever they are. And he knew what he was talking about. He was a refugee. And he witnessed horrible loss. He said, there's a way to take our obstacles that make way for these new qualities. Patience, being with, as I like to put it, allowing, determination, like Ganesha. But it's a quiet determination. Elephants don't have to rush. They make their point. They make their presence known. They stay present. They don't stop. They keep going. And that's the essence of this practice. Like Ganesha. Thank you.