Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation 9/30/15 with Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: September 30, 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/f-

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. Hi.

It's great to be back here. It's great to see you all. Not that I can totally see you, but I can see you a little bit. It's better than some other times. And I actually chose this topic because it's very much a favorite of mine. And I think a really interesting thing to ponder because the underlying message is really, I think, looking at what we believe is going to help us be free and make us happy and where we'll find meaning in life. And here we have the Buddha before he became the Buddha as the prince counting on indulgence, acquiring, getting, having, enjoying more and more and more

and more in order to find that kind of bedrock or that foundation of true happiness or freedom in life. And then, subsequent to that first seeing of the four heavenly messengers kind of waking up like, wait a minute, this may not be the way because no matter what, there's's sickness there's old age there's death so following that kind of wake-up call of course he so famously is depicted in that image spent six years really kind of brutalizing himself for the sake of freedom. And there were many philosophical schools in India at the time

that believed if you could punish yourself enough, if you could mortify yourself, then your spirit would soar free and you could be enlightened. So he followed along that path for a good long time. And I think we can see the parallels in our culture, whether even if it's not physical mortification, although it might be, you know, it might also be like tremendous self-judgment

and self-condemnation. And it's almost like that belief that if we could only punish ourselves enough, we will find the deepest happiness or freedom. Or the other extreme. If we could only get a bigger apartment or, you know, if we could only have one more experience, dazzling, wondrous, enjoyable, then that will never fade.

That will have just this kind of permanent foundation for our happiness. So we go from one extreme to the other. And what the Buddha is saying, often the middle way is a little bit confusing as a concept, because I think we tend to see being in the middle as a kind of mediocrity. You know, like we're taking a little bit from one extreme and a little bit from the other extreme, and we're melting them together, and we've got the middle. them together and we've got the middle. But really the idea is that in proposing the middle way the Buddha is saying you don't have to go to either extreme. This is a completely different course. This is radical. This is looking at qualities in

one's mind, in one's heart, like wisdom, balance, awareness, connection, compassion. That's the way to have true happiness. So the Buddha, then known as the Bodhisattva, being seeking enlightenment, famously went from 29 years of complete indulgence to six years of self-mortification, and then had the realization this was not the way. So I had always heard that it wasn't yogurt, that it was milk rice, which can be a really inessential point, unless you're in an Indian restaurant,

and you're thinking about having dessert, and they offer you kheer, K-H-E-E-R, which is milk rice. And so I always think, why not? Because it was the last thing the Buddha ate before he became enlightened. I'm sure some traditions say yogurt. It must be a translation that exists, but it's not as exciting because we tend to eat a lot of yogurt. Most likely, none of us have gotten enlightened yet. So the Buddha as Bodhisattva ate the milk rice, went to sit down under the tree,

and sat down with some determination to really utilize those other qualities of connection and awareness and balance and wisdom to steer a course, falling into neither extreme. And that, of course, was the path. So they say he sat through the night. He was enlightened at dawn with the appearance of the first morning star, and he elucidated this path. So the whole idea, it's like the miracle of the approach of the Buddhist teaching is that it's not about a monument to him and his accomplishments or even just feeling beholden to a tradition,

that there's a path, that we have the opportunity for ourselves to explore what is the middle way, actually. And I think it's extremely powerful, just that. Because it's like asking oneself the question, what do I need right now in order to be free? What do I need to have happening right now in order to be happy? And the society, the culture, of course,

tells us something from one extreme or another. Get more, have more, buy more, acquire more, then get a bigger place to store it or whatever. Or you're not worth much, life is meaningless, don't try, you can't make a difference. You know, it's all kind of nihilistic, it's bleak. It's just nothing is worth it. It's a very bleak, kind of brutalizing worldview. So we get a lot of messages from the outside. And it takes quite a lot of wisdom and clarity and remembering and returning to our greatest

aspiration to say, what do I really need right now in order to be happy? Do I need anything else other than what is happening to be free? And we use that as the vehicle for discovering for ourselves what is a middle way or a middle path for us. So let's sit together. Once again, one of the great principles of meditation practice, in keeping with this theme, is balance. We're cultivating and strengthening calm, tranquility, relaxation, peace, and also energy and alertness and aliveness and connection.

And they say that some of that balance is reflected right away in our posture. Can you feel some energy in your body? Sit up straight. But not like so much energy you feel really uptight and stiff. You also want to be relaxed and at ease. But not so at ease that your waist slumped over. So feel your way into what feels like a balanced posture to you. And you can close your eyes or not. See if you can find the place where your breath is strongest for you

or clearest for you. Maybe that's the nostrils, the chest, or the abdomen. Find that place, bring your attention there, and just rest. See if you can feel one breath. And 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 you're really feeling the breath. And if you find your attention has wandered, as you will,

don't worry about it. When you realize you've been lost in thought or spun out in a fantasy or you've fallen asleep, that's the signal. See if you can gently let go of whatever has taken you away from the breath and shepherd your attention back. So if you have to let go and begin again over and over and over again, that's fine. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Takk for ating med. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.. 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.