Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Elaine Retholtz 06/26/2025

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art presents a weekly meditation for beginners and skilled meditators alike. Each episode is inspired by a different work of art from the Museum’s collection and is led by a prominent meditation teacher.The episode begins with an opening talk followed by a 20-minute meditation. In this episode, the guided meditation begins at 6:43.Teacher: Elaine RetholtzTheme: Awaken Butter Lamp; Tibet; 18th–20th century; silver, turquoise; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2011.13.8.2Learn more about the Rubin’s work around the world at rubinmuseum.org.

Welcome to the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast presented by the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, a global museum dedicated to bringing greater awareness and understanding of Himalayan art to people around the world. I'm your host, Tashi Churden. Every Thursday, we offer a meditation session at New York Insight Meditation Center that draws inspiration from an artwork from the Rubin's collection and is led by a prominent meditation teacher. This podcast is a recording of our weekly in-person practice. The description of each episode includes information about the theme for that week's session and an image

of the related artwork. Our Mindfulness Meditation podcast is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg and teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center, The Interdependence Project and Parabola Magazine, and supported by the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism. And now, please enjoy your practice. Hello, welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program at the New York Insight Meditation Center. I'm Larkin Grimm, a Rubin teaching artist, and I'm delighted to be your host today.

The Rubin is a global museum dedicated to presenting Himalayan art and its insights. And we are so glad to have you join us for our weekly program where we combine art and meditation. Inspired by our collection, we will first take a deep look at the work of art we have chosen for today. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher Elaine Retholtz and then we will have a short sit, 15 or 20 minutes, for the

meditation guided by her. Let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. So this month's theme is Awaken. Butter lamps are a symbol of enlightened awareness. The action of lighting butter lamps with conscious intention guides practitioners on the path to awakening. This butter lamp is from Tibet. It may be as old as the 18th century. It's made of silver and turquoise and it's about five and a half inches tall, it's a ritual object. Butter lamps can be found in virtually any Tibetan Buddhist temple or sacred site. This ornate example of a butter lamp is made of silver and contains turquoise. Butter lamps have an important role in daily offerings. Butter lamps are also intended to focus the mind during meditation.

Traditionally, yak butter was burned inside of butter lamps. Today, especially in parts of the world where yak butter isn't readily available, vegetable oil or ghee is often used. The light itself serves as a metaphor for illuminating awareness, just as meditation practice dispels the darkness of ignorance and leads to awakening. Now let's bring on our teacher for today, Elaine Retholtz. Elaine has been studying and practicing the Dharma since 1988.

In addition to teaching Dharma at New York Insight, she is certified both as a mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher and a MBSR teacher trainer. Elaine has a deep interest in helping students integrate mindfulness into daily life. So thank you all very much here and online. I always love to, especially now that it's at my Dharma home at New York Insight, I love to come and help guide these practice sessions. And you know I was saying that actually I was assigned this lamp, I don't know how, maybe last year, for the theme of rebirth.

And I was on a meditation retreat for the month of May, so before I left, I said to Jacqueline, just give me something, and when I came back, this was it, and it was like, oh, I know this. But I was thinking, well, what do I wanna say in terms of awakening and lamps? And I recalled that in the sutta describing the days before the Buddha went to Parinibbana until he, when he passed away, there was this teaching that he gave to Ananda, his cousin. He said,

Therefore, Ananda, be lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to truth to the Dharma as a lamp. Hold fast as a refuge to the truth. And after I am dead, whoever will be a lamp unto themselves and a refuge unto themselves shall, holding fast to the truth as their lamp and holding fast as their refuge to the Dharma, that this is how one gets to the highest level, to the highest awakening. So I was thinking about that, being a lamp unto ourselves, and how it's interesting because the Buddha also

taught that the whole of the spiritual path is having spiritual friends. The whole of the Dharma path is having spiritual friends. So it kind of seems like a little bit of a conflict. Is it this individual undertaking, be a lamp unto yourself, or is it something that we engage in in community and in reading about it and reflecting on it? The sense is that in the beginning we need a teacher, right? that in the beginning we need a teacher, right? But as we practice, nobody can do nirvana for us.

Nobody can do the practice for us. We have to rely on our own wisdom, our own light within us, and develop confidence and faith in our own wisdom and hearts lighting the way. So I was really interested in this conversation between being a lamp unto ourselves and having a teacher and having a community that also lights the way for us. So I thought with that, we could maybe have a short sitting.

And of course, it's always powerful to have these ritual objects as reminders, and that the lamp and the light is not just external, but can we, as we sit, as we practice, touch into our own goodness and our own wisdom? So why don't we just take this time to pause and collect ourselves, knowing the body as the body. Collect ourselves knowing the body as the body.

In this moment, knowing the body sitting here in whatever posture you're in. Aware of how the breath is right now and allowing it to be as it is, allowing this body to breathe itself. Sensitive to the moods of the moment. And we're not looking to create anything, allowing our awareness to hold however the heart is right now. Not identifying with whatever the experience is, but shifting to this light of awareness that is able to hold and and passing of thoughts moving through the mind. Also not me, doesn't say who I am. And if it serves you to choose a meditation anchor in the midst of, hearing, aware of moods and thoughts, perhaps highlighting the sensations of contact or the sensations of the breath to hold us steady in the present moment. And in any moment when we notice that our attention has wandered and we've been involved

in who knows what, that's a moment of awareness actually. That's a moment when the light of awareness is stronger. And so just pausing, reconnecting with this body-mind-heart. body, mind, heart. Perhaps you may notice any effects from wherever your mental travels have taken you. Let that just be interesting. And returning to rest with your meditation anchor or with simple awareness.. And then this simple willingness to cultivate patience and persistence, to be present with our experience from moment to moment. We develop in our practice and in the teachings of the Buddha.... It is said that the entire practice can be framed as sitting quietly and calmly, noticing change. Cultivating the steadiness in our seats seats. So that we're not identifying with anything as me or mine or something I should.. And in those moments when you notice that tightness from trying hard to be present, I invite you to relax.

It's like this now. The Dharma, awakening, nirvana, is not someplace else. It arises in those moments of tasting what it's like to be free of wanting and not wanting, of preferences, of identification. And there are actually many moments, even if they're small, when that's here, we're just so conditioned to look for what's wrong. So inviting ease and allowing experience to just unfold. It's like this now........... And in moments of doubt or confusion, certainly first pausing and recognizing, oh here is a mind filled with doubt. And then that's mindful awareness, cultivating friendliness and compassion and non-argument, of course.

There's sometimes doubt. There is sometimes confusion. And it can be supportive to reflect on our aspiration, what brought us to practice, what we hope for. This can be an internal lamp. And reflecting also on our teachers and the teachings can be an external light. light. So that we're not practicing alone. It's not me doing this, but just following ancestors and fellow practitioners............ So this is a poem by Maddy Weingast who interpreted some of the early writings of the first Buddhist women practitioners. It's called Puna, full. Fill yourself with the Dhamma.

When you are as full as the full moon burst open, make the dark night shine. So I'd actually like to offer a few more reflections about this. And that's that, I mean, certainly if you're a beginner, there's a need to find out about not just the practice, but the path. It's not just about sitting and meditating. It's about the entire path. But I have found in my students, and maybe it's Western,

there's a reluctance. There's a lack of trust and confidence in our own practice and always looking out or I need to read one more thing and I love to study the Dharma and there's always more but just this lack of trust and confidence or even a reluctance to acknowledge any progress that we've made and any insights that we've had. And I think key to being a light unto ourselves and trusting has to do with noticing the progress that we're making, noticing the way we're perceiving the world and how that might be shifting, noticing, for example, maybe less gripping

to particular views and being more open, or being less reactive and more compassionate, more friendly, more open to generosity. That it's not what happens actually in our practice period. I mean, it is and it isn't. But what happens between our practice period. I mean, it is and it isn't, but what happens between our practice periods, how we are in the world and with each other. And so in terms of the butter lamp as a symbol,

that light of awakening, we need to begin to recognize that in ourselves as well as in others. And I don't know about you, but I've certainly in these times seen and have been hungry to see people in this world who are not creating divisiveness, but are creating connections and are encouraging kindness. And those can be our butter lamps. Those can be the lights. And can we be that light for others?

So I just think it's a really important reflection. And I invite you to consider it. Thank you. Thank you for that. Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, it's really, it makes us better New Yorkers. Right. This practice and this, you know, this spiritual search and. Cultivating the skill of meditating, not just in this room,

but as we walk through our city, it really makes us better. Thank you. Yeah. And I actually like this idea as we walk through the city to notice others that are lights and lamps. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. That concludes this week's practice.

To support the Rubin and this meditation series, we invite you to become a friend of the Rubin at rubinmuseum.org slash friends. If you are looking for more inspiring content, please check out our other podcast Awaken, which uses art to explore the dynamic paths to enlightenment and what it means to wake up. Season four, hosted by Isabella Rossellini, delves into the Buddhist concept of attachment and explores how the practice of letting go

can transform our experience of the world. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. And to learn more about the Rubin Museum's work around the world, visit rubinmuseum.org. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.