Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Elaine Retholtz 11/02/2023

Episode Date: November 10, 2023

Theme: Appreciation Artwork: Offerings (2014); Palden Weinreb; 2014;  Mix media; On viewhttp://therubin.org/37kTeacher: Elaine Retholtz  The Rubin Museum of Art presents a weekly meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area, with each session focusing on a specific work of art. This podcast is recorded in front of a live audience, and includes an opening talk, a 20-minute sitting session, and a closing discussion.The guided meditation begins at 11:54. This meditation is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg, teachers from the NY Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine.  If you would like to attend Mindfulness Meditation sessions in person or learn more, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation.If you would like to support the Rubin Museum and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member and always attend for free.  Have a mindful day!

Welcome to the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast presented by the Rubin Museum of Art. We are a museum in Chelsea, New York City that connects visitors to the art and ideas of the Himalayas and serves as a space for reflection and personal transformation. I'm your host, Tashi Chodron. Every Thursday, we present a meditation session inspired by a different artwork from the Rubin Museum's collection and led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area. This podcast is a recording of our weekly in-person practice. In the description for each episode, you will find information about the theme for that week's session, including an image of the

related artwork. Our Mindfulness Meditation Podcast is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg and teachers from the New York Inside 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, everybody. Good afternoon. Wow, it's November already. Please enjoy your practice. Hello everybody. Good afternoon. And Tashi Delek. Wow, it's November already.

So welcome to Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum of Art. I'm Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador. And I'm so happy to be your host today. We are a global hub for Himalayan art with a home base in New York City and we're so glad to have all of you join us for our weekly program where we combine art and meditation. Inspired by our collection, we will first take a look at work of art from our collection. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher Elaine Rethels and then we will have a short sit 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her.

Now let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. This month, we are exploring on the theme of appreciation and gratitude. And the art connection for today's session is this beautiful contemporary art by artist Palden Weinrup, dated 2014. It's medium wax, LED lights, and wood, beautiful sculpture of the seven bowls. It's an offering. In Tibetan, offering is called Chöpa.

Making offerings to deities is an integral part of Buddhist practice. Offerings can take many forms including food, incense, and flowers. The most common type of offering on Tibetan Buddhist shrine are made with seven water offering bowls called Uyanchap. That's symbolizing the offerings of water, incense, flowers, and so forth. The main point of any offering is a pure motivation to cultivate generosity and to reduce our selfishness, stinginess, and greed in order to awaken the wisdom that is within each of us. The making of offerings is an antidote to the pattern of attachment and greed. The significance of offering seven water bowls is to create the cause to achieve the seven limbs or qualities of the Vajradhara state which is enlightenment. Now in this contemporary art installation offerings Tibetan American artist Palden Weinrab

draws inspiration from traditional offering bowls. Palden reimagines these iconic ritual objects arranged in semi-circular fashion. Palden's work often explores Buddhist motifs. He focuses on the interplay between light and darkness. If you notice an infinity between this work of art and the light installation coalescence in the mandala lab, both works are by Palden. His offering bowls are made of semi-translucent wax and illuminated with LED lights. He encourages us to look beyond the surface and reflect on the act of offering. It is our presence in front of the radiating bowls that makes the circle of offering complete.

Now let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher today is Elaine Rethels. Elaine Rethels has been studying and practicing the Dharma since 1988. In addition to teaching Dharma at New York Insight and certified MBSR teacher trainer, she's deeply interested in helping students integrate mindfulness into daily life and has been involved in New York Insight's diversity effort for many years. Elaine, thank you so much for being here. Please help me in welcoming Elaine Rethals. Thank you. So good to be here with all of you.

So I spent some time earlier today in front of that exhibit, which is, as you saw, in a semicircle. And traditionally, it's usually linear. And I was reading the wall explanation. And at the very end, it said, if you sit there, which I was doing, then maybe you are completing the circle offering. And as I was contemplating today, I was really thinking about this whole idea of offering and generosity. And how sometimes what gets in our way

is thinking that we're not good enough. We're not the perfect offering, our practice isn't good enough, what we have to offer isn't good enough. Rather than seeing that our lives ourselves and the way we live our lives can become the offering and actually is the offering. The Buddha said that if beings knew, this is his quote, if beings knew as I knew, they wouldn't go even one meal without sharing food if there were people around.

wouldn't go even one meal without sharing food if there were people around. And he talked about how kind of a meanness of spirit gets in the way of that kind of generosity, of that kind of sharing, of not seeing clearly how we are all interconnected in this way. And when he first established the community of monks and nuns, you know, and in many Buddhist countries, the monks still go on alms rounds and the villagers make offerings of the food that they're going to eat. And in return, the monks are teaching and providing medicine and supporting the villagers in that way, this really great interdependence. And yet in our culture, there is such a sense of lack embedded in us often

and a sense of this is mine, I have to hold on to it. If I lose this, then I'm not going to have enough. That we don't really touch into the deep freedom that comes from offering. You know, Tashi mentioned this liberation through non-clinging. That anything we offer means that we're not holding on to. And the freedom and the sense of enoughness and connection that can come with that. So it's just such a great contemplation for this month, you know, the appreciation and generosity and connection and the gladdening of the heart that comes through a practice of offering.

And, you know, oftentimes when we come to meditation practice, we think, well, I'm going to get everything, you know, I'm going to be very concentrated. I'll balance my mind. you know, I'm going to be very concentrated, I'll balance my mind, I'll get samadhi, you know, this balance of mind, and then my heart will be glad. But actually the teachings and the reason the Buddha taught generosity first is that the gladdening of the heart helps us to deepen in our practice. And generosity is one of the, you know, low-hanging fruits of how to do this, this offering and the sharing. And as I was thinking about this, all these different, I'm really into poetry, if anybody's, you know, knows me. So this thing about a perfect offering, Rumi says, let's see if you can relate. Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading or turn on your iPhone and begin reading.

Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. I'll just read two more. So Martha Postlewaite says, do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently. So here's our practice. Wait there patiently until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands and you recognize it and greet it. Only then will you know how to give yourself, to offer yourself to this world so worthy of rescue. So the sense of how our practice can support us to hear our song, to hear that gift that Rumi's talking about also,

to hear the particular way that we kneel and kiss the ground and what we can offer the world. ground and what we can offer the world. And before I got a practice, I have to, you know, quote Leonard Cohen, right? Because this is what often gets in the way of our offerings. Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There's a crack, a crack in everything that's how the light comes in that's how the light comes in so I mean I think this practice that is so ancient and revered and ritualized

but not all of us are involved in that particular ritual can really become something that we and ritualized, but not all of us are involved in that particular ritual, can really become something that we internalize in terms of what in any moment, what am I bringing to this moment that's an offering? And in this current moment where there's so much fear and anxiety and strife and views, attachment to views, can we touch into an offering that's really about not clinging to views, not clinging to particular ways, not being attached to outcome, but still living our lives and working for peace, working for connection. It's a deep practice. So let's sit for a bit. And so arriving here. And for me, what's often really supportive of this contemplation is really noticing how

much is offered that we don't notice? So just right now, the simplicity of this chair that you're sitting on, feeling how it supports you. The same with the ground beneath your feet, this earth, gravity. Aware of this body that is sitting here upright to the extent that you're able, that is breathing us into being from moment to moment, receiving this breath, receiving this body, this offering. And resting your attention in the sensations of the breath held by this body. Offering this moment your friendly attention. . offering this moment your friendly attention. And in those moments when you become aware that the attention has wandered, which it does, pausing, offering patience and resolve. This choice in any moment to refrain from harsh judgments, from aversion in the form of frustration and impatience, refraining from doubt that you're a terrible meditator. But just here right now, this offering of presence. Thank you. Thank you. This This noticing and sensing, sensitive to the enoughness of just sitting here together, Thank you. Thank you. And in those moments when you find yourself with your to-do list or how you have to improve or change, or caught up in worry and anxiety,

great to be in practice so that we can see this, so that it's not driving us that we're actually, oh, okay. Almost like we're visualizing these offering bowls with water that's agitated, or maybe you've just poured it full and then it settles. Okay, what's actually not wrong? Where is there calm here? Can there be some peace in just witnessing this? So that we hold even the agitation in a spacious and calm awareness Awareness that knows the experience but isn't the experience. With great appreciation for a practice that allows us to do this. Grounding in the body, grounding in the breath, cultivating peace. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. May all beings everywhere have peace of mind.

May all beings everywhere touch each other and this earth with care and compassion. And may this be our offering from moment to moment. Thank you very much for your practice and your offering. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for that, Elaine. That concludes this week's practice. To support the Rubin and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member at rubinmuseum.org membership.

And to stay up to date with the Rubin Museum's virtual and in-person offerings, sign up for a monthly newsletter at rubinmuseum.org. I am Tashi Chodron. Thank you so much for listening. Have a mindful day.