Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Elaine Retholtz 11/14/2024

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

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 12:37. Teacher: Elaine RetholtzTheme: GratitudeArtwork: Tenth Zhamar, Mipam Chodrup Gyatso; Kham Province, Eastern Tibet; late 18th-19th century; pigments on silk; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, Gift of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation; F1997.13.1 (HAR 202)Learn 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 Chodron. Every Thursday, we offer a meditation session at New York Inside Meditation Center that draws inspiration from an artwork from the Rubens 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 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. Good afternoon and Tashi Delek. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program at the New York Insight Meditation Center. I'm Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be your host today. The Rubin is a global hub for Himalayan art, and we are 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 deep look at the work of art we have

chosen for today. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher Elaine Retholds and then we will have a short sit, 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. Let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The artwork for today's session that is handpicked by our teacher is this beautiful thangka of 10th Shamar Mipham Chodup Gyatso, origin Kam province, eastern Tibet, dated late 18th to early 19th century, mineral pigments on silk, and it's about 35 x 25 x 22 inches, and this is a painting called Thangka, mineral pigment on cloth. The theme this month is gratitude, and the connection to the theme, this painting features offerings in the foreground. It's a potent visual reminder of the importance of being in a state of gratitude. And this beautiful thangka is a powerful portrait of the 10th Shamarpa,

Mipham Chudup Jatso, who lived from 1742 until 1792. Shamar in Tibetan word basically means red hat. He wears a red hat and it's from the Khajuk school of Tibetan Buddhism, which came sometime around the 11th century. And the Shamar wearing a red hat also holds a vajra and bell in front of his chest. On the table in front of him, additional ritual implements are carefully laid out. Above the teacher, there is a small image of the red Buddha Amitabha, known as sanjay upame in tibetan above a bank of clouds in the foreground a kneeling monk holds a plate representing an offering of the universe this encapsulates expressing gratitude and yes so let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Elaine Retholtz. Elaine has been studying and practicing the Dharma since 1988.

In addition to teaching Dharma at New York Insight, she's a certified mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher and a certified MBSR teacher trainer. She's deeply interested in helping students integrate mindfulness into daily life. Elaine is committed to deepening her own understanding of issues of diversity and the way racial conditioning in the United States affects all of us, both as individuals and in relation to the institutions we are a part of, including New York Insight. Elaine, thank you so much for being here,

and please help me in welcoming Elaine Rethals. Hi, everyone. I'm happy to be here, grateful to be here. I hope you're grateful to be here, too. So when I was looking at this art and in the email that we received, what it said was that the connection to the theme actually had to do with the offering, that there are actually six items on there, one for each of the five senses, and I assume the other one is for the mind, because in Buddhism there are six senses. And I thought that would be a great reflection to have about how opening to our senses and

receiving the gifts through our senses is a source of gratitude, or can be. And a lot of us come to practice or think of meditation as a time when we close off our senses. Or a lot of us think of, maybe we experience fear about receiving pleasantness through our senses because we're afraid we'll get attached and cling and desire, and we all know where that goes, so we're afraid we'll get attached and cling and desire and we all know where that

goes so we're afraid and yet the buddha's teachings actually talk you know we come and we want a calm mind and we think everything else is in the way but the buddha's teachings actually teach us that opening to gladness opening to appreciation to happiness, calms the body. And with a calm body, the mind settles. So we usually put it opposite. But actually learning to open through our senses, to experience what's right. to experience what's right. And this is so important in this time to actually begin to focus through our senses

on what's not wrong, what's good enough, what's even great, can connect us and ground us in a way that lays a good foundation for collectedness and practice. And I've been reading this book called Better in Every Sense by Norm Farb and Zindel Siegel. Some of you may have heard those names. Zindel Siegel is one of the creators of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. And they're both neuroscientists. And so they've been doing brain studies on people who,

both who take, you know, I guess an MBSR or an MBCT course, and those that don't, and also studying people who suffer from chronic depression and chronic relapse. And it's interesting what they found. What they found is that there are two things that are really helpful. One is an ability to begin to tolerate distress. And isn't this what we're cultivating in our practice, this capacity to be with everything? Even those things that we would prefer weren't here. Not always easy, but this is.

And the other part has to do with being able to have access to sensory input. What they found is that when they study folks who suffer from depression, so for those of you in this room who have had instances of depression, what they found is that in the middle of that, it's actually very hard to access how things are directly through our senses, to notice, even if it's unpleasant, that instead what happens when we're in that place is that we're relating to concept, to concept. We're relating to ideas about how things are. We're relating to ideas about what we believe is how things always were. We're relating to ideas and projections into the future of how things will always be. And we're not actually able to just pause and look around and, you know, that expression, time to smell the roses, to actually see and smell and hear and taste and touch and connect with what's actually here now. This painting, I think, is pointing to that, that how being open to what is available to us can really connect us to gratitude, even when it's terrible. Even when it's terrible.

I remember on one retreat, do you know what an earworm is? The song that gets stuck in your brain over and over. And on one retreat years ago, I kept having the phrase, I'd rather be blue thinking of you than be happy with anybody else. I hope it doesn't end up in your brains right now. But what I really understood about that was that I was really grateful for this opportunity to just be with whatever was arising in my mind and heart. Even when it was sorrow, even when it was regret, even when, you know, in those moments when it was like normally, oh, I wish this weren't here, but to be able to be grateful to have that presence. So before we sit, I wanted to just, this other thing that came to mind, Atisha, who was a 9th and 10th century Indian Buddhist scholar and saint,

had these seven kind of bullet points that came to me. And I think that it's this week, of all weeks, I find that it's really helpful to me. Consider all phenomena to be dreams. Don't be swayed by outer circumstances. Be grateful for everyone. And I often translate this as be grateful for everything as well. Don't brood over the faults of others. Just think about whatever your political views are,

what's been in the air this week. Explore the nature of unborn awareness. At all times, simply rely on a joyful mind. Do you feel like that's okay? Is it okay to rely on a joyful mind? And I love the last one, don't expect a standing ovation. Because sometimes when we're good or patient or anything, we expect people to congratulate ourselves, us and so on. But the sense of be grateful for everything.

Don't be swayed by outer circumstances. So let's take some time to practice now. And before you close your eyes, maybe looking around this beautiful space, maybe the shades are down so maybe you can't see out the windows, look around at the beautiful people sitting here ready to practice with you. And as you're ready, you can lower your gaze if that's what supports you. And, you know, we have this proprioceptive sense,

this sense of where our body, where the body is in space. And just pausing, and can you just sense the body in whatever posture it's in now and is it possible to cultivate some gratitude for this capacity to actually know the position of the body we take it for granted but it's so crucial know the position of the body. We take it for granted, but it's so crucial.

Bringing awareness now, receiving the sense of being held by the earth. Feet on the floor, seat on the chair. The sense of weight and gravity that we often take for granted. It might seem silly, but just noticing the sense of weight and being held by the earth and perhaps as we sit here aware of the body becoming aware of this body breathing the sensations of the breath. Sometimes these sensations can be pleasant, sometimes unpleasant. Often we take the breath just for granted.

Can there be gratitude just receiving the breath? And in these moments, in those moments when you may notice that your attention has moved, can there be a pause and can there actually be gratitude for this practice that we've been cultivating that gives us the capacity or increases our capacity to notice when we've wandered from our intention. And this heart that we've been cultivating that is willing without judgment to pause and to continue the practice. This capacity of the mind to be aware of the mind. Thank you. And perhaps if you'd like to, foregrounding the experience of hearing now, just receiving sounds. They can be loud.

They can be pleasant or unpleasant. Having a receptive awareness. Grateful for the capacity to hear. And so as we practice together, grounded in the body, is it possible to receive the gifts of the senses without being swept away. Sensations of the body, of the breath. Perhaps opening to the music of the building and of New York City itself.. Thank you. um um Thank you. Gracias. Thank you. There is also the interceptive sense, our capacity to sense what is transpiring within us, how our emotions are held in the body,

even when there's hunger or thirst. I've been thinking about how the Buddha in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness after each instruction said internally, externally and both internally and externally. And is it possible that in doing this we can be cultivating gratitude for ourselves, for each other, for the world around us. Thank you. Thank you. Grateful for everyone.

Grateful for everything. For me, this invites the question, what is practice right here, right now, in this moment, in this situation? Grateful for the opportunity to practice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your practice. You know, there's an image in one of the suttas when the Buddha was talking about this precious life of the likelihood of having a human birth. And I'm going to get it wrong, but it's like this turtle that comes up for air once every, I don't know, 10,000 years. And there's a round tube floating somewhere in the middle of these vast oceans.

somewhere in the middle of these vast oceans and the chance of being born as a human is equivalent to the chance of that turtle one time when it rises putting its neck through that ring. And there was a time early in my practice life when I would actually question is this life precious? And maybe it's because I've gotten older, but also

I think practice and opening to seeing and sensing what's around us can really open us to that sense of the preciousness of this one life in this time that we're sharing. So I'm glad to be sharing it with you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for that wonderful session, Elaine.

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. you