Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Geshe Lhakdor 02/29/2024

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

Theme: Love Artwork: Maitreya (or Buddha Shakyamuni); Tibet; 14th century; brass with copper alloy, silver and copper inlay; Rubin Museum of Art;http://therubin.org/381 Teacher: Geshe Lhakdor  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 18:29. 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. Good afternoon, everyone, and Tashi Delek, and welcome. Welcome to the 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. I'm kind of curious to know how many of you have been attending this on a regular basis. Wow, thank you. And how about first-timers? Wonderful. And in between? Wow, thank you so much. Those of you who are first-time, we are a Museum of Himalayan Art and Ideas in New York City, and we're so glad to have all of you join us for this weekly program where we combine art and meditation. Inspired from our collection, we will first take a look at work of art from our collection.

We will hear a brief talk from our teacher and we're so thrilled to have our teacher Geshe Lhagdurla here. And then we will have a short sit, 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by him. And now let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The theme this month is Appreciation and Gratitude. So the art for this month is handpicked by our teacher and it is Vajra and Bell and Maitreya. So the Maitreya Buddha, this is origin from Tibet. This particular sculpture is about 14th century and the connection to the theme is Maitreya, the Bodhisattva of loving kindness, uses abounding love as a transformative force to dispel anger and illuminate the darkness of ignorance with the light of pristine awareness.

Maitreya is the Buddha of future who will usher in a golden age of peace and harmony. Maitreya is said to currently reside in the Tushita heaven. It is prophesied that he will arrive on earth during an age when the teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha have been largely forgotten and herald a new era for all sentient beings. Maitreya is typically depicted as a bodhisattva or in Buddha form. Here he appears seated in Buddha form. He has the ushnisha, cranial protuberance, and elongated earlobes, which are iconographically associated with the Buddha. Maitreya is known as Jetun Champa Gompo. Now let's bring on our teacher for today.

Our teacher is Geshe Lhagdola. Geshe Lhagdola has served His Holiness the Dalai Lama as his translator and religious assistant since 1989. A distinguished Buddhist scholar, Geshe-la was the English translator for His Holiness from 1989 to 2005. He has co-translated and co-produced several books by His Holiness Dalai Lama. As director of Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala. Geshe-la facilitates the Science for Monks program and shares his own expertise as a scholar of science and philosophy. Geshe-la is a trustee of the Foundation for Universal Responsibility, established by His Holiness. He is also the director of Central Archive of His Holiness

and a member of the advisory board of the Institute of Tibetan Classics in Montreal, Canada. He is now the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, India and head of the Science Education Project. Geshe-la, thank you so much for being here and please help me in welcoming Keshela. Thank you for giving this opportunity to visit this beautiful museum. to visit this beautiful museum. And it's a privilege to introduce this out of many of your collections, to be able to introduce this two very important theme,

Vajra and Bell and Maitreya. Maitreya symbolizes loving kindness. There is a line of praise, sung in his praise that Maitreya Buddha is somebody who has always meditated on the three aspects of loving kindness. Loving kindness focusing on sentient beings-kindness focuses on sentient beings. Loving-kindness focuses on sentient beings who are characterized by suffering. And loving-kindness focuses on sentient beings who doesn't have inherent independent existence. And it is because of this practice and meditation on loving-kindness, the three types of loving-kindness,

he was able to destroy the evil forces through the force of loving-kindness. And because of this practice of loving-kindness, he was also able to take care of the sufferings and in-beings. May we all get the auspiciousness of Maitreya Buddha. As I said, Maitreya Buddha primarily symbolizes loving kindness, but in Buddhism, a unique feature in practice is the harmony of

wisdom and compassion, the method and wisdom, which is symbolized by Vajra and Bell. In the Sutra practice, we talk about the union of the method and wisdom, compassion and wisdom understanding, shunyata. But as you proceed into the tantric practice, then the method is replaced by the development of subtle experience of bliss, mental bliss. And this very subtle, peaceful mind of bliss is then used to realize and penetrate into the ultimate nature, which is shunyata. And so therefore you reach a state of indivisibility of the method and wisdom, the bliss and shunyata. So therefore this Vajra symbolizes the great bliss and the bell symbolizes emptiness and shunyata. And in fact, when a master plays the bell, we need to imagine that he is really giving us the teaching on shunyata,

which is not equal to nothingness, but which means everything arises through multiplicity of causes and conditions. Like the bajra, the bell is able to produce the sound because of this hollowness inside and the tongue inside, then being moved by the hand. When all this come together, then a sound is produced. Otherwise, sound is impossible. So therefore, I'm happy to introduce these two very important points. to introduce these two very important points. Now as I was introducing this given theme, in order to actualize that profound great bliss and wisdom understanding emptiness, one has to undertake sustained practice. According to Buddhism, there is no push-button enlightenment.

So therefore, meditation, many people misunderstand meditation. They think meditation is observing certain physical postures and sitting alone. Yes, that part is also there. But the most important meaning of meditation is to make your mind habituated with the positive ways of life, positive qualities. Because we are predominantly controlled by negative emotions. And because of this we suffer. In other words, we are addicted to negative emotions.

The purpose of Buddhist practice is to stop these addictions and make our mind habituated with positive qualities like loving kindness, compassion and so forth. So meditation primarily means getting your mind habituated with love, habituated with compassion, habituated with wisdom, understanding emptiness, and which of course takes time. So that is really the main focus of all the Buddhist practices. So meditation is really something that actually covers the whole facets of Buddhism.

All the teachings of the Buddha are to be meditated. It is not that certain parts are to be meditated and certain parts are to be neglected. It is not like that. We need to get habituated with all these aspects. And then, it is because of this wider concept and understanding of emptiness, there are many methods, like for example mindfulness, awareness, conscientiousness, heedfulness. Now in the West, of late, we talk so much about mindfulness and meditation, but I haven't seen many people talking about the importance of conscientiousness and heedfulness. banyak orang bercakap tentang pentingnya kesedaran dan kebenaran. Tiga orang ini sebenarnya berkaitan. Kerana kebijaksanaan adalah memastikan bahawa fikiran anda dapat tinggal di atas objek yang diperoleh.

Selain itu, kita perlu kesedaran yang kita panggil kesedaran, yang benar-benar seperti pembantu panggilan untuk melihat sama ada fikiran itu benar-benar tinggal di atas objek atau tidak. Dan pada masa yang sama, anda perlu mempunyai kebenaran untuk melihat sama ada fikiran itu benar-benar to see whether the mind is really staying on the object or not. And at the same time you need to have heedfulness to see whether the mind is really engaging in the positive practices, whether it's refraining from the negative activities and things like that. So therefore Shanti Divine's famous text Bodhisattva Charyavatara, he says that with folded, with my folded hand, I'm requesting you, please maintain mindfulness. Please practice conscientiousness. Please practice heedfulness.

Because he's so concerned about well-being of sentient beings. He's so concerned about removing their sufferings. But the sentient beings, you know, most of the time we are distracted. We don't do these things and therefore we suffer. In a way we suffer unnecessarily. So therefore he is saying, please, please pay attention. If you don't want suffering, you need to do these things. Be mindful, be

aware. So in a way we are saying that wisdom is like awareness. It's the larger perspective where you are able to see the law of nature, the cosmic relationship. Once you develop this awareness, how we are connected to the rest of sentient beings, how we are connected to the environment and so forth, and then also more importantly, the meditation on impermanence. Through this awareness, when we see how fragile we are. And of late, I have been telling people that we have today 8 billion human population. All these 8 billion human population are dead after 100 years counting from today, on an average.

But this does not mean that I will live 100 years. I might die maybe after 10 years maximum. So why do we need to think like this? We need to think like this. If you think like this, then there's an urgency in terms of your practice. You can't just postpone and say that I'll do practice tomorrow, I'll do practice tomorrow, I'll do practice tomorrow.

No, that will not work. Right? That will also then help you think that why should we fight each other? Why should we kill each other? Itu tidak akan berjaya. Itu juga akan membantu anda berfikir, mengapa kita harus bergaduh dengan satu sama lain? Mengapa kita harus membunuh satu sama lain? Mengapa kita membuat misal balistik? Mengapa kita membuat bom nuklear? Kerana anda tidak memerlukan semua perkara ini.

Kebijaksanaan Buddha berkata, anda tidak perlu membunuh orang, mereka akan mati. Jadi itu adalah meditasi. Meditasi adalah mempun-benar meditasi. Jadi meditasi adalah mengambil perspektif yang lebih besar dari alam semesta dan terutamanya kebenaran alam semesta. Dan oleh itu, instruksi adalah untuk mengatakan mereka hidup dengan setidaknya dengan kebenaran alam semesta. Jangan berpura-pura. Jangan berpura-pura dengan memikirkan apa yang tidak permanen adalah permanen. Apa yang menderita sebagai kesedihan atau kebahagiaan. Jangan berpura-pura.

Jangan menggabungkan keguguran ini jika anda benar-benar ingin mempunyai kebahagiaan dan kebebasan. Jadi apabila anda dapat mengembangkan perspektif yang lebih besar, bahawa kita semua akan mati dan sebagainya, maka kesimpulan akan menjadi, saya mesti sekarang membantu orang yang menderita. Saya mesti sekarang memperkembangkan sentient beings. I must now develop compassion. Step forward. And then having developed genuine compassion, compassion not just for the sake of talking,

but when you develop this genuine compassion, thinking how nice if I am able to remove the sufferings of all sentient beings, then automatically there will be engagement. You will not be somebody who will say that I should develop compassion, standing by the side and not doing anything. Automatically you will come forward, do whatever is possible to help alleviate the sufferings of sentient beings. So therefore, the Buddhist meditation or Buddhist teaching is really a solution for many of the ills and problems that we have today. And of these days I have also been saying that we have so many types of problems. In addition to

the problem of aging, sickness, death and so forth, we have countless man-made problems. Man-made problems are essentially unnecessary problems. We can do away with that. But unfortunately, because of short-sightedness, because of narrow-mindedness, because of misconception, because of ego and things like that, we are not dealing with these things. So therefore, really it's important

to have a precise understanding now that all these problems, you know, we have to find a solution. And we also have to be very clear the solution will not come from science. The solution will also not come from religion. The solution will have to come from man himself and herself. In my case, maybe because of my lack of in-depth expertise or knowledge of wisdom, sorry, the knowledge of science and technology, maybe because of this, but, or maybe I'm trying to turn the clock back. But sometimes I do feel that many of these inventions by the science and technology are Atau mungkin saya cuba menyalurkan jam. Tetapi kadang-kadang saya merasa banyak invensi ini oleh sains dan teknologi adalah secara sifatnya keguguran.

Soalan utama adalah, dengan semua invensi ini, semua gadget yang berwarna cahaya ini, adakah kita benar-benar bahagia? Adakah kita benar-benar bahagia? Kerana pada akhir hari, kebahagiaan adalah sesuatu yang kita semua mencari, kita semua ingin mendapatkannya. Adakah kita benar-benar bahagia? Ya, benar, kita lebih sibuk daripada sebelum ini. Tetapi itu tidak penting. Betul?

Jadi, saya rasa dengan kuat, jangan hanya berkata, saya sibuk. Tidak penting bahawa anda sibuk. Apa yang penting adalah apa yang anda sibuk tentang. I strongly feel that don't just say I'm busy. It's not important that you are busy. What is important is what are you busy about. If you at all want to be busy, then get busy doing something for the well-being of other sentient beings, doing something for healing the planet, which we have destroyed so much that the air is polluted, water is polluted, mineral resources are destroyed.

That's what we are experiencing. But still we have this unchecked greed, letting our senses go wild. You need something to look, something to taste, something to touch, something to smell, and your focus is only on the sensual objects, and you never go inside, your mind is empty, you don't know yourself, I think that is the source of problem. So it is high time that we pause, go into solitude at least once in a while. Think about the meaning of human life.

What is the purpose of human life? What is the meaning of human life? How can we bring about long-lasting happiness for all of us? I think this kind of thinking is not now a pastime. It's not a luxury. It is not just for the Buddhists. It is for all of us who want to survive and enjoy peace and happiness. Otherwise we are going to commit a global suicide. So the choice is yours. It's in your hand.

As I said, meditation is really working with the mind, removing the negative emotions, cultivating the positive emotions. So normally when we do the meditation we start with the breathing meditation. Because your breath is something that is there with you, so it's very easy to focus on that. And your breath is also your remote control to your brain. So there's a great connection between these two. So therefore, try to focus on your breath. Coming in, coming out.

Count that coming in and going out and going in as one. Make sure that you are able to concentrate on this one count. There's inhalation and exhalation. If you fail, then you need to start again. And that itself is not easy. So in this way, when you get habituated to this kind of meditation, watching on the breath, concentrating on the breath, nothing else. The good thing with this is, when you start concentrating, you will immediately see how

distracted your mind is. betapa membuat fikiran anda tertekan. Saya ada kawan-kawan yang berkata kepada saya bahawa sebelum saya bermeditasi, Gashila, saya adalah orang yang baik. Selepas saya bermeditasi, saya menjadi orang yang buruk. Itu tidak benar. Tapi sebelum anda bermeditasi, anda tidak tahu siapa yang datang dan siapa yang berada dalam fikiran anda. That's not true. But before you meditate, you have no idea who is coming, who is going in your mind. Thieves are coming, robbers coming, anger coming, jealousy coming. You didn't watch.

You just welcomed them. Now through meditation, you at least notice who is coming, who is going. That's a good start. Next step is to say that if negative emotions are coming, then you should say, sorry, you're not welcomed. Positive emotions are coming, you should say, please come, my dear friend, my dear friend, compassion and loving kindness, please come.

I did not recognize your importance for a long, long time. Now I know how good you are. Please come, have a cup of tea, things like that. So that is kind of how you should start, right? And then gradually you need to understand whatever object you choose, a flower or the breathing, whatever you choose, you know, you should not just spend the rest of your life watching your breath and then die.

That's not the purpose. The purpose is through that you should learn the importance of concentration. Concentration is a source of success both in war and in peace. Concentration is like a laser beam. When the rays of the light of the laser beam are scattered, it doesn't have the power to cut through steel. But when the rays of the light of the laser beam are concentrated, it can cut through the steel. So concentration means pulling all your energies together and use it on one object. It is not just spiritual practice or Buddhist practice, but in all

your activities, if you are able to concentrate and do something, let us say for six months, you will be able to accomplish the work that you normally take five years. This is really, really important. Much of the things that we don't achieve is because we make half-hearted attempt. We are not concentrating. We are doing something, but your mind is somewhere else. Even when you bring a cup of tea, you spill it. So therefore, concentration. Concentration also means enjoying what you are doing.

Many people ask me the question, Geshe-la, yes, yes, it's important to concentrate, but we are unable to do it. How should we do it? Saya berfikir, ya, ya, ia penting untuk diperhatikan, tetapi kami tidak dapat melakukannya. Bagaimana kita boleh melakukannya? Dan sebenarnya, soalan ini telah ditanyakan pada saya baru-baru ini ketika saya mencari penyelamat. Penyelamat yang mencari penyelamat, yang mencari pasport saya, dia berkata, apa yang akan anda lakukan di sini? Saya berkata, saya akan bercakap dan mengajar. Dia berkata, adakah anda mengajar meditasi dan keadaan fikiran? Saya berkata, saya akan bercakap dan mengajar. Dia berkata, adakah anda mengajar meditasi dan keadaan fikiran?

Saya berkata, ya. Okey, bolehkah anda menjelaskan sedikit? Saya sedang mencuba untuk melakukannya. Saya tidak berjaya. Apa tekniknya? Saya berkata, anda perlu suka apa yang anda mahukan. Apa pun yang anda lakukan, anda perlu suka. Anda perlu menikmati. Kemudian, konsentrasi akan ada.

Sama seperti menyanyi, menari, sepak. Anda perlu suka apa yang anda lakukan. Sama seperti anak kecil. Anak kecil, walaupun anda memberi mereka sebuah toko yang berbohong, mereka akan menghabiskan sepanjang hari. Itu dunia mereka. Mereka suka. Dan semasa kita tumbuh, kita terlalu terganggu. Tidak dapat berfokus. Jadi dalam semua pengamalan spiritual anda,

anda perlu menikmati dan suka. Saya beruntung. Saya telah mendapatkan kehidupan manusia yang berharga. Saya mendapat peluang yang hebat untuk beramal, all your spiritual practice you need to enjoy and like it. I am lucky I have obtained this precious human life. I got this wonderful opportunity to practice love, compassion and so forth. Then concentration will automatically come. Then at the end of the concentration is not concentrating on a flower or an image things like that. The main purpose of one-pointed concentration is you should concentrate in helping all suffering sentient beings. This is the main Tujuan utama penyusupan satu poin adalah anda harus berkesan dalam membantu semua orang yang menderita. Itulah objektif utama. Banyak orang tidak bercakap tentangnya.

Mereka selalu berkata, berkesan pada gambar Buddha. Ini, ini, itu baik. Tetapi tujuan terakhir adalah supaya kita dapat berkesan untuk keadaan kesedihan semua orang yang menderita. untuk keadaan kesihatan semua manusia yang berkandung. Dan keberkawasan itu boleh diterapkan melalui meditasi analitik, meditasi kedua, di mana anda menganalisis. Berkawasan sebenarnya seperti apabila anda melakukan kualiti matematik, anda tahu, dua tambah dua, empat, sesuatu seperti itu.

Jadi anda bercakap tentang empat, ia adalah kesempatan. Berkawasan adalah kesempatan. Dan sebelum itu, anda perlu mencari berapa banyak figur lainnya. Dua, tiga, empat, lima. Jadi, meditasi analitik. Anda menganalisis. Yang bermakna dalam kehidupan sehari-hari anda anda harus menggunakan otak anda,

menggunakan kewajiban anda. Dua kewajiban yang sangat penting bagi manusia adalah kewajiban manusia dan bahasa manusia. Dan malangnya, features of human beings is human intelligence and human language. And unfortunately, this human intelligence is either not used or misused. Because we are very good in inventing nuclear bombs, atom bombs, ballistic missiles, smart bombs, biological warfare, chemical warfare, all these things we are able to invent. But what about good things, inventing good things? Therefore,

this intelligence itself is just a potential and it's important that we use this potential for constructive things. It's very, very important. And then the second important thing is your language. We are not tigers and lions. If there is a misunderstanding, there is a conflict, we should not physically try to jump upon each other and kill each other. Because we are not like tigers and lions.

In the case of tigers and lions, that's the only way they can do. They don't have a language. We have a language, which means when there is a problem, sit down and have dialogue, negotiation, find a solution. Unfortunately, in today's world, we don't either use the intelligence or don't use the language properly. So therefore, again, in this's world, we don't either use the intelligence or don't use the language properly.

So therefore, again, in this case also, we need to meditate and understand and be aware of these unique features that we have as human beings, which distinguishes us from animals. Just eating, sleeping and producing child. Animals also do. If that is the case, if we are to live like this, then why do we need this big brain? Human beings have the biggest brain relative to the size of the body, I am saying. This brain must be used for constructive purposes. So meditation or mindfulness, awareness, whatever you are talking about, we should at the end

of the day focus on this larger picture. Then it brings harmony, then it brings peace. May those with fear be fearless. May those under bondage be freed. May those powerless be empowered. May our hearts join in friendship. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Keshla. That was beautiful.

That concludes this week's practice. To support the Rubin and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member at rubinmuseum.org slash 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 slash e-news. I am Tashi Chodron. Thank you so much for listening.

Have a mindful day.