Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Jon Aaron 01/25/2024

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Theme: New Beginnings Artwork: Shezad Dawood (b. 1974, London); Wrathful Activity, Fierce Energy; 2018; neon on black painted board; Rubin Museum of Art; http://therubin.org/37w Teacher: Jon AaronThe 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 12:18. 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, and welcome to Mindfulness Meditation. I'm Tim Henry. I'm Deputy Executive Director here at this global hub for Himalayan art based in New York City. And welcome to this weekly session where we have this unique combination of art and meditation that is only to be found here at the Rubin.

is only to be found here at the Rubin. Now, inspired by a collection, as some of you know the format here, we first take a look at a work of art. And then we'll hear a brief talk by our meditation teacher today, John Aaron, followed by a short sit of about 15 to 20 minutes with the meditation guided by him. So let us take a look at this work of art. And you know how we're all told to live in the present. Well, what better than to look at a contemporary work of art for this session, which is in the month of January, all about new beginnings. And John probably chose this work because some of you might recognize this is the very work by Chazard de Wood that is featured right in the entry lobby of the Rubin Museum of Art right here on West 17th Street. So it starts your journey to the Rubin and through the Rubin.

So this is a super wonderfully energetic neon representation or interpretation of a wrathful deity. And what are wrathful deities exactly? Well, they are the energetic form that should be you in your vigilance in removing obstacles from your path from your new beginning and life to create clarity and so that Energy that you need to summon, you know when you make a resolution at the beginning of the year and say, okay I won't do that. I will do this and I've got to write to so-and-so it takes attention and focus and energy to clear out that closet and put on the rubber gloves and just get going. So therefore the raffle energy somehow,

very often is represented by a grim determination to root out all lack of clarity. And maybe the neon here is a playful way of saying that, hey, lack of clarity, there's no vacancy here. This is like confusion motel on the highway in life. So we often see skull crowns above the heads of wrathful deities. And our guide, Robert, will take you on a tour and explain what those actually do but just know that look out for some of those details that of course are well represented

in our more traditional paintings and the galleries upstairs. And now to our meditation teacher our welcome return guest John Aaron who is a teacher of mindfulness meditation, but a very particular one. It's called mindfulness-based stress reduction. And he's a trainer of new teachers in this particular seminal eight-week course. His primary interest, I may say, is in the use of meditation and somatic work in dealing with trauma and grief and pain, all of which we suffer on various degrees. And when the pandemic hit, he, along with his partner, co-founded Space to Meditate, an online community of meditators

that is still going very strong indeed, as is our podcast, which I learned receives over a million listens a year. And you are the beginning of it. So congratulations. John, thank you so much for leading us. Thank you for being here again. The artwork go back up? I always forget.

Good. Okay. Actually, it's interesting. You know, those of us who are here, we're sent a selection and we're asked to make choices, right? We don't necessarily get our choice. And it's not that I chose it, it chose me. And thankfully, you know, the Reuben let me stick with it. And I appreciate that. And yeah, this fierceness, this fierce intention.

Speaking of podcasts, I also have a podcast called Digging the Dharma, which I do with my friend Doug Smith, who's more of a scholar. Doug was a student of mine for many years, but he was always sitting there and he knew more than I did. And so I appreciated having him in the class always he just didn't have that much of a practice but we were doing a recording this morning around intention and this idea of

intention being the second factor of what we call the noble eightfold path which is the fourth of the noble truths of suffering and the cause of suffering and the fact that there is an end to suffering, and the Eightfold Path is how we get to that end of suffering. And the first two factors of the Noble Eightfold Path are referred to as the wisdom factors. And one of those is right intention.

The other is right view. And so intention can take so many different forms. So we have the intention, for instance, to come and meditate. We may have a daily intention to meditate, which is great. and meditate. We may have a daily intention to meditate, which is great, but there's also like how we live our lives and the intention we bring to every moment of our lives. And when it comes to our actions, if we are paying, if we are fully mindful all the time, If we are fully mindful all the time, don't look at me, but if we are fully mindful all the time or when we are fully mindful, then we are very clear on whether our intentions will cause harm to ourselves or to another. famous teaching that for all I can remember I may have talked about once before here that the Buddha gave to his son Rahula about just checking in before you act while you're acting and after you act as to whether your action harmed yourself or the other or whether it will harm yourself or

the other or whether it's about to harm yourself or the other, or whether it did harm yourself or the other. So you've got three opportunities, before, during, and after. And the idea of wise intention and this fierce bodhisattva is just to remind us constantly to pay attention in this way. We often forget that one of the meanings of mindfulness, this word sati, which was translated into mindfulness, the actual meaning of that word is also to remember, recollect. So we're continually reminding ourselves, yeah, look. Look before you leap.

Look before you act. And this is really important. While it's fierce, it's also compassionate. So we're reminding ourselves, yeah, look, and you're going to screw up. Things happen. You're human. And so, you know, you can work with that. There's space for that. And not only is there space for it, but when we mess up or when something

happens it gets in the way of what we want it to be. Those are opportunities we have to actually gain something. There's another teaching, much later teaching, a Tibetan teaching actually, which are referred to as the Lojong teachings. And the Lojong teachings include 59 slogans. They're wonderful slogans and I recommend a number of books around this, but they're really worth looking at. There are two that I just want to mention because there's one section of the teaching which is basically transforming bad circumstances

into the path. And as far as I'm concerned, a bad circumstance might be self-created through unwise intention or unclear intention, or it may be a circumstance that just happens. So basically, one of the slogans is turn all mishaps into the path. And whatever you meet is the path. So whatever we're confronting moment to moment becomes the path, becomes an opportunity to transform, essentially, to wake up.

And as those of you that have been with me here before know, I always like to read a poem. And it's no different. And this is a poem that for some reason I had not heard until last week, and I don't know why that is. And it's called Japanese Bowl. So this is about the Japanese art of kintsugi, which is in itself practice.

By Peter Mayer. I'm like one of those Japanese bowls that were made long ago. I have some cracks in me. They have been filled with gold. That's what they used back then when they had a bowl to mend. It did not hide the cracks. It made them shine instead. So now every old scar shows from every time I broke and anyone's eyes can see I'm not what I

used to be. But in the collector's mind, all these jagged lines make me more beautiful and worth a much higher price. I'm like one of those Japanese bowls. I was made long ago. I have some cracks. You can see, see how they shine. Let's meditate. Find a posture which is upright, alert, comfortable.

Give yourself permission to soften, become aware of any place on the body that may be unnecessarily holding tension. any place on the body that may be unnecessarily holding tension, giving yourself permission to soften the face, soften the belly, aware of what's present in this mind, heart, at this moment, cracks and all. Praxinol. And at this moment, be aware of the intention. Intention. Just attend to what's here with each breath. The intention to recognize that the in-breath is another moment of life. You never know when the last one will be.

And as such, it reminds us to be present now, to be here, to wake up. And the out-breath we can use to kind of let go of whatever isn't necessary. All those habitual thoughts floating around. thoughts floating around. And that wrathful deity just reminds us of that. Wake up right now to what's here. Oh, delight, surprise, kindness. Yeah, it's like this just now. Even if it's something that you'd rather not be here, here it is. There can be a choice to push it away, to resist it, or to welcome it. Be what it's like to welcome that which is unwanted, and the unwanted arises. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And the mind wanders off into its ritual patterns, planning, list making, daydreaming.

A little wrathful deity is there to remind you to come back breath come back to this body sitting here what's true just now breath these sensations arising. This heart beating. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. When something arises, a difficult emotion, or recurring and annoying thought, or difficult physical sensation. What is it like to simply accept it as part of humanity, like this just now, and turn toward it in a kind of kindly curiosity.

See it as one of those cracks that has the potential to be filled with gold, paired with gold, and that gold is this kindness, curiosity, opportunity for transformation through that which is challenging? Like fierceness, courage. and clear intention. and part of that kindness is touching into that which is difficult but not necessarily diving into it fully touch in and then step back which is difficult, but not necessarily diving into it fully. Touch in and then step back, opening up to everything else that's here, which isn't so challenging. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. As a reminder, as we come to the end of the formal meditation, when the bell rings, it doesn't mean the meditation stops.

Because we can bring this kind of fierce intention into every moment of our lives. Check in. check in. Develop that habit of just saying, what's the intention here? That arising from kindness, wisdom, wisdom desire to do no harm to myself or to another.

Practice continues. The meditation itself is just a strengthening of that. May all beings be free, and may all beings find peace. Thank you, John. 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 our monthly newsletter at rubinmuseum.org slash enews.

I am Tashi Chodron. Thank you so much for listening. Have a mindful day.