Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Kaira Jewel Lingo 05/30/2024

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

Theme: Balance Artwork: Machik Labdron; Kham Province, eastern Tibet; 19th century; pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Art; Gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin;http://therubin.org/38iTeacher: Kaira Jewel LingoThe 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 23:41. 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. Please enjoy your practice. Good afternoon, everyone, and Tashi Delek.

Welcome. Welcome to the Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum of Art. I am 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 this weekly program where we combine art and meditation. Inspired by our collection, we will first take a look at work of art. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher, Kyra Joelingo. So wonderful to have you back. And then we will have a short sit, 15 to 20 minutes for the

meditation guided by her. And let's take a look at this month's theme and today's artwork this month's theme is balance or equanimity and the artwork that is handpicked by our teacher from a selection is this beautiful thangka painting, which is a scroll painting, mineral pigments on cloth framed in this beautiful silk frame. The central figure here is Machik Labdron, origin from Khom, Eastern Tibet, and it's a 19th century mineral pigment on cloth. The size is about 44 5 8 into 24 3 4 into 1 1⁄4 inches.

The connection to the theme is our theme for the month, as I mentioned, the balance or equanimity. all of you to reflect on how we can create a greater sense of harmony in our lives through mindfulness practice, which we come here every week. By cultivating balance, we move forward on the path towards peace and contentment. So this beautiful Thangka painting is Machik Labdron, who is the founder of this practice called Chut, cutting through. Cutting through what? It's cutting through the ego, because in the teaching, it says ego is your worst enemy.

Because of ego, we create so much division, separation, that brings so much suffering. And so Machik, she's the Tibetan female teacher in the 11th century and founded the church practice along with her teacher, Pathampasange, who actually came from India. And this figure is right here. And then you see another figure on Machik's left, the female goddess. And then you can also see the founder of Buddhism, the Shakyamuni Buddha, in his earth-touching gesture.

Now we can have a closer look. Here, as you can see, Machik is adorned in bone ornaments, dancing to the sound of her drum, Damaru, and the bell she holds. On the left and the right here, the Damarus are here, the double-facing Damaru, very special, and the bell in her left hand. To her right are Dakini goddesses, who are often referred to as the sky goer and the left is the tantric master as we looked earlier. So this is a beautiful female teacher during the 11th century

standing on a lotus pedestal which is the symbol of awakening. Now let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Kaira Juelingo.. Kyra Duolingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. parents' lives of service and her dad's work with Martin Luther King Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh's monastic community, Kyra now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice, intersection of racial, climate, and social justice, with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is the author of We Were Made for These Times, Ten Lessons in Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption, and co-author of Healing Our Way Home, Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation from the Parallax Press. Her teachings and writings can be found at kairajewel.com.

Thank you so much, Kaira, for being here, and please help me in welcoming Kaira Jualingo. Thank you. Good afternoon, dear friends. So thank you so much, Tashi, for that beautiful explanation of the painting and linking it to the living tradition. I really liked this thangka and this practice of chit. Am I saying it right? I learned about it from a friend, Dakhila Chungyalpa, who is a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and teacher.

She has founded a center at the University of Madison. and describe it also as a practice of offering even your own body, right? That the visualization is that you offer everything you have for the well-being of all beings, even if it were to come to your own body. all beings, even if it were to come to your own body. And she described how powerful this practice is for her when she feels angry, when she feels upset. Like you mentioned, the transformation that happens with the chanting and the practice. She talked about how turning the tables and offering herself instead of holding on to whatever anger or upset was really supportive for her practice. So I was with a wonderful activist recently.

Has anyone here heard of Father John Deere, a Catholic priest? Yes, okay. So he was giving teachings at the Garden City Cathedral where my husband's an Episcopal priest. And I was asking him about the meaning of the Eucharist. Like, what is, how does he understand? Because I heard him give these beautiful teachings on nonviolence and how we, how, if we really follow the teachings of Jesus, that means being totally nonviolent. the teachings of Jesus, that means being totally non-violent.

And so I wanted to know what he thought about the Eucharist, and he said, well, one of the most powerful explanations he'd heard was from the theologian Henry Nowen, who talked about, you know, what Jesus was saying to his disciples on the Last Supper was, the world says, go break their bodies for me, for power structures. Go spill their blood for me. And what Jesus was saying was, no, you go break your own body for me. You go spill your own blood for me. I am doing that. I have done that for you. I have given my life. And now if you're my follower,

it means you follow in the footsteps of giving yourself completely for the well-being of others, for the well-being of others. Not, you know, holding on to yourself, right? And the painting is about, this tanka is about letting go of ourself, cutting through our attachments to self. So I thought that was a very, I had never heard that explanation of the Eucharist, that it was the nonviolent Jesus saying, under no circumstances,

or basically the life you choose is nonviolence, and if it means you give up yourself, that's what following me looks like. That's what following me looks like. And I found that to be a very inspiring explanation of the Eucharist. But it came up when I was learning about the Chod practice, sorry, Chod practice, of total offering of ourselves. I thought, oh, there's something, there's a resonance there with the Eucharist, with what Jesus modeled.

So I wanted to just speak to what the Thangka's teaching of, you know, what's the cause of all of our suffering is this attachment to ourselves. And what does that mean? The emptiness of self. What it really means is the emptiness of a separate self that we think we're separate from the world around us. But really we are only made of non-self elements. If you look at this bell, this metal bell,

metal is made up of whatever elements formed the metal the earth the heat the moisture time space the people who mind the metal this bell couldn't be there be here without them right the people who This bell couldn't be there, be here without them, right? The people who created the bell, all of those elements are in the bell. We see it as a separate thing, right? It looks like it's just a standalone bell, but if we look with the eyes of interbeing, the eyes that the Tanka is inviting us to use, we have to see all the non-bell elements that are in the bell.

And so it's the same with us. Each of us, we feel like we're this separate, stand-alone human with all of our identities, but we are only made up of non-self elements. So would you mind to speak out into the space, what are some of the non-self elements that you know that you are made up of? What is not you that you couldn't be here without? Your heart? Art. Yes. Wonderful. What else? What are other? The parents. Yes. We couldn't be here without our parents. Earth. Our grandparents. Wonderful.

wonderful water air fire get all the elements what else love thank you so essential

the subway yes I got here on the subway I wouldn't be here without the subway the subway makes Yes, I got here on the subway. I wouldn't be here without the subway. The subway makes up who I am. That's right. Did anybody eat today? Yeah, that's making up who you are and all the beings that went into making that food possible, right? So on and on, right? So on and on, right? That's emptiness. That's how we can understand our true nature as completely made up of all other things,

all other beings, in all the previous times, since the beginning of time or beginningless time, and all of life that comes after us. So we're a not-self right in this moment with all that exists, this vertical axis, and we're a not-self horizontally with all that has come before and all that will come after. It's vast if we really take it in. It's vast if we really take it in.

So I just want to share a story of my own practice with letting go of my attachment to self, and then I'll lead us in a meditation. I'm still very attached to myself, but this experience helped me to loosen a little bit and get a lifelong practice. So I was a monastic for 15 years in the community of Thich Nhat Hanh. And it was everything. It was all of my, you know, I gave up everything I had. I shaved my head. I wore robes. And the community became my spiritual family.

I had no money. They were my social world. They were my, you know, my my community my living place my identity was completely enveloped in being a monastic and at a certain moment I really felt I needed to explore potentially not being a monastic and so I left the community still in robes, and I practiced for two years outside of the community trying to figure out, is this for real? Should I go back? Should I disrobe?

And it was a time of incredible disruption, which I talk about some in the book, We Were Made for These Times, disruption which I talk about some in the book we were made for these times of really my whole sense of self falling apart because I wasn't I wasn't that person anymore who had decided to live her whole life as a nun but I wasn't anything else yet I didn't know what the next step was going to be or how my life was going to look. And it was the first time in my life that that happened to me where I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. So it was really like when the caterpillar makes the

cocoon and it dissolves. It totally dissolves. and it dissolves. It totally dissolves. In order for a butterfly to emerge, I was in this cocoon, and it was super disorienting and painful, and I had this practice of mindfulness, which was really the only thing I had,

because I didn't have myself that I had learned to really think was me. Me, the person who's going to be a nun for the rest of their life. And so that was so scary. But what really helped me was to be grounded in every moment to just be with my breath with my steps and know that I didn't have to know the answer I didn't have to figure out what was going to be next I could just take care of this moment and in taking care of this moment. And in taking care of this moment, I was taking care of all of the non-self elements as well that were who I was. Even if my ego identity was falling away.

It was revealing something more essential beneath the ego. Right? The ego is like a layer over our true self our true nature which isn't confined by all the identities we attach onto I mean, have you all been with people who for whatever reason, illness began to change fundamentally?

Have you experienced that? Have you also experienced how some essence of themselves was still there? Yeah? So that's what I'm talking about. Like, parts of myself that I could reference and hold on to those fell away but because they fell away I actually had more access to something more fundamental

which was I can take refuge in this moment and I can learn that I am not my ego and there was great freedom in that actually can learn that I am not my ego. And there was great freedom in that, actually. There was great possibility in the not knowing what was to come. I had fear, but I also began to have trust. That, okay, life is unfolding in this way. Let it do with me what it needs to do.

Really, again, this chit practice of offering yourself. Well, life, somehow it seems I'm not supposed to be doing this with my life anymore. So I don't know what it is, but I'm here. Take me. Guide me. Show me. I'm willing. So I survived the cocoon. Something took shape out of that goop, that soup of the caterpillar. And, you know, are these like a butterfly?

Not so colorful. So maybe just think about this for one moment. What is one aspect of yourself or your identity that maybe you're a bit attached to? What's something you feel is really important about you that may be on that more surface layer? And what would it mean to release that? And what kind of freedom would that bring if you weren't holding on to that part of yourself so tightly? One of the things I think about that I'm practicing to let go of is I notice more wrinkles the longer I'm alive I'm like oh I didn't know

that wrinkle was there oh more okay more and so how do I just you know get ready when I look in the mirror I'm probably gonna see a new wrinkle I'm probably gonna see more gray hair I'm probably gonna see more sagging skin and And like, that's me now. Not, oh, where is me that was different? No, that me is not there. Now I'm this me that has this age. Right? And so that's a really deep practice.

I'm thinking about the tanka and the teacher in the necklace of bones. That's like a deep teaching on impermanence. We're all going to be bones one day. So we might as well get used to our skin and face and hair and our health changing so that the ultimate change, when we pass, we can accept that, right?

We can flow with that. So thank you for naming our age, our physical state, as something we can be attached to. So, a wonderful contemplation to have on a daily basis. What am I attached to about me that I could live more freely if I would begin to let go of? I have a friend, she was also a nun in the community.

And one of her practices is to ask herself in meditation, what can I let go of? What can I let go of? It doesn't have to be everything. Just one thing. What's one thing I can let go of? So let's practice. Let's practice a meditation on emptiness.

So taking a position that is comfortable that allows you to be at ease but also experience the dignity and nobility in you. A posture that has some energy, some strength, as well as relaxation. Feeling your feet on the floor. Feeling your seat in the chair. Feeling your hands in whatever position. And feeling your face. And feeling your face. Connecting with your whole body. connecting with your whole body,

and letting your whole body release its weight to the floor, to the earth. Breathing in, aware of any places of tension or tightness, holding and breathing out, of any places of tension or tightness, holding. And breathing out, maybe letting go, seeing if those places are ready to release the tension, release the holding. Connecting with the shoulders and releasing the shoulders, with the belly, relaxing. Any other places? We'll just be connecting with the non-us elements that make up who we are.

Going back to the beginnings of life on this planet, to the oceans, the waters, into the oceans, the waters, where the first living cells emerged billions of years ago. connecting with those first expressions of life and how that was essential for us to be here. The first living organism

from billions of years ago is us in some way. And we are that. Our breathing body with trillions of cells just would not be possible without those first cells that figured out how to change sunlight into food. Taking that in. And then connecting with all the species who lived and died and became extinct throughout throughout the long billions of years of the Earth's history prehistoric dinosaurs woolly mammoths saber-toothed tigers

Neanderthals all the primates, evolving in many places on the planet. All of these are us. We are them. This body comes from them. They are our ancestors. They are the source of life from which our life springs. springs what does it mean to really open up to that in this moment that this body is not yours.

It's billions of years of life evolving, unfolding, offering itself to the next generation all the way up until this one. And bringing our awareness to the first humans who evolved in Africa. Lucy, the first woman in East Africa, mother of all of us humans. We couldn't be here without our ancestral mother, Lucy, and the earliest humans who evolved and who walked

all around the globe setting up societies, different cultures, different languages. Every cell in your body, in all of our bodies, came from that one place, that one first early human. And all of the elements that made up those early humans, all of their food, all of the sunlight, all of the earth and we are, the earth element. calcium the blood and other liquids that flow through our body

are only possible because of the water element the flesh, the muscles of our body come from the earth element the heat, the sun, the fire element that allows this energy to arise within our muscles within our cells, our digestion. And the air element, we could not be alive without the air element, which we breathe morning through the night, every second dependent on the air, appreciating the four elements, non-self elements making up who we are. The food that we eat, the liquids that we take in,

also expressions of the four elements nourishing our body our mind it would be impossible to be here without those. And all the species that are alive on the planet with us now, all the other humans, all the other animal species, plants, the earth, minerals. without all of these living beings we also could not be here we are made up of all of life

all of this life is constantly influencing us, shaping our thoughts, our words, our actions. We cannot be by ourselves alone. We can only interbe with all of this life. Touching our nature of emptiness, that we are not a separate self. We exist only in relationship in dependence on all other forms of life.

life, past, present, and future. can we rest back in that awareness? Yes. We are empty of a separate self. We are empty of a separate self. And truly, if we want to take good care of ourselves, since we are made up of all of life, then we must take care of all of life if we want to take good care of ourselves. And so in the spirit of the chit practice, as we feel ourselves inhabited by all the beings alive with us now, what would it mean to offer ourselves, to offer our life up for the

well-being of all of life. We live our lives in service of the well-being of all beings everywhere, not just in this time, but in the future also. We protect the resources, the wonders of this planet for future generations, knowing that they are also us, just as all beings alive with us now are us. We offer ourselves. We want to protect.

We want to take care of life. That is the best way to protect and take care of our non-self, our self. What can you let go of that will help you to do this more, to love more, to grow your heart more, to offer yourself more? more. Thank you for your practice. Thank you so much for that, Kyra. 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 slash enews. I am Tashi Chodron. Thank you so much for listening. Have a mindful day.