Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Kimberly Brown 01/09/25

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

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 11:45.Teacher: Kimberly Brown Theme: Intention Artwork: Wish-fulfilling Tree; Tsherin Sherpa;  Nepal; 2016; bronze cast mandala, found objects, and rubble; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2019.1.1a-jLearn 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. Tanoon and Tashi Delek. Welcome. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Art's Mindfulness Meditation here at the New York Inside 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'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 deep look at the work of art we have chosen for today. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher, Kimberly Brown, and then we will have a short sit, about 15 to 20 minutes, for the meditation guided by her.

So let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The artwork is handpicked by our teacher. The artwork is handpicked by our teacher. It's this beautiful, wish-fulfilling tree by artist Suring Sharpa, origin Nepal, dated 2016. So it's very unusual. We've been looking at hundreds of years old art, paintings, thangkas, and sculptures in the past, but today we have this contemporary art, and this is a bronze cast mandala, found objects, and rubble. The size is about 59 into 27 into 27 inches sculpture, and the theme for this month is intention, And this concept speaks to our aspirations as we begin our new year.

This work of art was created by the contemporary artist Sering Sharpa in response to the catastrophic earthquake that devastated Nepal in April of 2015. Talking about the earthquake, of 2015. Talking about the earthquake, some of you may have heard that there was a very big earthquake in Tibet, a very remote place. It's very, very sad. And also we know about the fire that's happening in Southern California. So there's been a lot of elemental disaster happening around the world. Sharpa particularly was inspired by the concept of the wish-fulfilling tree, which signifies the granting of any good intentions and aspirations. So let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Kimberly Brown. Kimberly Brown is a meditation teacher and author. She leads classes and retreats that emphasize the power

of compassion and kindness meditation to reconnect us to ourselves and others. She studies in both the Tibetan and Insight schools of Buddhism and is a certified mindfulness instructor. Her latest book, Happy Relationships, 25 Buddhist Practices to Transform Your Connection with Your Partner, Family, and Friends, was released in February of 2024. You can learn more about Kimberly on our website, meditationwithheart.com. Thank you so much for being here, Kimberly, and please help me in welcoming Kimberly Brown. Thank you. Lee Brown.

Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming out on such a cold day. I think you're kind of the A-team for being so brave. So we're talking about intention today and the artwork that we just saw, the mandala of the wish-fulfilling tree. Throughout Buddhist art and Buddhist texts, you'll hear about wish-fulfilling trees, wish-fulfilling gems.

When I first heard about those years ago, I thought, well, how does that work? There's not too much mysticism in Buddhism. We're not praying to a god to do something for us. So what does that mean, this wish-fulfilling gem or tree? We can also think about the wish-fulfilling gem or tree as ourselves, our nature. Each one of us are a wish-fulfilling tree,

and we have a wish-fulfilling tree, and we have a wish-fulfilling gem. What kind of wishes does it fulfill? Well, it fulfills the wishes to see clearly, to see the truth of our lives, to recognize interdependence, to use our mindfulness to have appreciation for ourselves and each other, and to orient our life in ways that are beneficial and they don't harm for ourselves and each other. And from a Buddhist view and in Buddhist psychology, all of these actions, which include our thoughts, everything we say and communicate, and it includes our deeds, of course, all of these actions have an underlying intention.

Okay. I grew up with the idea that intention is just a careless thing that maybe you have it, maybe you don't. It's not really worthwhile. It's really the action that matters. But Buddhism suggests that that's not true. That in fact, intention is something very, very important. And it's not just a random unconscious thing. That it's something we can cultivate, that we can be very aware of. And it can guide us in ways to not harm, in ways to benefit ourselves and each other. Now, this relates to karma. ourselves and each other. Now, this relates to karma. Karma has a lot of weird connotations in popular culture. In this tradition, it means action. And what it means is the result of your

actions. In our culture, there is no doubt in my mind that we have forgotten that everything we do and say has an outcome, that the outcome of our actions matter. So if you build a house on a Superfund site, you will likely have people getting sick later. That's just one very clear-cut cause and effect, the result of our actions. And it's very likely the intention for building that did not come out of an intention to benefit.

It was probably careless. It may have been simply to make money. It may have been just out of desire. When we look at some of the disasters that have been happening, many, many of them are the result of foolish intention. They're the outcome of actions that were not beneficial or clear or wise. And when you look at the wildfires or any sort of environmental disaster, we're talking about collective karma, not just one person, right?

It's all of us not really understanding our intention, how it can be very powerful and how it can lead us. We can create it and let it lead us in directions that are really useful and helpful to all of us. Most of us, it's unconscious and our intention usually comes out of wanting, right? Or something we don't like. And that's where Kim's intention comes from. So in the Buddhist tradition, there are ways to cultivate an intention and to

align our values with our words and thoughts and deeds. That's often done through different vows and ceremonies, through meditation practice, through loving kindness meditation, all of those, you know, we call it, um, creating an intention. You can also call it rewiring your conditioned thoughts. Okay. That's what a brain scientist might say. So in order for intention to be useful, one has to be able to connect to it when you need it. So for a long time, I've been cultivating loving kindness and an intention to connect with compassion. Sometimes, though, I'm not so compassionate.

And about, I guess it was just a few weeks ago, I was really angry with someone close to me who was behaving very badly and upsetting a lot of the family. I went in the kitchen, and I was just, in my head, what I was thinking was all these arguments about why they're wrong and what I was going to say to them to make them see how wrong they were. And I took a breath and I thought, well, wait, wait, wait, what's my intention?

My intention is to connect with compassion for myself and for everybody else. And when I remembered that, it shifted. It shifted the action I was going to take. It changed the way I was treating myself and others. So today, I'd like to lead us in a meditation and I'm going to give you an intention. And that intention for today will be to stay connected to your body. That's your intention to stay connected to your body. Okay? And I'll lead us in a meditation where hopefully you'll

get a sense of what it's like to reconnect with the intention, orient your actions to align with it. So you can go ahead and close your eyes if you haven't already. bringing your attention to the sounds entering your ears ears, placing a hand on your heart and a hand on your belly, where you can feel your own loving presence. In the moments of silence like this is where you can experience your own wish-fulfilling gem, wish-fulfilling tree. Bringing your attention to the light that's entering through your eyelids, Bringing your attention to the light that's entering through your eyelids. Sound that's entering your ears.

Experiencing taste and smell. Maybe experiencing your tongue to your right hand, your whole right hand. The whole right hand thumbs thumb, finger palm your whole right hand and the left hand.

Experiencing your left hand, thumb, four fingers, palm of your hand, the whole left hand, right hand left hand, right hand, your breath, the light entering your eyes, sound entering your ears, noticing your body in space, sensing space above, below, around you. And very quietly, you can rest your attention on your breath,

where you feel it rise in your belly and fall in your belly, or on sound, allowing sound to enter your ears, or allowing yourself to experience your breath. Thank you.... and connecting with this intention of staying connected to your body. What adjustments do you have to make to do that, if any? Okay. to do that, if any. Thank you. Thank you. Your intention is to stay connected to your body. What do you need to do to orient yourself in this moment to keep that intention? Thank you. And I'd like you to consider just for 30 seconds a particular intention that you would like to cultivate this year.

Perhaps you already have one, not necessarily a goal or resolution, but a way in which you'd like to orient your life And when this intention is clear to you, And when this intention is clear to you, imagine you are looking at a movie screen in a dark room, and you see your intention written in your handwriting. saying this intention to yourself silently three times Imagine the words on the screen. Imagine they come together to a point of light, and that point of light enters your forehead into your mind and becomes part of your body. your mind and becomes part of your body.

Let that little drop of light fall from your forehead to your throat to your belly to your breath, where you feel it in your belly. For one minute, just letting yourself rest here, letting your body breathe. Thank you. Taking a moment now to thank yourself for your efforts and also for cultivating beneficial, non-harmful intention. The tradition says to rejoice. It's quite rare to have a conscious and non-harmful intention of goodwill. Rejoicing in your intention and rejoicing in all of our intention today. And slowly bringing your attention back to our group.

You can open your eyes. You can move or stretch. Take your time. Thank you so much for that wonderful session, Kimberly. Such a good exercise to look at one's own intention for the beginning of the year. Thank you. 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.