Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Kimberly Brown 02/06/25

Episode Date: February 14, 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 12:42. Teacher: Kimberly Brown  Theme: Loving Kindness Artwork: Vajra, Bell, and Case; Bhutan; 20th century; metal alloy (vajra and bell), ash wood (case); Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; SC2010.8a-c  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 Churden. Every Thursday, we offer a meditation session at New York Insight Meditation Center that draws inspiration from an artwork from the Rubin's 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 Insight 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.

Tashi Delek and welcome. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program here at New York Insight Meditation Center. I'm Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador. And I'm delighted to be your host today. I see some new faces and many familiar faces. Thank you so much for joining us on this rainy day and wonderful to see so many of you here. 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 that is handpicked by our teacher, and then we will have a short set about 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by our teacher, Kimberly Brown. Let's take a look at today's theme and artwork.

I know we've been exploring on the theme of intention, right, in the month of January as the beginning of the year. And for the second month in February, what is the big thing in the month of February? Something called Valentine's, right? So we have selected the theme of loving kindness. And the art connection for today's session is this beautiful ritual object,

the Vajra and the bell, Dorje and Tilbu in Tibetan word and with this beautiful intricate case for the set. So this wajra and the bell is a 20th century metal alloy and the case is ash wood. So this is about eight and a half into four into four inches, the Vajra, I mean, the bell, sorry, and the Vajra is about two into four into two inches, roughly. The theme loving kindness is a transformative force that dispels the darkness of ignorance and brings us closer to the light of our pristine awareness. This Vajra and the bell, they are a set, a ritual set, signify the union of wisdom and compassion. The Vajra symbolizes compassion, which is the masculine principle, and then the bell represents wisdom, feminine principle.

These two ritual objects, the Vajra, is often held in the right hand and the bell in the left hand. So one of the deity that holds these ritual ties to the Vajrasattva Buddha. Dorje Sempa is the word in Tibetan. As we reflect on the Vajra and the bell, may we be inspired to create a greater sense of interdependence, greater understanding of the interdependence origination, which is we all need each other, and to invoke the basic goodness,

which is the loving kindness that is within each of us. And so now 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. Kimberly studies in both the Tibetan and inside 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 this week. Oh wow!

And you can learn more about Kimberly on her website meditationwithheart.com. Kimberly, thank you so much for being here and please help me in welcoming Kimberly Graham. Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming out on such a, well, it's warm, but it is kind of dreary day. So my main practice is loving kindness meditation, but it wasn't always so. And when I first started practicing in the Buddhist tradition, I noticed that a lot of teachers in all the different lineages would teach the loving kindness part as kind of an aside, kind of like, oh, at the end of a meditation, you know, make you feel good. May all beings be happy.

May I be happy. And so I practiced these kind of emptiness wisdom practices, open mind sort of things. I really wanted to wake up. I was going to get there is how I felt, you know? And I don't know, maybe three or four years into my practice, I really crashed. It was not, I could not do those kinds of practices. I had no um, friendliness to myself, you know? So I was just using my practice as another way to beat myself up and to prove that I wasn't good enough.

And then I went on a retreat with a teacher many of you know, Sharon Salzberg, this was years ago, at her place up in Barry, Massachusetts, IMS, and I did a week-long loving-kindness retreat and it knocked me over. It was the practice for me, and not because it made me feel good, and not because it was sweet and nice. In fact, it was really hard. But because through that practice, it steadied my mind, and it awakened a very different and more truthful sense of wisdom. Okay, and Tashi children just touched on that,

and that was why this bell and Dorje were something that seemed really significant today. Because loving-kindness is not some sweet quality that we use on Valentine's Day or a mild response to the world. It's interdependent, wrapped up with compassion and wisdom. They cannot be separated. You'll hear sometimes Tibetan teachers will talk about the two wings that you need, wisdom and compassion. You can't have just one wing. Sometimes Tibetan teachers will talk about the two wings

that you need, wisdom and compassion. You can't have just one wing. Another metaphor is to think of a coin. You can't have a coin with just heads. There's heads and tails. And it's the same with wisdom and compassion. You cannot separate them. And so that's what this bell and this dorje represent. And sometimes you'll hear, you know, Tashi mentioned

that the bell signifies the wisdom, and the Dorje or Vajra represents compassion. You'll also hear that Vajra called method. So you'll hear method and emptiness sometimes. And the method is the means, the vehicle. And the means and the vehicle are loving kindness and compassion. And when I was thinking about today,

remembering that the Vajradharje is sometimes called method, in the early teachings, if you read the Metta Sutta, it says we will take loving-kindness as our vehicle. We will take loving-kindness as our means. And it's the same here, the method. This is our method. And in fact, in the early teachings, loving-kindness is the awakening of the mind through love. Loving-kindness, meta, M-E-T-T-A, you might know it in the Pali, and in the Sanskrit traditions, it's Maitri. And it's a strange time, and many people are suffering very clearly, and there is deep

ignorance in the land, right? We can see it, not just in our enemies. We all have it. And one of the means that we can rely upon during these times is the recognition of our loving-kindness and our relationship to others. The people that you love, the people that you don't love, strangers.

And it's through that connection that stability and harmony begins to happen. And Tashi also mentioned that to be in the Buddhist tradition is not to simply say, well, I wish I could be happy, and I wish you to be happy, and my mom. It's saying, I want all beings, all beings, barring none. And that's also said in the early tradition, large and small, omitting none. Why?

Not to be sweet and kind. Because we all affect each other. Right? And there's a teacher named Robert Thurman. Some of you may know him. He's a little older now. We don't see him so much in New York City. But he would often say,

if you're on a subway car, and you're going to be on it forever, what would you do? You're sitting in that subway car, there's another 50 people, what would you do? Well, you'd probably take care of anybody who had health problems or mental illness, probably, you know. Do that and start sharing your food and etc. and he would say, that's where we are here, we're just on a bigger subway car, right? And to remember that, that everything that we have, everything that we do affects each other, even if you don't see it immediately.

So these practices are wisdom practices, and we're going to do a little bit of wisdom cultivation through our loving-kindness practice. So find a way where you can just sit comfortably. And just notice where your mind goes before you get instruction. I sometimes sit like you and think, why doesn't she say something? What are we doing? Just notice if that's coming up for you. See if you can turn your attention toward what's arising first in your senses. If you'd like, you can close your eyes or just lower your gaze. Notice that light is coming to your ears.

Taste, or maybe no taste? Smell. Sensing there's space above you, to your right, your left, in front and back. This is proprioception. In the Buddhist understanding of the mind and the body, it's understood that thought and feeling are also senses. They arise, they abide, and they dissolve just like sound or light. So you might notice some thoughts. That's alright. Let them come and let them go. And for just a couple minutes resting in what's arising. If your mind is very busy today, it's okay. Use an anchor.

You can come back to the feeling of your breath around your navel. around your navel. And allowing yourself to be with sound, light, plans, memories, the feeling of your feet warmth...... See if you can do less, allowing all of these senses and perceptions to come to you as they are. You don't have to go get anything. Being with them as they arise, and they'll stay a moment or so, and then I'll go.... And choosing to move your awareness to your heart center, the middle of your chest. If you'd like, you can join me and place your hand or both hands right there in your heart,

middle of your chest. You'll feel your own breath. You might feel the warmth there. You might notice pulsing in your palms and your hands. I'd like you to make a connection with someone that you know who is angry and or frustrated. It could be someone personally who's upset. Could be, you know, you probably know people on the news if you don't know anyone personally. I'd like you to call this person to your mind and give them this phrase of loving kindness. May you meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion.

May you meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion. Just repeating that for a minute or so. Giving your wisdom to this person.... May you meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion. You can let go of the connection with this person and now connecting with yourself. Maybe imagine you're looking in the mirror, connecting with something that you find frustrating or something that you feel angry about. If you don't have those feelings right now, that's great. Don't make them up. But if you do connect with that and give yourself the same loving-kindness, may I meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion. May I meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion.

May I meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion. May I meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion. Just taking a minute here to say this to yourself, to offer your wisdom like a gift to you..... May I meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion. And you can keep this connection with yourself as you just begin to include others, including everyone in this room. May we meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion, including everyone that you know and care about, your friends, your family, your pets. May we meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion. And bring in a few people that you distrust, dislike, disagree with. Bring them here too. May we meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion.

May all beings everywhere meet the changes in life with wisdom and compassion. In a moment I will invite the bell to ring. Please stay still until you can no longer hear it, at which time you can offer yourself a bow of gratitude and thanks. Thank you so much, Kimberly, for that beautiful session. 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.