Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Kimberly Brown 06/19/2025

Episode Date: June 27, 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 10:31.Teacher: Kimberly Brown  Theme: Awaken Wheel of Life; attributed to Lhadripa Rinzing Chungyalpa; Sikkim; 1930; pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2004.21.1Learn 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. Hello everybody, good afternoon and Tashi Delek. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program at New York Insight Meditation Center.

I am Tashi Chudron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be a host today. Happy Juneteenth! The Rubin is a global museum dedicated to presenting Himalayan art and its insights, and we are so glad to have all of you join us, both in person and online for our weekly program

where we combine art and meditation. Inspired by our collection, we will first take a deep look at 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 set 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. Let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The artwork for today's session is this beautiful Thangka painting of the Wheel of Life. This is dated early 20th century, origin from Tibet. Mineral pigments on cloth. This is about 65 x 40 x 1.25 inches and a beautiful

painting, a mineral pigment on cloth scroll painting known as Thangka in Tibetan word. Connection to the theme is the month of June is the theme of awaken. The month of June also in the Tibetan calendar, it is Sakha Dawa, the month where Buddha achieved enlightenment, and therefore we selected the awaken for this month's theme. This painting of Wheel of Life depicts the concept of cyclical existence. Awakening through enlightenment breaks the cycle leading to liberation from the suffering and to a higher state of consciousness. The Wheel of Life is also known as Bhavana chakra

in Sanskrit or in Tibetan it's called Sipakkolo. It's a visual teaching aid and meditation tool symbolically representing samsara, known as korwa in Tibetan word. It is found on the walls of Tibetan Buddhist temples and monasteries in the Indo-Tibetan region or all over the Himalayas specialties to help both Buddhists and non-Buddhists understand the core Buddhist teachings. The Wheel of Life explains the concept of rebirth, the Lord of Death, Yama, this very fierce, wrathful looking with fangs coming out, I'm holding the wheel, driven by three animals in the center, representing the mental poisons, often known as thuk sum or three poisons, the three animals with attachment, anger, and ignorance.

That is dö chak shedang tig mu in Tibetan word. Attachment is the rooster, anger, snake, and the ignorance is pig, which is considered the root cause of all the suffering. The next circle from the center is people moving upward to a higher state of consciousness and on one side in the dark half-circle, downward to afflicted states, their actions polluted by the poisons, propelled them in a continuous

cycle of rebirth in the six realms of existence depicted in the larger segments around the two inner circles. So these are the realms of gods and demigods, the top left. Humans, top right, those are often known as the three upper realms. And then the three lower realms are animals, lower left, hungry ghosts, lower right, and the hell realm, the bottom. And in the hell rim there are eight cold hell rims and eight hot hell rims. The wheel's outer rim is the symbolic chain of causality that binds this closed circle with no clear way out. Going beyond this large outer circle is awakening or liberation or enlightenment. The Buddha discerned a pathway out of the cycle of samsara. That is why the Buddha appears both

outside the wheel at the upper right on top and within it, pointing the way out by teaching the Dharma. Now, let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Kimberly Brown. Kimberly 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 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 in February. You can learn more about Kimberly

on her website meditationwithheart.com. Kimberly, thank you so much for being here and please help me in the Buddhist tradition. It's often used synonymously with enlightenment, with realization, waking up, and what it means is it's pointing to the capacity that we all have to see our life clearly and wisely. And the word awaken also, you know, it implicitly suggests that perhaps we're not awake, perhaps we're sleeping or not paying attention. And it encourages us to open our eyes to reality

and to stop denying the very nature of our life and everything and one thing that it's hard to awaken to is the truth that everything changes and ends and that we all have struggles and suffering and that everything we say and do has consequences. Cause and effect are real. So all of these are truths of our lives and yet as long as we're asleep in denial or rejecting these facts, we cause ourselves a lot of suffering. It's painful to want the impermanent to be permanent, yet how many times have I or have you done that?

Or trying to change what's not in our power to change. You know, I've done that. It's so heartbreaking and frustrating. Another truth is that when we think we should always be young or healthy or even alive, that we really suffer. And all of this is is it stems from ignorance. That's what we're waking up from, our ignorance. It's at the root of all of our struggles. And the ignorance from that arises neediness, greed, aversion, hatred, fear, delusion. And when we're free from them

that's when we awaken and we can you know taste a sense of freedom free from all of these obscurations. And in the Buddhist tradition, there are many techniques, including mindfulness practices and wisdom contemplations. So today we'll practice an insight meditation. Insight is the translation of the word vipassana, vipassana meditation. And we're going to use it to help us realize this ever-changing constant flux and change in every moment. We'll use a little bit of loving-kindness

to help us soften this poignant reality of loss and endings and the joy of beginnings. So go ahead and and close your eyes or allow your gaze to be down and soft. You can place a hand on your belly and a hand on your heart. experience your breath experience your own presence And letting yourself recognize what is your intention for practicing this meditation today. You could be doing anything, but you're choosing to work with your heart and your mind and your wisdom So allowing this intention to arise in your mind and your heart When it's clear to you what's motivating you, what your intention is, go ahead and belly, you can receive your breath. You might notice that you don't have to go out and get it or toil to breathe. Your body's doing this for you. And I'd like you to bring all your attention to sound. And what that means is bringing your attention to

your ears. What you're doing is allowing yourself to experience these waves that are propagated through the air, their vibrations. And then when they enter your ear and the apparatus in there that's designed to interpret it, we call that sound and hearing. But you don't have to go out and get sound or sound waves. They come right to you. So you can allow yourself to receive

them and I'd like you to choose to, resting your attention on sound, allowing it to come to you, and you might notice other sensations and experience and arisings. Everything arises, abides, and goes. And so resting in sound, if you get caught in a story and you're swept away from the present, come back to the sound. And you might notice your breath sometimes you might notice it's cool on your skin you might notice a fleeting image and the practice is to allow it allow it to come allow to go, don't get caught up in it. And always knowing you can rest in your anchor of sound........ Even in these few minutes you may have noticed, experienced sounds come and go and even if you're sitting in a quiet silent place that silence changes and this is a an opportunity to awaken to the nature of impermanence and

change of impermanence and change. Just for one more minute resting here in sound. You don't have to do much. You're allowing yourself to let go of plans and stories and just stay with your experience.... And making a choice now to move your attention from sound and your ears to your heart center you can place your hand there I'd like you to connect with someone that you care about someone who is suffering maybe not from physical pain, but from resisting change, from refusing to wake up to the nature of things. Maybe imagine that person here with you and just saying to them, may you awaken and be

free. May you awaken and be free. May you awaken and be free. May you awaken and be free. And just for a couple of minutes, repeating this sentence to them silently as though you're giving a gift... May you awaken and be free. You can keep this person near to you in your heart and your mind as you imagine you're

looking in the mirror. You could maybe remember yourself this morning looking in the mirror at yourself and say to yourself, may I awaken and be free. May I awaken and be free. May I awaken and be free. May I awaken and be free. And just take two minutes here to repeat these phrases to yourself wholeheartedly, giving yourself this gift..... May I awaken and be free. And now we'll include everyone using the Bodhisattva's wish, the saint's wish, that everyone be free from suffering, that everyone awaken to our true nature. So you might imagine your whole family and everyone you care

about here with you. Imagine the people you don't like, people you disagree with. Imagine they're here too. All the strangers, include me, include everyone at the Rupin. May we awaken and be free. May we awaken and be free. May all beings be free from the causes of suffering. May we awaken to our true nature and have the conditions of happiness And you can let go of these words let go of any technique Sense your feet feel your breath. You might notice light entering your eyelids. You can thank yourself for your practice today. And when you're ready, open your eyes and stretch and move as we conclude today's meditation. 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 4, 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.