Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lama Aria Drolma 03/13/2025

Episode Date: March 21, 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 16:12.Teacher: Lama Aria Drolma Theme: ResiliencePadmasambhava, His Eight Manifestations, and Scenes from His Life; Gangteng Monastery, Bhutan; 19th century; pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; SC2012.4.13Learn 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, and Tashi Delek. Welcome. Today is the 14th day of the Tibetan New Year, almost finishing. Tomorrow is the 15th day.

And in the Himalayas, so right now, I think it's almost turning the 15th day because of the time change. So welcome again. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts mindfulness meditation program here at New York Insight Meditation Center. I'm Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program here at New York Insight Meditation Center. I'm Tashi Churdun,

Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be your host. 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. So inspired by our collection, we will first take a look at work of art.

We will hear a brief talk from our teacher, Lama Arya Doma. So wonderful to have you back. You had a long travel to India and went to many amazing places, including the Mahakumbha Mela. So I'm sure we will hear a little bit on that. And then we will have a short sit, about 15 to 20 minutes, for the meditation guided by her. And the artwork for today's session is this beautiful thangka. And I would say thong

drill in Tibetan word means liberation upon seeing. That's what I would hear from the Tibetan elders if they were to see this thangka. As you see it's Padmasambhava and his eight manifestations and scenes from his life. In Tibetan it is Guru Tsenje, Gangden monastery in Bhutan, dated 19th century, mineral pigment on cloth. And this is about 34 x 32 x ½ inches. And this is a beautiful Thangka painting. Now the connection to the theme as this month's theme is resilience. Some of you are familiar from the last session, Padmasambhava subdued the negative forces that were preventing Buddhism from taking form in Tibet back in the eighth century.

And he laid the foundation of Vajrayana Buddhism, which is known as esoteric or Tibetan Buddhism. Something that you hear now is, you know, that is planted and founded by Buddha himself, Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha. And then Padmasambhava in the 8th century revived and flourished until this day. So this remarkable thangka, Tibetan scroll painting, depicts Padmasambhava as you see Guru Rinpoche in the center. Padmasambhava is one of the most revered figure in Tibetan Buddhism. He's honored for bringing Buddhism to

Tibet in the 8th century of the common era. Therefore, he's often referred to as the second Buddha, Sanjay Nipa in Tibetan word. According to the Kama tradition, Padmasambhava was born in Northern India as the son of a king or minister. And in the Therma tradition, he is a lotus-born emanation of Buddha Amitabha. So you will often see an Amitabha figure above the Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava's eight

manifestations represent the outer, inner, and sacred aspects of tantric teachings. So this painting is in the dharma tradition, which is the treasure revealed in the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. It includes the eight manifestations, the eight forms, and the eight narrative vignettes with scenes from his life. So you can see around. This is Padmasambhava manifested in peaceful and in fierce, wrathful form. So one of the fierce form is called Dorje Trorle, like indestructible, fierce, wrathful Padmasambhava, where it flew to Tiger's Nest in Bhutan

when there was a lot of disharmony and famine and all that going on. So Padmasambhava flew there and subdued all the negative forces and flourished the Dharma there. So let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Lama Arya Dhoma. Lama Arya Dhoma is an ordained Buddhist teacher in the Karmakaju tradition of Tibetan Buddhism who

has completed over a decade of monastic study and meditation training. She emphasizes Vajrayana Buddhism and Buddhist principles, making them relevant in our everyday lives, helping us to cultivate loving kindness and compassion, and bringing about a transformation of contentment and a genuine sense of well-being. Lama Arya Roma, thank you so much for being here and please help me in welcoming Lama Arya. Hello everyone, good afternoon and thank you for coming in today. Welcome, welcome, welcome. And I also want to thank the Rubin team and the New York Insight Meditation team for organizing this wonderful space.

You know, I haven't been here for a long time. The minute I came here, I felt so peaceful. And look at you powerful ladies sitting so fabulously like monks, like you've been practicing for thousands of years. Thank you for bringing your wonderful energy. So today, we will explore a little bit the relationship between resilience and the wisdom of Padmasambhava and the transformative practice

of meditation. So Padmasambhava, he was not a mythological figure. He was a living entity in the eighth century. And he was known as the second Buddha, a powerful master. And I have a small story to tell you. So in Tibet, when the King Trizong Detsen, when he wanted to establish Buddhism in Tibet, there was a lot of problems.

So some people in this court wanted to invite Padmasambhava so that he could establish Buddhism there. And so the great master Padmasambhava, he was an enlightened master, so he helped in Tibet build the first monastery called Samyaya. And what happened was, as they were laying the foundation for this wonderful monastery, Samyaya, they would all put the foundation, and then when they came back in the morning, all of them would be removed, it would be destroyed. And the king was so disheartened.

But then, you know, since they had invited this great enlightened master, he had the power to subdue all these evil spirits. So the evil spirits didn't want wisdom, and that's what they want us to be ignorant. They don't want us to have wisdom, you know, because then we will succeed. They want to rule the evil spirits and so on. So Padmasambhava, with his wisdom, he knew how to subdue some of the greatest demons. So even though it seemed so impossible, you know, one thing Padmasambhava always had was

resilience. And all of you all know today how important it is to have that resilience when you see all the chaos that's happening today. The reason I also chose this thangka, to let everyone here know that the wisdom and the power that he has, we also have that. We also have that within us, the Buddha nature. All we have to do is bring it out, realize that we have it, and bring it out in form of prayers. And so the reason we honor Padmasambhava, we have all these rituals and practices in India, in Tibet, in all these

Asian countries to let us know that they have this power, this wisdom that we also have. And how did Padmasambhava subdue these demons? He understood their nature. He understood the evil spirits. It was actually fear and ignorance and attachment, and that's why they were destroying everything. So instead of Padmasambhava, what he did was he looked at them, he used wisdom to subdue him.

He had compassion because he understood their evil doings was coming out of fear. So we too are facing a lot of inner demons, fear, doubt, anger, hardship, and all the news that's happening in today's world. You know, everything, every moment you look at the news, there's a fear coming out. There's doubt, there's anger. Every time the stock market is going up and down, the past two days, it's been, everything affects us and people affects us because it's also collective consciousness. But through mindfulness, meditation, compassion, we can transform these challenges

into stepping stones and awakening. And one of the things Padmasambhava has, Sambhava's quote is, do not fear obstacles, for they are the path itself. So in the monastery, of course, we are practitioners, we are practicing, and there's a lot of things that are happening because it is also, we are running a kind of an institute, people are coming, there are various things. Many people acting out fear and all these emotions, anger and everything.

So what we train ourselves, we train ourselves as though that is the path we can train. You know, we're not hiding behind something, like behind an image of this very peaceful Buddha, but we're interacting with these people. And when people bring their anger, when people bring their fear, we interact with them with compassion. Because we know, you know, their anger, their fear, they're doing actions out of their fear and anger. So instead of retaliating, instead of being spiteful, we step back and all these practices of these great masters, we use it as in the path. So when we face difficulties, rather than resisting, fearing them, we can learn to sit with them in meditation. Just as Padmasambhava did when he faced the demons, you know, when he went to this sacred place in Tibet, not by fighting,

because that's retaliation, but with compassion, with understanding. So this is the short message, and Padmasambhava's story is unbelievable. And all the wonderful places that Tashi just mentioned, all the wonderful places that Tashi just mentioned, Rewosar in northern part of India, he has left footprints in some of the caves. And he was able to leave his footprints. It is hard rock and his footprints are there, because with his wisdom, with his awakening, he had mastered all the elements.

wisdom, with his awakening, he had mastered all the elements. And not only in Rohtsar in India, but in Tibet, there are footprints, there are handprints of him, and all the wonderful stories, his living stories, you know. And he was one of the greatest masters. You know, I just came back from India. And now, at the minute I stepped into the Western world, to America, I could see this contrast. So here in India, of course, there's poverty, there's every aspect of humanity, but there's people living in kind of in their own happiness. But at the minute I stepped into America, I could see the tension, the fear, and I did another class somewhere and they were all concerned about what is happening in the world.

Even though we are such a developed country and we have all the richness and you know today you can walk into one of the finest restaurants, go to any groceries, buy anything. You have all the luxuries, but then you're like everyone then everyone is carrying a lot of fear. But all this can be transformed and that is the wisdom of meditation. I assure you when you practice meditation, even for a few moments every day, this peace in you within you will just come out. And that is the guarantee of mindfulness. So today's meditation, the theme being resilience, you know meditation will help us cultivate

stability. You know you will not be very reactive. Automatically there will be peace within you when you practice. So in this, through mindfulness, meditation, contemplation, what are we going to learn today? We are going to learn to observe our mind. You know, often we do things because we don't watch our mind. And these are the three things I want you to take home. Observe our mind, not reacting impulsively or emotionally. Embrace impermanence. Right now, there's a lot of chaos that's going on in your mind. Know that these changes will happen,

and it'll all settle down. And cultivate your inner resilience. Take that warrior women or the warrior men we have within us. So now we'll start the mindfulness meditation. So there are two aspects when you start meditation. The first is your body posture. There are different teachers who will give you different instructions and I am giving you the instructions that I learned.

And when you sit, the most important aspect is have a straight back. Why? Because when you have a straight back there are a lot of channels within you. So it will facilitate meditation even better. And your hands, you can put them palms down and on your knees and if you're sitting on the chair, if you want to put your feet on the floor, that's wonderful because you'll feel very grounded. And if you can, try not to lean on the chair, you can just pull yourself a little bit and more often

what we do is we visualize a string in our head pulling us up like this, okay? And then you relax. Everything should be relaxed and you should totally be relaxed. So that's the first aspect, your body posture when you meditate. And the second aspect is your mind. Your mind is what does the meditation. So the mind needs an anchor. Otherwise, what does your mind do? It switches from one thought to another.

And that's a natural thing, what the mind does. So the mind needs an anchor. So what are we doing? The anchor is our breath. We are going to put our mind's attention on the breath. So here we go. I will ring the gong again and I will give you a guided meditation. Inhale and exhale. And as you exhale, just visualize your air filling the entire space in front of you and just rest in that present moment of awareness and we'll sit for a few moments like so, keeping our minds attention on our breath. If your mind has wandered off into a thought, that's okay. Just say thinking, drop that thought and come back to observing your breath. Inhale and exhale at your own pace and as you exhale just visualize your breath filling moment of awareness. It's totally alright to move or shift, no problem at all, be as comfortable as you can... As you meditate, just observe your mind and thoughts will come and go.

That's the nature of the mind. The more you observe your thoughts, you'll get familiar with it. And then you won't be breath filling this entire space and moment of awareness.... Keep your mind's attention on your breath. Just observe your breath going in and exhaling. And as you exhale, visualize your breath filling this entire space and just rest in that present moment of awareness.. When you are faced with fear, anger, you could also imagine the divine energy of Padmasambhava radiating wisdom and compassion. And as you inhale, draw in his resilience. And as you exhale, just release all the fear and anger. This is another way of practicing.

And then sit knowing completely that you too have that Buddha nature, just like Pad Sambhava. Okay everyone relax now. Gently open your eyes and And if you feel like, you can rotate your neck very gently, very gently. And you can shift your body. And one of the ways, if you're sitting on the floor, you know what you could do if your legs get a little cramped. Pull them as much apart as you can, and then just go shake yourself from back to front. This is a tip from one of the greatest masters called Kalu Rinpoche.

So he would say, close the bottoms. So then you shift your thighs and you expand your legs like this so the whole body will relax. And the more you do it, you know, so as you sit, you shift your leg up, you shift your other leg up, expand your leg and keep that bottom very firm on the ground.

So that will help you. And it's okay to shift when you're meditating. It's okay to cough. It's okay. Be very gentle with yourself, but know that these moments of meditation will automatically bring that peaceful nature out of you. So the more you put in that time,

it automatically will come because that's your true nature. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much for that wonderful session Lama Ariyodoma. 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.