Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lama Aria Drolma 06/12/2025

Episode Date: June 20, 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 15:27.Teacher: Lama Aria Drolma Theme: Awaken Green Tara; Central Tibet; 14th century; gilt copper alloy; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2003.11.1Learn 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. Good afternoon everyone Tashi Delek and welcome, welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts mindfulness meditation program here at this lovely New York Insight meditation center. I'm Tashi Churdun,

Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be a host today. The Rubin is a global museum dedicated to presenting Himalayan art and its insights, 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 today. And then we will hear a brief talk from our amazing teacher, Lama Arya Doma. So wonderful to have you back. Then we'll have a short sit, about 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. Let's take a look at today's theme and the artwork. The artwork for today's session is this beautiful sculpture of

green Tara known as Dhol Jan often referred to as Jatun Doma in Tibetan word. Tara is an ancient language, Sanskrit language means star. Dhol Ma is Tara is an ancient language, Sanskrit language, means star. Dholma is to liberate. And Jatun Dholma is venerable mother of liberation. And of course, how beautiful that our teacher is Lama Arya Dholma.

And this is a central Tibet origin, dated 14th century, gilt copper alloy, about 10 1 a half into six and a half into five and a half inches. The theme of the month of June is awaken. Green Tara guides us on the path to awakening through her compassion action and willingness to embrace all beings without any judgment. Tara is a completely enlightened Buddha

who has promised to appear in the future in the form of a female bodhisattva for the benefit of all sentient beings. Some of you may know, taras emanate in 21 different forms. Out of the 21 forms, two of the most popular taras are white tara and green tara.

Now, besides the color, how you can identify which tara it is, is you look at how she's sitting. So white tara often sits in full lotus position. Therefore, you're looking at this sculpture. She is sitting in a royal ease position. Left leg folded, right leg extended. And so, green Tara sits in the royal ease position. In the left hand, she's holding the stem

of the Utpala flower, which is the lotus family. The flower itself is sprouting on the left shoulder and the right hand in supreme generosity, palm facing us and the fingers pointing towards the earth. She helps us overcome outer aspect, the fears or dangers threaten our life or property and the inner ones endanger us spiritually by turning us away from the path to enlightenment. Now, this beautiful sculpture is a remarkable example of the early Tibetan aesthetic. It has a South Asian influence or inspiration.

This is evidenced by the composition and the elegant sway of the figure. The presence of the blue lily on the left hand is one of the symbol of the Tharas. Thara is beloved in all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Thara's 10 syllable mantra is om tare tu tare ture swaha, which is memorized by Tibetans from very early childhood. As I can recall too, every day we would hear our elders, our parents, grandparents reciting Tara's mantra

for protection, for guidance and liberation from the suffering. And there is so much chaos going on and I hope, you know, by this we can all gain some protection and guidance and remove obstacles. And then this week, the Rubin Museum staff and all of us have been so busy with the opening of the Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room at the Brooklyn Museum, which just happened two nights ago. It's been such a great thing in the midst of all the chaos that's happening during this degenerate time. So I was calling it as a lotus arising from the muck.

And hopefully it'll bring us all, you know, some positive and blessing with the launch. So I hope some of you can visit the Brooklyn Museum and sit for blessing in the Shrine Room. Let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Lama Arya Doma. Lama Arya Doma is an ordained Buddhist teacher in the Karmaka Jews 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, thank you so much for So good afternoon everyone. Welcome. Thank you for attending this mindfulness meditation session. I'm so happy to see all of you here. And it's incredible outside. The weather's pretty good.

There's everybody. As I was coming in from upstate, I could see a lot of people outside wearing all their short skirts. So it must be really lovely to wear all your summer clothes. And so welcome. Thank you. And we have someone from Philadelphia.

She's come all the way from Philadelphia to Manhattan. Welcome. Welcome, everyone. So the theme today is awakening, and the artwork is green Tara. So in Buddhism, awakening is known as enlightenment, the complete liberation from suffering and the cycle of rebirth which is known as samsara. It's the ultimate goal of all Buddhist practice and the state was achieved by Buddha himself, and he showed us the path how one can become fully enlightened.

The awakened person has purified or transcended the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion. They experience, when one is enlightened, they experience profound peace, compassion, and wisdom. The experience itself, it's said to be beyond ordinary conception and understanding. Like no one can explain to you, other than having these words like profound peace, compassion, and wisdom, you can never fully explain an enlightened person, the qualities. You can only kind of refer it. Rather, enlightened experience is a direct realization. It can't be understood intellectually. It's an experiential nature. So its direct realization brings complete freedom

from all mental suffering while maintaining full engagement with life, with boundless comp. And by default, someone who is fully enlightened has this compassionate nature to all beings. So what is our practice as a monastic in monasteries? Our only goal is to be fully enlightened, so we too can experience this aspect of compassion to all beings and that's the highest state of being as a human being,

to be in the state of enlightenment. So this awakened is achievable by every sent human being. It is the Buddhist path and everybody can achieve it if you follow the path and that's why the path has got mindfulness meditations and all these amazing practices for us to go forward and become enlightenment. After Buddha became enlightened, he showed us the path. And that's the practice of all, most Buddhist people, to become enlightened. So how is Green Tara connected to the awakening? Green Tara is a beloved female Buddha in the Tibetan tradition. She's known

as the Mother of Liberation and she helps practitioners on the path to awakening. Her connection to awakening is on several levels. She also is an obstacle remover. Green Tara is also known for removing all our fears and the various obstacles that prevent spiritual progress. You know, as a monastic myself, it's pretty challenging to be in the spiritual path. In the monastery, we have prayers every day, one in the morning and one in the evening. In the morning, most of the prayers are dedicated to Mother Tara. And the reason we dedicate the prayers to Mother Tara is because, as practitioners, we want her guidance, we want her to protect us in the path because there's so many other obstacles.

And then in the evening, there are prayers also to protect us, to Mahakalas, different deities. But you will find in all the Buddhist monasteries, especially Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, Mother Tara's prayers are practiced every day because she is so powerful. And she's known also as the mother of all Buddhas. And also praying to her, because as you see, there's always one of her legs is always stepping out, which means that she's swift. She has an essence of swift liberation.

This is a brass idol, but she is symbolized as in green color, like aquamarine, beautiful green. Symbolizes her active, dynamic energy. Unlike some Buddhist deities associated with very peaceful contemplation, Tara embodies that swift, decisive aspect of awakened consciousness. And then that cuts through all the delusion quickly.

We also go as monastics, as lay people, for refuge and protection. Green Tara provides both outer protection and inner protection. The sense of spiritual protection allows practitioners to engage more fearlessly in sometimes challenging inner work of awakening. She also symbolizes feminine wisdom.

Tara represents the perfection of wisdom in its active, nurturing aspect. She embodies the mother of principles that gives birth to all the Buddhas, the wisdom that recognizes emptiness and interdependence. So these are all the aspects to proceed or in the path of enlightenment.

And many practitioners, like myself, we develop a relation with Mother Tara, you know, by praying to her, by making offerings and also reciting her mantras. So in Sanskrit there's a wonderful word called Ishtadeva or Ishtade Devata and it literally means chosen deity or cherished deity. So the Sanskrit term Ishta Devata in Tibetan Buddhism it's often translated as Iddham. It refers to a meditational deity or a personal tantric deity used in advanced visualization and sadhana practice, our spiritual practice. So most of us as monastics, we have a lot of different deities, we are introduced different aspects of practice. But what we do is, you know,

sometimes this ishta devata, which means someone whom we cherish, we often make that close connection with that deity so we can have all her grace, her blessings, so we can spiritually progress. And Mother Tara is a very common deity that everyone prays to in the progress of enlightenment. So in today's mindfulness meditation, we will incorporate Green Tara in the visualization. So we'll start the mindfulness meditation. And I will ring the bell. BELL So sit up right comfortably. And if you're sitting, all of you are sitting on the chair, wonderful.

If you were, you can keep your feet parallel to the ground. You can have your spine straight. and if you want to kind of lean a little forward you can do so but if you're comfortable leaning at the back that's fine as well. Now let's take a deep breath and as we start this mindfulness meditation meditation. For us to be in the present moment, to be here and now, let's take in three deep breaths and this is how you could breathe in. Here's the example. Just breathe in deeply, inhale and then exhale with a sigh, letting go of all the stress you're carrying. So the first breath, inhale deeply and exhale. Let go of all your breath, all your stress and that's okay, no problem.

And the second breath, inhale deeply and exhale with a deep sigh, letting go of all your stress and breathe again third breath breathe in deeply deeply. Let go of a deity that you wish. It could be Mother Mary. So bring to your mind the image of Green Tara, the luminous goddess of compassion and awakening. And you can visualize her in front of you. lotus throne, radiant, like the vibrant life of spring itself. One leg is extended, always ready to rise and respond to any suffering. She gazes at us with limitless love and just feel her presence, healing and wisdom. And let's sit in this visualization. Inhale and exhale, breathe normally and we'll sit for a few moments like so. With With each inhalation, just visualize that beautiful light of Mother Tara entering you. And as you exhale, just feel any fear, tension, stress, anxiety, everything

dissolves. Inhale and exhale. Breathe normally at your own pace and we will sit for a few moments like so. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale, visualizing Mother Tara. Receive her compassion completely. release all your fears or things that no longer serves you.. As you inhale, you can make an intention. With Tara's guidance, I awaken to my true nature, to courage, compassion and wisdom.. Inhale and exhale. And you can also at this moment choose to recite her mantra, if you know her mantra. Her mantra is Om Thare Thu Thare Thure Soha... Inhale and exhale and visualize Green Tara's light surrounding you, protecting you, loving you, and mentally offer gratitude for Her presence, know in your heart Her qualities, which is compassion, fearless wisdom, is already within you. Inhale and exhale, breathe normally.

And receiving mother taras, green tararas, Compassion and Wisdom, may this be the seed of awakening today. Okay, relax, for the wonderful 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 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 rubanmuseum.org. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.