Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lama Aria Drolma 06/28/2024

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

This Mindfulness Meditation session was recorded during a Hindustani Music and Meditation program that took place at the Rubin Museum on June 28, 2024.Theme: Self-Discovery Artwork: Green Tara; Tibet; 13th century; brass with inlays of silver; Rubin Museum of Art; Teacher: Lama Aria DrolmaThe guided meditation begins at 07:39. This meditation is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg, teachers from the NY Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine.  If you would like to attend Mindfulness Meditation sessions in person or learn more, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation.If you would like to support the Rubin Museum and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member and always attend for free.  Have a mindful day!

Welcome to the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast presented by the Rubin Museum of Art. We are a museum in Chelsea, New York City that connects visitors to the art and ideas of the Himalayas and serves as a space for reflection and personal transformation. I'm your host, Tashi Chodron. Every Thursday, we present a meditation session inspired by a different artwork from the Rubin Museum's collection and led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area. This podcast is a recording of our weekly in-person practice. In the description for each episode, you will find information about the theme for that week's session, including 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. Good evening, everyone. Tashi Delek and welcome. Welcome to the Himalayan Heritage at the Rubin Museum of Art. My name is Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador,

and I'm delighted to be your host this evening. How's everyone doing? Looks like the weather is a little softer today, right? So wonderful to see so many of you, many familiar faces and many new faces. I'm kind of curious to know how many of you have been coming to the Rubin regularly or been to the galleries. May I see some hands? Wonderful. And how many of you are first time? Wow, there's

many. And in between? Fantastic. So those of you who are first time, we are a global hub for Himalayan art with a home base in Chelsea, New York City. So today we will celebrate a transformative mindfulness meditation led by our own Lama Arya Droma, who's been teaching mindfulness here at the Rubin Museum for many years now, as well as many other places all over the world. In honor of National Immigrant Heritage Month, this month, it's so special, National Immigrant Heritage Month, this month, it's so special, we will celebrate community spirit and the themes of love, pride, and unity. And inspired by a collection, we will first take a look at work of art. And so this beautiful Lord Ganesh sculpture, it is 11th century, no, 17th century or 11th century. I'm sorry, I'm kind of getting mixed up now. The Lord Ganesh is for obstacle remover, bring good luck, brings, of course, you know, blessings to purify any negative, afflictive emotions, to bring,

to give rise to the wisdom that within each of us so this is actually origin from madhya pradesh in india and it is 11th century sandstone sculpture about 49 into 27 and half into 10 it is on the first floor gallery now Now, the most recent 20th anniversary Rubens exhibition highlight of the exhibition is the Reimagined Himalayan Art Now, which is an assembly of about 32 artists from all over the Himalayas. And it's a beautiful contemporary art connecting and inspired from one of the Rubens' ancient collection. So one of the artists, Sushant Shrestha, from the Lord Ganesh, the 11th century sculpture, his commissioned art is this beautiful uber rat, is the work that was specially commissioned. And then, you know, it is also,

this is basically a beautiful installation that is up on the first floor. In fact, he was one of the artists on art series presenter that happened last Friday. And today we had a wonderful artist, Tenzin Minjur Palden, who spoke about his art and the inspiration from our old collection, as well as experience from making that. And the next art is this beautiful sculpture of Mother Tara.

So Tara in Sanskrit is star, and in Tibetan she's known as Drolma, which literally lights in the dark. And Tara emanates in 21 different forms. Out of the 21 forms, two of the most common and the popular Taras that you will find is green Tara and white Tara. And each Tara associates with certain role. So the white Tara associates with longevity or long life. So often when people are very sick in the family, the practitioners would, you know, make offerings and pray to white Tara

for longevity, for long life. And then how you can know besides the color is you look at how she's sitting. So the white Tara sits in full lotus position, whereas this one, which Tara you think between the green and the white? The green Tara sits in this royal ease position, right leg extended, left, granting. So in Tibetan Buddhism, we believe that she's the mother Tara, the mother of all, savior. And you ask her, she's ever ready to bestow and grant. So that's the supreme generosity. And left hand, she's holding the stem of the lotus flower.

And the lotus often sprouts on the left shoulder. So this is the green Tara that connects to our meditation teaching. And then we're going to start the evening session with the mindfulness meditation led by Lama Arya Doma. Lama Arya Doma is an ordained Buddhist teacher in the Karmakarju tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, who has completed over a decade of monastic study and meditative 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 being here and please help me in welcoming Lama Arya Doma. Good evening ladies and gentlemen and honored guests, welcome to meditation. Behind me is the image of Goddess Tara, the mother of all Buddhas, reminding us today that we too are the infinite divine energy experiencing temporarily human experiences. One of the ways to experience this divine energy is in silence and meditation. So we will now start with a guided meditation to be here, now and present. So let's all sit comfortably, as comfortably as you can,

and you can keep your legs parallel to the ground. And with your hands, you can put them on your knees. And I'll ring the bell, and it'll be a guided meditation so and it's very easy to follow Let's gently roll our necks. Very gently. A few more times. And let's now bring our mind's attention to our breath.

Inhale and exhale. And just observe our breath. Inhale and exhale and just observe your breath so we can be here now and in the present moment. And now gently bring your mind's attention to your forehead. And totally relax any stress that you're carrying there. Your neck area. Your shoulders. Let go of all the stress you're holding there. And just bring your shoulders down. And let's inhale and exhale, keeping our mind's attention on our breath. Thank you. So we'll gently breathe at your own pace. Inhale and exhale. Inhale.

Bring your mind's attention to your shoulders and let go of all the stress you're holding there. Inhale and exhale. Just keeping your mind's attention on your breath. Thank you.... . . . . .

. . . . .. And if your mind wanders off somewhere, that's okay. As soon as you find your mind has wandered off into a story, just say, thinking, drop it, and come back to your mind's attention,

observing your breath. Relax your whole body and let go of all the stress you're carrying there and be here in the present moment Inhale and exhale, breathe normally and we'll sit for a few moments observing our breath. And this moment of silence, let us awaken our divine energy and fill our hearts with kindness and compassion. And now gently open your eyes and just move your shoulders like this gently coming back to the here and present. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for that, Lama Arya. That concludes this week's practice.

To support the Rubin and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member at rubinmuseum.org slash membership, and to stay up to date with the Rubin Museum's virtual and in-person offerings, sign up for a monthly newsletter at rubinmuseum.org e-news. I am Tashi Chodron. Thank you so much for listening. Have a mindful day.