Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lama Aria Drolma 07/24/2025

Episode Date: August 1, 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  12:38. Teacher: Lama Aria DrolmaTheme: Joy Buddha Amitabha in His Pure Realm; central Tibet; late 18th century; pigment on cloth; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; ​​gift of Shelly and Donald RubinLearn 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 Children. Every Thursday, we offer a meditation session at New York Inside 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 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. Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. And Tashidelik, welcome. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program here at this beautiful place

called New York Inside Meditation Center. I'm Tashi Chudun, Himalayan Programs, and Communities and... ambassador and I'm delighted to be your host. So the Rubin Museum is a global hub for Himalayan art and we are 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. In fact, amongst a list of the art our teacher has handpicked, then we will hear a brief talk from our teacher Lama Aria Doma, about 15 to 20 minutes, meditation guided by her. Let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The artwork for today's session is this beautiful

tanka, which is a scroll painting, mineral pigment on cloth. You can see the silk framing. And the central figure is Buddha Amitaba in his pure realm. Now Amitaba is known as a as Wupp-Mé, in Tibetan word, which is a boundless light or immeasurable light. And this is origin from central Tibet, dated 18th century, mineral pigment on cloth, scroll painting. And this is a beautiful gift from Shelley and Donald Rubin. Now, the connection to the theme this month, we are still exploring joy, as we have mentioned in the past, The month of July is the birth of His Holiness, the great 14th Dalai Lama. And the Amitaba Buddha known as the Buddha of Immeasurable Light

resides in the realm of great bliss called Sukawati in Sanskrit and in Tibetan it's called Deva Chen, a desired realm for higher existence. His realm of great bliss serves as a reminder that joy in Buddhist thought is not just the fleeting happiness, but a deep, lasting serenity that arises from the enlightenment and compassion. Now, the Amitabha Buddha teaching is practiced in so many countries. Now, in Tibetan, the Amidaba Buddha is considered one of the five Deani Buddhas, and associated with practitioners in protecting for long life, as well as sending the consciousness to

the right path. Depicted here, the close-up look of the central figure, he's in red in color. In order to identify which Buddha it is, is even by looking at the color. For instance, medicine Buddha often comes blue in color. Although in the sculpture, you're always going to find golden bronze-like color, but in the painting, you can see the color really bright, right? The red Buddha is often the Amitabha Buddha in the robes of the monk. He sits in a lotus position, holding a vast nectar with both hand in meditation gesture and sitting on the lotus throne. Now, on his sides are the eight great bodhisattvas,

illustrating the wishes of practitioners and devotees. Now, the mantra for Amitabha Buddha is Omh Amidh Deviwa-Hri. Okay, let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Lama Aria Doma. Lama Aria Doma is an ordained Buddhist teacher in the Karma Khadu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism who has completed over a decade of monastic study and meditation training. She emphasizes Vajuriana 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. Lamaray Doma, thank you so much for being here. Please help me in welcoming Lamaria Doma. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to this session of mindfulness meditation.

Thank you all for coming in today, for taking this time. I know it's pretty warm outside, so I genuinely thank you all for being here with us. So as Tashi said, thank you Tashi for the introduction and for all this wonderful team at the Rubin, for Jacqueline, for Jason, and all the lovely people here setting up everything, making this so comfortable. Thank you. So the theme this month is joy and the artwork is Buddha Amitaba and thank you Tashi for explaining so much of Amitaba. And, you know, talking about joy, I read on the headlines, the formula for happiness. And I was like, oh, my God, you know, this is very appropriate.

I have to talk about it today, to all of your, what is the formula? And it is apparently from Dr. Epel, E-P-E-L, and she did a survey on 18,000 people. and what she said was small acts of joy bring more happiness than, you know, all the therapy for a year or more. The small acts of joy bring more joy than, you know, like months of work on yourself and so on. I always felt this to be very true, you know, when you see this beautifully bloomed flower, Your heart literally feels so happy, you know. I'm sure all of your life felt that or, you know, having a small piece of your favorite chocolate. It doesn't have to be big things.

So basically, you know, Dr. Appel kind of says, appreciate what is here and now rather than appreciating what is there. We always think that, you know, that big mansion or this fabulous car. new car is going to bring us joy and happiness. But in fact, it's the little acts of kindness, little acts of small acts of joy that brings us more happiness. Like today, it was beautiful. Tashi had gone to India to Ladakh, and she brought me a small bottle of jam, like an apricot one.

Apricot is my favorite. So, you know, I'm looking at that, and I'm, like, feeling very joyous. And, you know, when I met Jacqueline, she's like, oh, I have a lot of. of lovely things to tell you, I went on a pilgrimage. So, you know, and then Lena here, bringing her friend all the way from Philadelphia, I swear, I'm filled with so many happiness. She brought her friend here to listen to the mindfulness meditation. You know, that itself is joyous.

But today, when we contemplate on the theme of joy, it is about Amitaba. and here we're talking about a deep, luminous joy that is not dependent on anything external circumstances. Like, this is the joy that arises from the connection with your true nature, a joy that Buddha Amitaba represents in his pure land. So this joy that Buddha Amitaba, emanate what it represents is that we all have this joy within us and the representation of amitaba is to just say that joy that amitaba emanates we all have it within us and we just have to

discover it and this wonderful chanting that you heard the chant is about the pure land which is also called Deva Chen which is also called Sukawati in Sanskrit so the aspiration when we do that chant is to say when we pass away may we be born in this land of Deva Chen in this land of Sukawati the land of bliss and that is an aspiration

made for people who have passed away in fact, in our monastery, after the 49th day of someone who has passed away, they come and request us to do this chanting of Amitaba, which is from morning till evening, with a lot of offerings made, and, you know, the family cooks for the monastics, and it's a beautiful, beautiful chanting.

And this chanting that was there is a short version, which literally means when I pass over, Let me be born in this place called Deva Chen, this place called Sukawati, this land of bliss. And why? So apparently, this land of Sukavati, this land of bliss, is a realm which is unfathomal pace of peace. It just emanates peace there, beauty and joy. And it is free of any sorrow. It is even free of a bad word.

You will not even hear a bad word. And apparently, this land of bliss is so beautiful if you say, oh, I need some shade. And apparently, a tree will just appear there and give you shade. And then if you are like thirsty, you know, there's a beautiful spring that will open up. And it is so, you know, the explanation of this realm is so beautiful. Imagine, you know, not even a bad word is spoken there. You know, that is the land of Amitaba that we all aspire as Buddhist monastics

to go there, all the Buddhist tradition people there aspire to be. So by you today, even having a glimpse of Amitaba, you have already made a connection. It's called, like in Tibetan, it's called Tendril. It's like a connection with your visual eyes. And that will stay in your heart.

So, when, you know, if you are doing your practices, who knows? You will also probably be born in the land of Deva Chen, you know, the land of bliss. So the visual representation of unconditional love, perfect wisdom, and spiritual liberation, that's what the Amitaba represents. So now we will start the meditation. How does this beautiful Amitaba connect us to the meditation? And this is through visualization, chanting, we awaken our own potential to live with more compassion, light and joy.

So for example, in meditation, there is a moment when your mind settles and the heart opens up. here we experience a profound inner stillness all of us experiences that you know when we are meditating it's just that we sometimes don't recognize it you know it's a momentarily glimpse of peace and it is so peaceful that you don't want to come out of it but then what does your mind do it tricks you

it starts you know a lot of thoughts come because you're not familiar with that place of stillness and peace so it's just to let you know that when you do meditate you fall into that space of stillness where it's beautiful and peaceful and that is a moment you know we are remembering our inherent capacity for joy a joy that arises from wisdom compassion and connection so what i mean by this is when you meditate you will fall into that stillness a sure short space of absolute stillness where you feel very blissful you want to be in there but then

thoughts come and then that moment goes you will recognize that and that's what my hope is you know that you'll recognize that stillness that you recognize that peace so let's all now start the meditation we'll sit up right and i'll ring the gong Sit comfortably with your back straight. You can close your eyes gently or keep your eyes opened. You can keep your hands on your lap on your thighs like this, right palm over your left and place it on your lap. More importantly, keep your back straight. Now we will start with taking three.

deep breaths and the example of the breath is like this, the first breath, inhale deeply. And exhale with a big sigh. Let go of all your stress that you're carrying today. And then we'll sit for a few moments breathing normally. And then the second breath again, inhale deeply and exhale with a big sigh and bring your shoulders down. Let go of all the stress you're carrying. And the third breath again, breathe in deep. and let out your breath with a big sigh.

Letting off all your stress you're carrying. And now continue to breathe normally. And here we will do some visualization. Imagine a beautiful place. beautiful place peaceful and the whole place is filled with golden light and there's a beautiful cold breeze and you see lotus flowers gentle streams beautiful sky and the whole place is calm filled with peaceful sounds, bird singing, and you hear the echoing of mantras. And just sit in this peaceful moment and breathe normally. Inhale and exhale. And we will sit for a few moments just surrounded by this beautiful golden light.

soft golden light. Thank you. If your mind wanders off to a thought, just say thinking, drop that thought, come back to this peaceful place. Feel that peaceful, open and joyful place that you enjoy being here. And with each inhaling, breathe in that wonderful light, and then breathe out peace, exhaling all your tension and worry and rest in that joyful state. Now you can visualize Amita Buddha in front of you and his whole body he emanates this soft golden light and that light reaches you with blessings of peace and joy and will sit and just visualize that light over you

Breathe in normally, inhale and exhale. And we'll sit for a few moments. Breathing naturally. Inhale and exhale, visualize, visualize, Amitaba Buddha in front of you. And he is emanating this beautiful golden soft light which reaches you and you're completely filled with joy and peace. And from your heart, let that beautiful golden light, fill the entire space in front of you, the whole universe,

and you can send out this essence of joy and peace to the whole universe and sit in that, sit and rest in that present moment. Thank you. Slowly bring your attention back to your breath. Feel your body in this present moment seated here. and just know that this joy and peace is in your heart and you can reach it any time and I'll ring the bell now

gently open your eyes and come back to the present moment Thank you so much for that beautiful session. As Lamario Domo mentioned, the joy, the bliss, we don't have to look outside. It is within each of us. We just have to recognize. Often the teaching says it's obscured by our athletes. emotions. So we have to tame those affective emotions to give rise to the basic

goodness, the loving, kindness, compassion that is within each of us. 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 Ruben Museum.org slash friends. If you are looking for more inspiring content, please check out our other podcasts Awaken, which uses art to explore the dynamic paths to enlightenment and what it means to wake

up, available wherever you listen to podcasts. And to learn more about the Ruben Museum's work around the world, visit RubenMuseum.org. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day. Thank you. Thank you.