Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lama Aria Drolma 08/15/2022

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

Theme: Kindness Artwork: Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Nepal; 13th-14th century; Gilt copper alloy with semiprecious stone inlay; Rubin Museum of Art; [http://therubin.org/351] Teacher: Lama Aria Drolma The Rubin Museum presents a weekly online meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area, with each session focusing on a specific work of art. This podcast is a recording of the live online session and includes an opening talk and 20-minute sitting session. The guided meditation begins at 13:08. This meditation is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg, teachers from the NY Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine. To attend a Mindfulness Meditation online session in the future 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 Monday, 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 practice currently held virtually. 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 Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine Magazine and supported by the Frederick Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism. And now, please enjoy your practice. Hello, everybody. Welcome. Tashi Delek. Welcome to Mindfulness Meditation Online with the Rubin Museum of Art. I am Tashi Chodron. I'm so happy to be your host today. We are a museum of Himalayan art and ideas in New York City, and we are so glad to have all of you join us

for our weekly program where we combine art and meditation online. Inspired from our collection, we will hear a brief talk from our teacher, and today we have a fabulous teacher, Lama Arya Doma. And then we will have a short sit, 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by Lama Arya Doma. So the theme this month is kindness. Loving kindness and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanities cannot survive.

When you are kind to others is what brings you inner happiness. And we're actually going to take a look at our art connection for today. This beautiful sculpture of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Sometimes he's also referred to as Buddha of compassion as well. In Tibetan, he's known as Chandre Zik. He's the principal deity of Tibet. And in fact, his holiness Dalai Lama that most of you may have heard, and some of you may have met him in person or seen him on television. Dalai Lama is believed to be the emanation of Avalokiteshvara. Avalokiteshvara actually appears in many forms,

in male or female forms, as well as in two arms, four arms, six arms, and 1,000 arms and 1,000 eyes, which is actually infinite compassion. And from compassion arises kindness. Here you see him in two arms. This originates from Nepal, known as Padmapani, lotus holder. Padmapani is a Sanskrit term.

The Bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, is one of the most popular deities in Tibet and the Himalayas, especially in Nepal. He's also known as Lokeshwara, where 108 forms of him are known to find in Nepal. In his simplest form here, extending his right hand in the gesture of giving, holding the stalk of lotus now broken in his left hand and lotus flower blossoming above his left shoulder. He's often called Padma Pani in Sanskrit, translated as lotus holder. Earlier, this is Nepal origin, beautiful 13th to 14th century gilt copper alloy with semi-precious stone inlay. And the size of this statue is about 17 x 6.5 x 3 inches. A really beautiful sculpture here. really beautiful sculpture here. And in terms of iconography, bodhisattvas are often bejeweled,

as you see here, with crown, earrings, necklaces, armlets, belts, and elegant jewelries, and the beak-like nose, hoop-like earrings, and the translucent drapery clothing are some of the Nepalese aesthetics. This sculpture is remarkable for its fluid simplicity of form, graceful proportions, and elegant jewelry. The reddish tone of the metal where the gilding has worn away indicates a high copper content which is typical of Nepalese sculpture. Now let's bring on our teacher for today. Lama Arya Doma is an ordained Buddhist teacher in the Karma Karjuk tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. She has completed over a decade of monastic study and meditation training. She's a graduate of the traditional Tibetan Buddhist retreat program, spanning three years and three months, an advanced meditation programs, and is a popular guest speaker at universities and organizations. 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. a transformation of contentment and a genuine sense of well-being. Please welcome Lama Arya Doma. Thank you so much for being here, Lama Arya Doma. Hello, hello. Thank you, Tashi, for the wonderful introduction. Hello and welcome everyone to today's mindful session. And thank you all for joining in.

I'm so delighted to be here with you all. So if you see the ornate background behind me, I'm in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and this is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever visited. there's art everywhere and I'm totally captivated how beautiful this place is and so talking about this beautiful art the artwork I chose I chose today's Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara that Tashi Chodron spoke about and Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara that Tashi Chodron spoke about. And Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is the embodiment of compassion. He's one of the most important deities in Buddhism who symbolizes loving kindness and compassion. So what is a Bodhisattva? A Bodhisattva refers to any individual whose aspiration is to achieve complete enlightenment, to attain perfect Buddhahood, to benefit oneself and all other sentient beings in the universe. In most Buddhist monasteries, the practice of Aulokiteshvara is an important practice.

monasteries the practice of Aulokiteshvara is an important practice and to me personally this practice of Aulokiteshvara which is a sadhana which is a recitation of prayers and mantra it was the most important practice for me and the most transformative because the practice is about loving kindness and compassion the key to this of course, is to develop our innate nature of loving kindness and compassion. And in today's challenging world, how wonderful it would be to be kind and loving to one another. to one another and Tashi children I loved your story about you know about passing the acts of kindness I would today I would be doing some acts of kindness after the meditation session as I go about in my life and this month's theme incident incidentally, is also kindness. So today's guided meditation will be on loving kindness. It's also called Metta meditation.

Loving kindness meditation is a great way to cultivate our innate ability for kindness. for kindness. It involves mentally sending kindness, love and goodwill towards everyone. So loving kindness is about opening ourselves upived mindset of prejudice, assumption, our own storylines that most of us believe. So this meditation is also a great antidote when you have overwhelming feeling of fear and anger and you don't know how to shake that feeling, because sometimes that feeling really is so compelling. So this meditation transforms your mind from that anger, from that fear, to a wellness of loving compassion and kindness. So it's a very skillful way that although the meditation perhaps we are thinking about others but it also benefits our own mind and these are age-old practices in buddhism it's tried and tested and can immediately bring inner peace and harmony to oneself.

So this is not something we made up. And these practices are more than 2,500 years old. And these practices of loving kindness and compassion is used today. Scientifically, there's so much progress using these methods, even in today's world. So how do we practice loving kindness and compassion? It's really quite simple and very easy. Well, all of us at some point in our lives have experienced unconditional love towards someone. It could be a child, it could be your mother, it could be your father, grandparents, or a friend, and wanting absolute happiness for them. We've experienced that unconditional love. And here, you know, in San Miguel de Alende, there's so many people who have lovely dogs. And you can see one of the aspects of animals, particularly our pets, they have this ability to give us unconditional love.

And so can we, we as humans, that's our innate nature. So can we, we as humans, that's our innate nature. So all we have to do in this meditation technique is to bring that feeling of deep love and kindness into our mind stream when we do this meditation. So to start, we can generate this feeling of loving kindness, happiness and well-being towards someone we already know. It could be a child, your parents, your friend and then we can extend it to all the people around us. So it's as simple as that. Just bring to your mind's attention a feeling of absolute love, compassion to someone you care deeply. And then we bring that to the whole, the same feeling to the whole universe. So let's start the guided meditation on loving kindness and compassion. Please sit upright and be comfortable.

So one of the two essential points when we start to meditate is your body posture. Sit upright and be relaxed. And second, bring your mind to the present moment. Like just bringing your mind to right now, here in this present moment and put your mind's attention on your breath. That will immediately bring you to the present moment. So let's put our mind's attention on our breath, feeling each breath as it goes in and then comes out. Breathe normally, letting the breath be just as it is without trying to change or regulate it in any way, allowing it to flow easily and naturally with its own rhythm and pace. Now, bring to your mind's attention to that feeling of unconditional love and kindness and compassion into your mind stream.

into your mind stream. Then as you breathe out, just imagine you're sending out unconditional loving kindness and compassion in a form of white light that goes out in all directions and all the beings are filled with happiness and joy. And most importantly, the light goes to oneself, filling you with loving kindness and compassion and just rest in that present moment of now. Now, so let's sit for a few moments in this light of loving kindness and compassion and visualizing that everybody also has that light of loving kindness and compassion. Thank you. So for those who have just joined us again, this meditation is about loving kindness and compassion.

It's really simple and easy to do. Inhale, breathe normally. And as you breathe in, bring to your mind's attention imagine you're sending out pure loving kindness and compassion in a form of white light that goes out in all directions and fill the entire universe with happiness and joy and make sure that yourself is completely filled in a form of white light going all into your body filled with loving kindness and compassion and sit in that present moment of awareness and breathe naturally and let's meditate for a while in this essence Thank you. And continue doing this, sending out love and compassion as many times as you wish, keeping your mind's attention, your mind's concentration on your breath. Inhale and exhale. And as you exhale, visualize you're sending out white light of loving kindness and compassion to the entire world and visualize

that every sentient beings is joyful and has happiness including yourself and let's sit in this feeling of loving kindness and compassion, joy and happiness for a few moments in this present moment. Thank you. you anytime your mind wanders off and you start thinking any thoughts, acknowledge it and just say thinking. Then drop it. Let it go. Don't follow your thought. Don't engage in it. And then return back to your breath. Put all your mind's attention on your breath. Put all your mind's attention on your breath.

Breathe in all the way to your abdomen and as you breathe out, again, just visualize you sending out light, white light, bright white light of loving kindness

and compassion to the entire world and to yourself. You're filled with the feeling of joy, happiness, compassion and kindness. and just rest in that present moment of awareness without distraction and let's sit for a few moments in this way. Thank you. We often forget to be kind to ourselves. So when you have this overwhelming feeling of fear and anger and hopelessness, this is another technique you can learn. And this technique is just wherever you are when that feeling arises just think in your mind putting my your mind's attention on your breath and then just feeling this universe's loving kindness and compassion to yourself in a form of bright light, filling your whole body, your heart.

And then just from your heart, visualize that light of loving kindness goes to the whole universe and every sentient being is happy and joyful. So what are we doing here? We are transforming that feeling of fear and anger into joyfulness. And that's what meditation is all about. It's training our mind from these negative emotions to a positive emotion. And at first, it may feel uncomfortable, you know, it may feel, oh my God, what am I doing? But slowly and slowly, you'll begin to, it can become a habit, just like when you exercise, you go and exercise your muscles, it's like exercising your mind. That's what we're doing. In all these Buddhist traditions, we're training our mind from negative emotions to positive emotions.

And this is the purpose of meditation, to train your mind. Yes, that's the key, to train your mind to be peaceful, to be calm and joyful. So this is a great, meditation and again let's all set up right we'll do this meditation one more time inhale put your mind's attention on the

breath inhale and exhale and as you exhale bring to your mind's attention someone you love deeply, the feeling of loving kindness and compassion. And feel that bright light of loving kindness and compassion all on yourself. and then from your heart center let that light permeate the entire universe and see that all the sentient beings are joyful happy at this at this moment at this present moment let's sit for a few moments in this meditation of loving-kind kindness and compassion. Thank you. Happiness and suffering, unhappiness, depends on your own mind. You know, we often blame all the external circumstances, other people, the world, the government, for all our problems. But if we carefully analyze the realities within our own mind, and the good news is we may not be able to change the other people,

the circumstances, but we can certainly change our own mind's thinking process. And how do we do this? We train our minds to have positive thoughts. So right now, you may have come today to this class from different emotional states. But this meditation technique, you can bring your mind's state from, say, negative emotions to immediately transform to positive emotions. And this is the key to meditation, transforming your thought process from negative again to positive emotions. So meditation is one of the best tools you can use out there to learn to be happy all the time. And so when you see a lot of these practitioners, you know, the nun that was practicing there in Ladakh, reciting mantras, doing meditation this is what most of the most of us do in the monasteries

trying to transform our minds from all these negative uh obscurations to positive uh emotions so uh we'll do this one more minute so again sit, put your mind's attention on your breath, inhale. And as you breathe out, bring to your mind's attention deep love, compassion, kindness. And from your heart, visualize a bright light of the feeling of loving kindness and compassion permeate the entire universe and just visualize that all the sentient beings are happy and joyful and let's sit for a minute for a few moments in this state and also filling your own self with loving kindness and compassion and let's rest in this present moment of awareness Thank you. So relax all of us. Thank you all of us who participated in this wonderful meditation. It is absolutely acts of kindness that you have done today because you

have transformed yourself and then wherever you go today you'll be spreading that energy, the aura of kindness and loving compassion. thank you so much for that kindest session lama arya doma and thank you all for joining us we will see you in three weeks time have a wonderful labor day weekend please stay safe and take good care that concludes this week's practice if you would like to support The Rubin and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member of The Rubin. If you're looking for more inspiring content, please check out our other podcast, Awaken, a podcast that uses art to explore the dynamic paths to enlightenment

and what it means to wake up. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.