Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lama Aria Drolma 10/31/2022

Episode Date: November 4, 2022

Theme: OpennessArtwork: Stupa; Tibet; ca.13th century or 14th century; copper alloy inset with turquoise; Rubin Museum of Art; http://therubin.org/35-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 12:10.  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 and supported by the Frederick Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism. And now, please enjoy your practice. Hello, Tashi Derlek. Hello, everyone, Tashi Derlek, and happy Halloween. Welcome. Welcome to Mindfulness Meditation Online with Ruben Museum of Art. I'm Tashi Chodron and I'm 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 a weekly program where we combine art and meditation online. Inspired from our collection, we will take a look at a work of art. We will hear a brief talk from

our teacher and then we will have a short set about 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by our teacher. Now let's take a look at today's art and the theme. We are actually exploring on the theme of openness and today is the last session for this month. And the art connection for today, as you see here, this beautiful stupa, it's a Tibet origin, about 13th to 14th century. And the dimension of this, I believe it's about 14 inches height and about seven by seven inches sculpture. And this stupa is on view in the

gallery as well. So the stupa, as you see here, in Tibetan, it's called cherten for stupa, cherten. Stupa is a symbol found across all Buddhist traditions. It's originated in India as a mound made to hold sacred remains like those of the historical Shakyamuni Buddha. In fact, the great stupa, it's called Maha Stupa, also known as the number one stupa that was built originally in the 3rd century BCE by the Emperor Ashoka, is believed to house or hold ashes of the historical Buddha. But the stupas are not limited to the remains of holy person, may also include objects associated with great teachers, awakened or realized masters, their clothes, as well as sacred texts, masters, their clothes, as well as sacred texts, articles of worship, and so forth. This particular stupa that we're looking at is called Kadam style. There are many different

types of stupas. There are Namgyal, stupa, churtan, and then the Kadam style. And what's unique about these stupa is, as you see here, it's got this parasol kind of shape on top with this beautiful flowy going upward kind of the ribbon going upward holding the lotus-like dome on top and the parasol shape and then in the middle you can also see the one of the unique of Kadam is the 13 descending discs below. So there is 13 discs sort of descending. And then in the middle, you see this beautiful square balcony-like structure, as you see there. And then on the bottom is the most distinctive or unique feature, the sort of round bell-shaped bottom. And then you also see all the way to the bottom is the double lotus petal.

So lotus in Hinduism and Buddhism symbolizes awakening or purity. And so you would often find the lotus petals on stupas or in the thangka paintings, great teachers sitting or standing on lotus throne. So now let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Lama Arya Droma. Thank you so much, Lama Arya Droma, for being here. Lama Arya Droma is an ordained Buddhist teacher in the Karmakarju tradition of Tibetan Buddhism who has completed over a decade of monastic studies and meditation training.

She's a graduate of the traditional Tibetan Buddhist retreat program spanning three years and three months, an advanced meditation training program at Phalpung Thupten Choling Monastery, New York. Lama Arya Droma teaches worldwide, leading retreats, workshops, and corporate meditation programs, and is a popular guest speaker at universities and organizations. She emphasizes Vajrayana Buddhism,

which is Tibetan 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 Doma, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Tashi.

Thank you so much. Welcome, everyone. And I'm so happy to be here today. I'm so happy to be here today. I'm delighted and thank you Tashi for the introduction. Hello everyone from all over the world wherever you all are joining from. So the theme this month is openness. Definitely very much needed in today's world and the artwork as Tashi mentioned is the stupa. A stupa is a Buddhist monument and there are different types of stupa some are spectacular with gold embellishments and ornate figures and some are more plain and some are small that we can

carry with us as a reminder of Buddha's awakening. But the main function of a stupa is to preserve relics and different religious objects and a place to meditate and pray. So the shape of the stupa represents a seated Buddha when he achieved enlightenment. The bottom square base represents the Buddha's cross leg as he sat on earth. And the middle section or the mound is the Buddha's body. And at the top of the stupa that represents the Buddha's head. So when visiting a stupa, practitioners circumambulate it clockwise as a meditation

practice focusing on the endless cycle of samsara and rebirth and to keep reminding us, you know, the awakened state of mind. And Tashi, obviously, we will be talking more about the stupa. And in our monastery here, we have a beautiful stupa, which is very ornate. And it really, really takes immense precision to build a stupa so and the idea again is whenever anyone sees the stupa the stupa will represent our purpose in life to be in a you know to achieve the awakened state that buddha buddha was able achieve. So the theme this month is openness. And we live in a daily base with a closed mindset, you know, quick to judge, always judging. That's what our mind does constantly. Anything you look at, you know, the mind judges good, bad, ugly,

Anything you look at, you know, the mind judges good, bad, ugly or aversion or love. And so that's what the mind constantly judge. And most of us get stuck in our mindset. You know, we're not open to new ideas. We are too afraid. We are so set in our mindset to new ideas, to new cultures, to newness of anything. We are too afraid sometimes, you know, because we say, oh, to having that childlike curiosity and openness really brings happiness to our lives. But in all this, the greatest harm we do to ourself is we judge ourselves harshly. You know, we're not open to our own growth and

experience. So many of us end up hating ourselves. And we are very hard on ourselves, we have very little compassion for ourselves. And some of us live with a lot of guilt and we don't know how to open up to other people's love because of the deep guilt and judgment we have about our lives and we lead a very closed and unhappy life but there's always the bright side because at any moment the minute you make up your mind, you know, there's no, I'm not going to live a life of just judgment. I'm going to be open to new ideas and new cultures and new views. There'll be an instant shift and you'll just feel the lightness of being. So today's mindful meditation provides an avenue to transform our closed mindset by learning to increase our awareness of openness, of openness to experience

by not identifying with negative thoughts and emotions, staying engaged within challenging life experiences by not judging, just being there, you know, and having that experience, just experiencing that. We're too afraid, you know, when we have really strong negative emotions to even acknowledge that. But mindfulness meditation, to even acknowledge that. But mindfulness meditation, you know, with that practice, you can keep, you know, when these challenges come up, you can see that, you know, it'll come and go. And you're just going to be present in that now. So by letting go, having a sense of openness,

there's a lightness of being, there's a lightness of a heart, there's a lightness of the mind. And today's mindfulness meditation is a body scan meditation to let go of the pain, the guilt we store in the body. We store unworthiness. We store unworthiness. We are storing our life's happenings, negative emotions. So opening up our awareness and opening up to the possibilities and just being present with an open heart. So this is what this wonderful meditation is about. And the instructions are very, very simple. And this is

a body scan meditation to let go of all the things you're keeping in all the different parts of our body. So first, as we start this meditation, please sit upright. And in this body scan meditation you can also lie down and you can keep your eyes closed or you can keep your eyes open and you can keep your if you're sitting keep your legs parallel to the ground and just sit upright be relaxed and if you're lying, be relaxed as you lie down as well. So what we'll do is when we start this meditation, we are going to take three deep breaths. We inhale very deeply. And as you exhale, just breathe out all your negativities, all your worries, all your negative emotions. Just breathe it out with like a big sigh. And this is how the first breath. So let's all sit upright, relax. And if you're lying down, be relaxed and you can close your eyes so you can keep them open. So let's take the first deep breath.

Inhale deeply like so. As you exhale, just let go of all your negative thoughts, your worries and all your challenges you face today. And the second breath. Again, inhale deeply. And as you exhale, breathe out all your negative worries and emotions. Just breathe it out like so. And now the third breath. Breathe in deeply. And breathe out with a sigh and let all your negative emotions worries and today's life challenges just let go of everything and then come back to your center sit upright check your posture now you will breathe normally you will breathe according to your

pace you'll breathe gently and you can keep your eyes closed again and you can lie down. So now we will begin the body scan meditation. So remember, you'll breathe normally. Now gently bring your awareness to your top of your head. Breathe in and breathe out. Relax the top of your head and just let go and rest in that present moment of open awareness. And we'll sit here for a few moments. Let go of all your worries and negative emotions you're holding on, on the top to your forehead. Inhale and exhale. And as you exhale, relax your forehead. And let go of all the pain you're holding in there, all the painful thoughts.

And rest in that moment of open awareness. Breathe in and breathe out. Breathe gently. Thank you. Now gently bring your awareness to your eyes, to your cheeks, to your lips and to your jaws. to your lips and to your jaws breathe in and breathe out and as you exhale relax your eyes your cheeks your lips your jaws and just let go of all the pain of all the pain, all the relax, your whole jawline, and just rest in that present moment of awareness. And just sit for a few moments. Breathe naturally. Now gently bring your awareness to your neck, to the front of your neck, to the back of your neck. Breathe in and breathe out.

Relax your whole neck and relax any tension or pain or anything you're holding. Just let go. And just rest in that present moment. Of open awareness. Letting go of all your pain. And just relax. Thank you. Now gently bring your awareness to your shoulders. Breathe in and breathe out. Drop your shoulders slightly.

Relax your shoulders and see all the tension there melt away. And all the pain and strong emotions or anything you're holding there, just let go. And just let go and rest your mind in that open awareness in the present moment. And let's sit like this for a moment. Thank you. So So So So So So So

So So So So So So So Now gently bring your awareness to your arms, all the way from your shoulders to your fingertips. Breathe in and breathe out. And as you breathe out, relax your arm all the way to your fingertips.

Relax your arm all the way to your fingertips. And just let go of all the pain you feel there or all the pain you're carrying there. And just rest in that present moment of awareness. Rest in that present moment of open awareness. Rest in that present moment of open awareness and just let's sit for a few moments, letting go. Thank you. Now gently bring your awareness to your chest, the whole chest area. Breathe in and breathe out. And as you breathe out, relax your whole chest area and just let go of any pain, anything you're storing there negative memories just let go and just rest in that present open awareness

let's sit for a few moments Thank you.... . . . . . . .

. . .. Now gently bring your awareness to your whole abdomen. Breathe normally. Breathe in and breathe out. And as you breathe out, relax the whole abdomen area and just let go of all the pain, any negative emotions you're storing there. Just let go and rest in that present moment of open awareness and let's sit for a few moments like this. Now, gently bring your awareness all the way back down,

where your body's in contact with the chair or cushion or the floor, and feel your body grounded and sit upright or lie more comfortably. Breathe normally. Breathe in and breathe out. And as you breathe out, just relax and let go of all the pain you feel on your back. on your back and just rest at the in the present moment of open awareness letting go of all your pain you have stored and let's sit for a few moments this week. Now gently bring your awareness to your whole leg, your thighs, your knees, calves, feet, toes, and just let go of all the pain you feel or all the pain you have stored. Just let go and rest in that present moment of open awareness.

And let's sit like this for a few moments. Thank you. Now gently bring your awareness to your whole body. perfect the way you are because you have that Buddha nature that we all have that all the sentient beings have that goodness that we call Buddha nature so

just sit or if you're lying down that's fine too breathe in and breathe out and as you breathe out just let go of all the pain all the negative emotions you are storing in just let go and rest in that open awareness in this present moment. And let's sit for a few moments this way, breathing in naturally, breathe in and breathe out. Thank you. So now we'll come back slowly. And again, we will take three deep breaths. So the first breath, inhale deeply.

And as you exhale, just let go of all your pain. And have an open heart, an open mind. And just breathe in all the loving light. And second breath. Again, breathe in. And as you breathe out, breathe out with a sigh. You're breathing out all your pain and negative emotions. And then the third breath.

Again, breathe in the light of love. And as you breathe out, just breathe out all your pain. And with a sigh. And you've done really well and this is a great way to relax your whole body and mind and having this openness and gentleness and this is a meditation that you can always do and it's called a body scan meditation And this is a meditation that you can always do. And it's called a body scan meditation. And now we will sit again, upright, relaxed. And now we'll do a few more minutes of meditation, putting our mind's attention on our breath.

And just relax and having an open heart, a gentle heart, opening our minds to all the possibilities, to all the love and letting go of all our pain and all the guilt we carry and all the unworthiness we feel. The universe has abundance to give us in form of loving light. And so when we open up, we receive. So let's sit upright and put our mind's attention on our breath. Just observe the breath going in and coming out. And we'll breathe normally right now. Again, breathe in and breathe out.

Breathe in normally, gently. And as you breathe out, let your breath fill the entire space, opening your mind. Opening your heart and being gentle with yourself. Somewhere around now, your thoughts may have wandered off, your mind may have wandered off to some thoughts. And when you catch yourself thinking while you're doing mindfulness meditation just say thinking and let go of that thought let go of the story and bring your mind's attention again

back to observing your mind observing your breath put your mind's attention on your breath going in and going out we are not stopping our thoughts because that's the nature of the mind. The thoughts come and go. And the mind is like this open, spacious sky. And our thoughts are like clouds that come and go. And we have to let go. So when you see, when you know that you're thinking, just say thinking and bring your mind's attention back to your breath.

Just observing your breath. So now we can all relax. And I hope this meditation was helpful. I hope you were relaxed. And I hope you felt that openness in your heart and in your mind. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Lama Aryadroma, for reminding us all that we are all born with that wisdom, that Buddha nature, and that we each have

the seed to happiness. Thank you for that beautiful session. That concludes this week's practice. If you would like to support the Ruben and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member of the Ruben. If you're 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 2, hosted by Raveena Arora, is out now and explores the transformative power of emotions using a mandala as a guide. Available wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.