Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lama Aria Drolma 11/16/2023

Episode Date: November 24, 2023

Theme: Appreciation Artwork: Mandala Offering set; Central Tibet; mid 20th century; gilt silver; Rubin Museum of Art; gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin http://therubin.org/37mTeacher: Lama Aria DrolmaThe Rubin Museum of Art presents a weekly 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 recorded in front of a live audience, and includes an opening talk, a 20-minute sitting session, and a closing discussion. 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 afternoon, everyone. Tashi Delek and welcome. Welcome to Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum of Art. I'm Tashi Chodun, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador,

and I'm so happy to be your host today. We are a global hub for Himalayan art with a home base in Chelsea, New York City, and we're so glad to have all of you join us for our weekly program where we combine art and meditation. Inspired by our collection, we will first take a look at work of art. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher, Lama Arya Droma, and then we will have a short sit, 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. Now let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The artwork for today's session is this beautiful mandala offering set, origin Tibet, dated mid 20th century, gilt silver. The size is about 10 and a half into five and a half into five and a

half inches and it's a ritual object. The connection to the theme, the practice of giving, opens our hearts and foster a sense of appreciation and gratitude. Mandala in Tibetan word is called kil kor. It can be translated as literally as center and circumference. A mandala is generally depicted as a circle which revolves around a center. On the simplest level, a mandala can be understood to be us, the student or practitioner, and the phenomenal world around us. practitioner and the phenomenal world around us. The word mandala also describes an integrated structure that is organized around a central unifying principle. The mandala offering is a symbolic offering made by Buddhist practitioners. It is presented to teachers. The mandala presents

the entire universe with this act of giving. the practitioner envisions offering all that is both material and immaterial to the universe. The act of giving is conducted for the purpose of purification and the accumulation of merit. It is beneficial in training the mind to let go of attachment. Now, some of you may be more familiar with the sand mandala, which is created by many monks painstakingly for many hours, and then at the end, with one strike, the whole thing will be destroyed, and it is a symbol of to understand the impermanence. Then there's also the mandala offering, asking your teacher to live long or thanking the teacher for his kindness and generosity. So now let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Lama Arya Doma.

Lama Arya Doma is an ordained Buddhist teacher in the Karma Karju tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, who has completed the three years, three months retreat, 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 Droma, thank you so much for being here. Please help me in welcoming Lama Arya Dromala. Good afternoon everyone and welcome.

Thank you all for coming in today to this meditation gathering, the session. And thank you, Tashi, for the introduction. And as Tashi mentioned, today's theme is appreciation. And the art object I chose was this ritual mandala. There are many, many forms of mandala. There are small ones. And in our monastery, I live in a monastery in upstate Duchess County. We have a huge mandala. And what it represents is offerings to the Buddha.

All the circles are many, many universes and sacred symbols. And because we practice the six paramitas, one being generosity, so we're always constantly offering the Buddhas all our desires, all the universe, every desirable object we see. And when they practice a formal mandala to the lama who's a teacher, we consider him like a Buddha because he's the teacher. So we are offering him the mandala as reverence and as generosity. And we, while we are watching them perform the formal ritual, we then with our hands do this symbol, is also a hand symbol of offering the mandala. And then once all the prayers are done, we just do this and say, here's the offering to

the Buddhas. So that is the mandala. And as all of you are present today and we see all the suffering that's going on in the world today, I'm sure all of us are feeling a lot of pain, anger, a stream of emotions, anger, powerlessness, hopelessness, you name it, we are feeling it. And I can see all of y'all come in with such heavy hearts because we don't know what to do with it. We don't know how to resolve anything. And every day in the television news, we are watching this and we feel really helpless. And today, for this reason, I chose this wonderful meditation. And the meditation is called Tonglen. And this meditation started in 11th or 12th century. And it was by two women. One is Sukhasiddhi and Niguma. These were awakened women. That was the first lineage tradition of this Tonglen practice.

It's spelled as T-O-N-G-L-E-N. And the practice is all about transformation from all our negative feelings to positive feelings and the positive feeling of compassion. So all of the Buddha's teachings, there's 85,000 teachings, all has to do about the transformation of our mind. So that is what the Buddha's teachings are all about. And today I want to share a story. It was absolutely unbelievable. Here I was in the train station coming here and there were two ticket machines and I was like, you know, pumping in all the numbers to get a ticket. And I saw from the corner of my eyes this man coming and there was another ticket machine. And I saw from the corner of my eyes, this man coming and there was another ticket

machine. And I said, oh, he's not, he has, I didn't think much, but I just saw him from the corner of the eyes. And as I was like punching all the numbers and everything, and there on that screen, I could see this huge shadow looming. And I was like, absolutely terrified. I was like, oh my God, I don't see anyone here. I'm going to get mugged. And what is the protocol of mugging? Will he say, madam, put your hands up? Or what is he going to say? And if I have my hands up, how am I going to give my hand? All these thoughts were going on in my head. And I was like petrified. I have never been mugged. And so I don't know the protocol. And my heart was like tugging. And I'm like petrified. I have never been mugged. And so I don't know the protocol. And my heart was like tugging. And I'm like, oh, no. And I said, OK, I have $15. I'm going to give that.

I'm going to hide my credit cards. And where will I hide my phone? All these thoughts were going terrified, anger, you know, how dare he does this? And why aren't all the people here? You know, because there are a lot of people in this train station and then I look back with such horror and this man was taller than me and he said ma'am I'm just giving you shade from the sun and the voice was so gentle and you know this ticket machine had the sun hitting on it. And he said, I'm shading you from the sun. And my heart from that rage, anger, fear, it just melted. And I can't tell you the absolute compassion I felt at that moment. So much so, I just wanted to bend down and touch his feet in reverence.

Because the kindest words, I'm shading you from the sun. What, here we are seeing all these terrible atrocities happening to people. And here's this man shading me from the sun. And what a gentle voice, a gentle being. And I realized something, you know, that feelings and emotions we are having of fear, rage, anger, all that in a minute can change into something, compassion and love. And even this man was such a gentle soul. Even when I got into the train,

I don't know why they make those doors so heavy. Nobody can shift anything. You know, you can't kick anything. And here was this man again, pulling that door for me to enter. I found my seat and I sat on the seat and I said, what an absolute beautiful day I'm having. I mean, And I said, what an absolute beautiful day I'm having. I mean, how did this blessing happen? Because these are the small miracles that happen in our lives. And, you know, we need to give attention to these small miracles because we always put our attention on all the terrible things that's happening. because we always put our attention on all the terrible things that's happening. And so I sat back and I said, oh, wow, this is how I went a little backward. And I said, what did I do to deserve this beautiful kindness today?

And guess what? I, when I woke up today, I did the same thing. I have a ritual. I bring to mind about five thoughts of gratitude. And then I just pray to Mother Tara for the blessings because I'm coming to the city and the city is very adventurous. Many things can happen in the city. So and I know all of you are going to be there and sending blessings to all the people. So this is a ritual that I do every day. And I started the day that way. And when I went to get my coffee, there's this beautiful, there's a deli and the man,

the owner of that deli, he's running to be a city supervisor or something. And he's a lovely, wonderful man. And so I said, I'm rooting for you, Jay. And he said, thank you. And, you know, I said it with real compassion because, you know, I felt that there are other contenders and I was like, I wanted to cheer him up, you know. And that led to this train station. And here was this man shading me from the sun, his compassion towards me, a total stranger. What is the point of the story? The point of the story is all of you are probably here with very heavy hearts. The atrocities we are seeing, what is happening, and we have such deep sadness because we are all interconnected. And I want to tell you

how that moment when I saw that man's compassion, my whole heart just felt absolute love. And the Tonglen practice is also that. Whatever you're feeling, the feeling of rage, the feeling of hopelessness, the feeling of powerlessness, you can shift it and bring about compassion in your heart. Why? Because everyone's prayers, everyone's intention, emotions of intention, everything can shift the energy in the world. Just as we are bombarded with all these terrible stories, atrocities, we also have to understand there are beautiful things happening around the world. There's love, there's happiness, there's light

that we don't see in the news because it's not that exciting. And just to let you all know what happened the month of November, there is a beautiful Tibetan festival called La Bab Duchen. And what it means is there is a story that Lord Buddha, he went to the heavenly realm to teach his mother to become enlightened. His mother died while giving birth to him, and he felt so blessed, and he wanted to teach her how to get away from the samsara, and she was in a heavenly realm.

So he went to this realm to teach all of them how to be enlightened, and he told the beings on the earth, I'm going to be coming down, and everybody was waiting for him to come down because we all wanted to hear his teachings and continue the teachings. So he descended on that day. And on that day, in our monastery, for three days, we held chanting and prayers all throughout the day. And that was like bringing light and positivity, and we lit lamps and so on.

That was the energy of that. And then, again, what happened in India, we were all celebrating, some of the Indian ladies here, we all know we were celebrating Diwali in India. And guess what? In this beautiful city called Ayodhya, it's in Uttar Pradesh, they lit 2.2 million lamps.

And Diwali is also about the good over evil. And we are putting all the light for this Lord Rama to come back because it's actually a beautiful story, Ramayana, but it's also the story of our own lives, how we fight light and darkness. And in India, we have a billion people. So imagine if 500 people celebrated it, imagine the energy that is permeating through the world. And so all the other countries,

they were doing some kind of positivity, but we don't get to hear that. And these positivity absolutely outweigh the negativity we are going through. So do know in our hearts, we can shift this negativity. And this is the meditation practice I'll be teaching you.

It's again, it's called Tonglen if you want to go and look up. And there's different types of this meditation. Some are very intense. But the meditation I will teach you is about self-compassion. As you see all these anger, rage, hopelessness happening in your heart, powerlessness, you can have compassion. You can bring to your mind compassion and shift that energy. So let's all sit up.

I'll take you through this meditation. And sit as comfortably as you can. And sit as comfortably as you can. So the meditation is this way. We will put our mind's attention on our breath and breathe in and breathe out. And keep our mind's attention on our breath. And what does the mind do? The mind will wander off.

And when the mind wanders off, it's okay. Just say, thinking. Label it as thinking. And then again, don't follow the story because the mind has a lot of wonderful stories when you're quiet. And just say, thinking. Drop it. And again, bring your mind's attention on your breath. In this session, all you have to do is keep bringing your mind's attention on your breath. In this session, all you have to do is keep bringing your mind's attention on your breath.

You know, almost like riding on that breath. You know, as it goes in, as it goes out. And then what we are going to do is we are going to bring into our mind stream this beautiful white light which will be in your heart center and in your mind stream the thought of unconditional compassion this is something you your mother may have shown you this unconditional love your grandmother your grandfather someone very close to you. So we're going to bring that into our mind stream and in the heart center, it'll be a beautiful light filled with this mind stream of unconditional love, okay? So I'll guide you and we will go through this meditation

of compassion. So please sit up right again, very comfortably, and bring your mind's attention to your breath. Breathe in and breathe out naturally at your own pace. And in your heart center bring this beautiful white light and the feeling of unconditional love in your mind stream in your mind stream. And just let's sit for a moment, breathing in and breathing out with this feeling of unconditional love. Now, feel that light fill your entire body from your head to toe

and surround yourself with that beautiful light and the feeling of unconditional love in your mind stream and the light from your heart goes out to the entire universe and touches every human being

every sentient being and just sit in that mindset. Feel that deep self-compassion for yourself, that unconditional love permeating from your head all the way to your toes and surrounding yourself with that white light. As soon as you notice your mind has wandered off into a thought, just say, thinking, drop it, drop the story, and bring your mind's attention to your breath. Your breath could be very subtle.

Just ride on that breath, going in and coming out. Just observe it without any judgment. If your breath is very subtle, just do a little bit deliberately a deep breath, taking it all into your abdomen and breathing out. and in your heart center this beautiful light and in your mind stream the feeling of unconditional love and the light fills you from your head to toe surrounds you

with loving, unconditional compassion, filling yourself and just sit for a moment feeling this.. Let us also bring to mind appreciation for everything we have, the freedom, the freedom to come here, to sit here, to meditate in the quietness, our safety, for everything we have in our life. Again, in your heart center center feel that unconditional love someone generated towards you

your mother, your father, your brother or your grandparents fill from your head to your toes fill it with light and the feeling of unconditional love and compassion and from your heart sender, send that unconditional love and compassion to the entire world touching every sentient being and see them all being happy And when you feel a sense of hopelessness, powerlessness, this is a great meditation that we can do, which is very intentional, sending out this light of compassion and unconditional

love to every sentient being, and hoping and blessing that they're all going to be happy. Inhale and exhale. Put your mind's attention on your breath, and if your mind wanders off, it's okay, just say thinking, let that storyline, drop the storyline, and again come back to your breath. breath and cleanse your body of all that pain and rage and anger through this beautiful light of unconditional love and compassion. and again let's visualize this beautiful light in our heart center filled with unconditional love and compassion let it fill our whole body from head to toe and surround ourselves with that light. And from our heart center, let that light go to every sentient being like in a rays of light and touch every sentient being with unconditional love and compassion and wish

them happiness. Inhale and exhale, breathe normally at your own pace. and now slowly we'll open eyes this is how we transform with this tonglen practice you know all the rage and all the anger, everything, powerlessness, we transform that thought with the thought of compassion. And like so, it's very easy. The more you practice, you'll see how easy it is to transform these thoughts. And this is really a practice. There's a lineage, and it's from 11th and 12th century, from these great, awakened, enlightened women.

Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much, Lama Ariyadroma. 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 slash e-news. I am Tashi Chodron. Thank you so much for listening. Have a mindful day.