Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lavina Shamdasani 01/23/25

Episode Date: January 31, 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 13:02.Teacher: Lavina Shamdasani Theme: Intention Artwork: Ritual Bone Apron; Tibet/Nepal; 18th–19th century; bone; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2006.69.4Learn 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 Churden. Every Thursday, we offer a meditation session at New York Insight 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 Insight 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 the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program here at the New York Insight Meditation Center. I'm Tashi Choudhury, delighted to be your host today. Fulfillness Meditation Program here at the New York Insight Meditation Center. I'm Tashi Chodron, delighted to be your host today. Wow, what a week we had, right? And the whole world, I think, was glued in front of the screen and whatnot. So we've had a really amazing, interesting, and incredible week. The Rubin is a global hub for Himalayan art,

and we're 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 look at work of art. We will hear a brief talk from our teacher, Lavina Shyamdasani. And then we will have a short set, about 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. And let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. This month we are still exploring on the theme of intention.

As beginning of the year, you know, we come up with so many resolutions and what not. So in the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, your intention, your pure intention, your motivation, your good intention is considered very important for your own wellbeing. And the art connection for today's session, which is handpicked by our teacher,

is this beautiful bone ornament. This is a ritual bone apron, in fact, and it is Tibet Nepal, about 18th to 19th century. This is about 24 and a half into 31 and a half into one and a half inches. So as you can see here, very elaborate translucent, intricate designs. You can see lotuses, you can see deities face and different figures dancing as well. The connection to the ritual object, this is made from bone, which are a potent symbol of our mortality.

And then they serve as a reminder to live purposefully and intentionally. Now, bone ornaments are called rujen in Tibetan word. And I understand that there are about five to six different types of born ornaments. And this particular one is an apron. There are also crown, headwear, bracelets, necklaces made out of bone. And this particular one is made out of animal bone.

Similar aprons are also worn by Tantric masters during different initiations. So let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Lavina Shamdasani. Lavina is a certified compassion teacher through the Compassion Institute and Stanford University. She has taught programs focused on mindfulness, compassion, joy, and gratitude, and led book club discussions and meditations for over five years.

Lavina studied positive psychology coaching at the Whole Being Institute and helps clients transform their lives and meet their personal and professional goals. Find Lavina at souljoybylavina.com. Please help me in welcoming Lavina Shamdasani. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Tashi, for that warm welcome. Thank you also to the Rubin Museum

for inviting me back today. And thank you to all of you for joining us in this brutally cold weather. Really appreciate you coming to share in Mindfulness Thursday. And that was a beautiful description of the bone apron. And if you really think about it, as what Tashi said to us, it's really truly, ultimately, what we all leave behind, isn't it?

When you really think about it. And so to keep that in mind, as we think about this month's topic, which is intention, so living with intention. And what does that mean to live with intention? And so I think about it as infusing purpose into everything that we do. Infusing purpose into everything that we do. infusing purpose into everything that we do.

And so what is our purpose? How do we define purpose? Does that word scare anyone? What is your purpose? Is that scary? It was terrifying for me for many, many years. I was sort of like, oh my goodness, what is my purpose? You know, and I knew with certainty that I needed purpose,

but I had a very difficult time articulating and defining and finding a clear path towards this purpose. It feels like a big word, especially when you think about life and impermanence. And I felt this urgency to say, oh, wow, I really need to know what my purpose is. And in all honesty, if you really think about it, it's about moving through life with connectedness to your inner self. Moving through life with connectedness to your inner values, staying in touch with your intuition and really following, following sort of what brings you joy and what you might be here to do, what joy you might offer the world. And it's not necessarily as complicated as it sounds.

You might fine tune your purpose, shift your purpose ever so slightly as you learn more, as you gain experience in the world. But really for me, it's about being in touch with your gut in a way, your values, your ethics and how you want to live out life. And elaborating a bit on purpose and the difference between purpose and goals, right? So purpose is about coloring your day with something that sets the tone for how you want to lead your day, your week, your year. It can have small intention to move towards purpose and big intention. A goal on the other hand is sort of small steps into getting to a life filled with purpose.

Does that make sense? So I Googled what is purpose before I came here today. And purpose can be defined as wanting to raise a family, creating a business that has a positive impact on the world, dedicating yourself to a cause, be it climate change, or as simple as bringing joy to everyone that you meet along this journey of life. And goals are sort of, how do I do that?

If I wanna become that entrepreneur that makes a positive impact in life, well, how am I gonna, what's the business I want to create? Defining that and setting up milestones for creating that business. And so those are goals, but purpose is larger than a goal. And so really to find that connection with oneself, what we need is mindfulness, a sense of awareness. What we need is the gift of sitting with ourselves in silence and spaciousness

to really tune in to what really makes me happy. And I'm talking about the lasting joys. You know, of course a burger makes us happy momentarily, as might a new purchase, but really lasting joy. Sort of that calm at the bottom of the ocean. How do we get that peace, that inner peace? And so, settling the mind and tuning into mindfulness meditation, we can get to know ourselves better. And as we get to know ourselves better,

we can set intention to live our lives with purpose. I wanna add, as Tashi mentioned, it's a new year, everyone's setting goals, making lists of, you know, here's what I wanna do in 2025. And as we set intentions, making lists of, you know, here's what I want to do in 2025. And as we set intentions, we might get distracted. There's so many different things that we can do with our time.

And that's okay. But setting intention, living with intention is checking in, in a couple of days to say, hey, how am I doing with this goal? Or how am I doing with the intention that I set? And if we get off the path momentarily, that's okay. We might have learned that this is what we want to be doing less of going forward, right? Or we might have learned that,

hey, I need to fine tune my purpose to include this that I've been doing, because it really does bring me joy. So never sort of resisting even going off track, but finding time to set intention. If you can every day, if not every week, check in with yourself to see if you're following that set intention. And so we'll tune into this moment, this gift of being together and engaging in meditation together to really ask ourselves those questions today. This really is the opportunity to sit with ourselves in stillness and silence and spaciousness,

to see how we're doing, to check in and discover if we're truly living with the intentions and if those intentions are bringing us joy. So when you're ready, if you could find a comfortable position, you can shift around a bit and settle into whatever position promotes comfort and alertness. And when you're ready, you can lower your gaze or close your eyes. And we'll begin with three deep diaphragmatic breaths to just relax and shift, really inhaling And exhaling through the mouth for these first three breaths. Relaxing any residual tension we may be experiencing. Inhaling again. And exhaling and relaxing on the exhale. And one last final inhale.

And letting go, releasing on the exhale. And now simply breathe normally. Inhaling and exhaling through your nostrils. Bringing your attention to the sensations of the breath. Noticing the rise and fall of your chest as you inhale and exhale. Noticing the flow of breath on the inhale, the ever so slightly warm breath on the exhale. And remembering that if your mind wanders, as the mind will wander, just ever so gently notice where the mind goes. acknowledge the thought, the worry, the desire, and gently release. Each time the mind wanders is an opportunity to tune in to what's showing up for you today.

And release the thought, bringing your attention back to your breath, trying to expand the one thought and another. Noticing what comes up for you today and meeting that with unconditional kindness and compassion. Remembering that there is no judgment, no good thought or bad thought, simply unconditional kindness towards yourself. upon yesterday. how it progressed, what you accomplished or did not accomplish. And just reflecting on what elements of the day really brought you sustained joy. Recall moments of flow where you are in complete connection with the mind and body. And really tune into how that felt in the moment. And as you reflect upon your day, might there be anything you want to do less of, to create space for anything you want to do more of. And now letting go of yesterday, bringing your attention back to your breath. And I invite you now to reflect on January. Recalling moments again. Of flow. Energy.

Joy. energy, joy, contentment, And as you think about time past, moments might come up where you might have wished to have done different. Meeting any of those thoughts with unconditional love and forgiveness. dawns on us every day. And now releasing, thinking back on January and just bringing your attention back to your breath. And I'll walk you through a visualization asking you to transport yourself to a place of calm, what for you truly represents of calm, openness, energy. Imagining that you found a little pebble in this place and holding the pebble, feeling its texture in the palm of your hand. The soft contours, irregular and smooth. hold this pebble ask yourself if there was anything that you wanted

anything that you would like to do what would that be? And really searching deeper to what might lead to sustained calm and joy for you. And taking that pebble and tossing it into the river, the ocean, the forest. Really listen to what surfaces for you.... And as you contemplate your inner true joy. Notice any shift inward that you have all the resources, strength, wisdom, everything you need to take you one step closer to this true joy. And releasing the visualization. And let's just enjoy the gift of sitting with our breath for these last few minutes.. Thank you... When you're ready, gently open your eyes. I just wanted to share how thankful we are to have this wonderful space, thankful to the New York Insight for the space where we could all come together every week to do such wonderful practice. And thank you,

Lavina, for such a wonderful session. 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 rubinmuseum.org slash friends. If you are 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 4 hosted by Isabella Rossellini delves into the Buddhist concept of attachment and explores how the practice of letting go can transform our experience of the world. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. And to learn more about the Rubin Museum's work

around the world, visit rubinmuseum.org. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.