Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lavina Shamdasani 10/31/2024

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

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 13:53. Teacher: Lavina ShamdasaniTheme: OpennessSkull cup; Nepal; ca. 18th century; metalwork and human skull; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2004.8.1a-b (HAR 65333)Learn 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 Chodron. Every Thursday, we offer a meditation session at New York Inside Meditation Center that draws inspiration from an artwork from the Rubens 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, Tashi Derlek and welcome. Happy Halloween. I forgot my costume, sorry. And happy Diwali. It's a very special day today. Diwali is a Hindu festival. It's a festival of lights, which is known to be the victory of good over evil, light over the darkness, and then knowledge over the ignorance. So welcome. Welcome to Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program at New York Inside Meditation Center. I'm Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador,

and I'm delighted to be your host today. The Rubin 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 for today. In fact, I often say it is handpicked by our teacher. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher, Lavina Shyamdasani. And I was just saying earlier how wonderful

and how amazing that we are celebrating Diwali today all over the world. And here we have Lavina as our teacher. So it's such a beautiful, meaningful session. Then we will have a short set about 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. So let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. We are still exploring on the theme of openness. And the artwork for today's sessions is this beautiful skull cup, origin Nepal, dated 18th century. It's metal work and human skull. Yes, it is the real human skull.

And it's about seven and a half into five and a half into eight and a half inches. And this is a ritual object. And the connection for the theme, the skull cup, which is called Töpa in Tibetan word, and in Sanskrit it's Kapala, embodies the impermanence nature of this world. of this world. When practitioners grasp the illusory nature of reality, they are open and sustain the bliss of non-conceptual wisdom. The skull cup is a tantric ritual object. Revered figures such as Padmasambhava and many amazing great teachers, often portrayed holding a skull cup. The skull signifies the empty nature of all things, including the self. The skull is often paired with a flaying knife

in images of tantric deities such as Vajrayogini. Both implements are meant to focus the practitioner's mind. The underlying goal is to remove any false notions of ego, as ego is considered one of the worst enemy and obscuration to happiness. Let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Lavina Shyamdasani. Lavina Shyamdasani is a certified compassion teacher through the Compassion Institute at 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. You can find more information on Lavina at souljoybylavina.com. Lavina, thank you so much for being here and please help me in welcoming Lavina. Thank you. Thank you, Tashi, for that wonderful, warm welcome. Really appreciate it. And thank you to all of you for coming here and sharing in this moment of mindfulness meditation on this special day. It's Halloween and Diwali, so happy Halloween, happy Diwali. And that was a beautiful description of Skull Cup. Again, appropriate being that we're celebrating Halloween today. And I will tie it back to what I'm hoping to talk about today. So in the spirit of openness, which is the theme here at the Rubin Museum,

I thought we might explore just for a couple of minutes, what is openness? So there is open-mindedness, where we're open to diversity of thought, where we're open to change, where we can more easily embrace change, try new experiences. And then there is open-heartedness, right? Which is right here. It's about remaining open, leading with kindness, compassion, love. And when we are open-hearted, I like to think that we can let in the light, let in the light and also emanate love.

Open-heartedness again it's about leading with kindness, compassion, with honesty, with being available to truthfully share on an emotional level experiences. And in doing that, that makes us vulnerable, right? When we love and we're open and we're leading with kindness and we're being honest, of course it makes us vulnerable to getting hurt. And then the question for me is, well, how do we remain open-hearted in the face of hurt? And I normally have, you know, written out this talk, and today I really am speaking from my own felt experience. So really improvising what I experienced when I felt hurt by a loved one, by a dear friend. And it's easy to be open-hearted when things are peaceful and when everyone is

complying with one another, but what if you've been hurt by a loved one? And how do you then choose this path of kindness and compassion? And I think I gave it a lot of time. That's my nature. My nature is to always ask myself, do I know it all for sure? Am I certain? Whatever conclusions I've made, am I certain?

And oftentimes, we're not certain. And I would say that I really tried to stay open in the face of this hurt with my dear friend. And after some time, I realized that, well, this wasn't changing. There was a rift. And even though I thought things might go back to normal, they haven't. And I will say that I chose to engage in what I would say is, let's just say, not compassionate behavior, right? Like not kind behavior, just a small moment, small moment. And I will say that it wasn't true to me.

But interestingly, I really started to look over my shoulder. I had mistrust following in the days of this sort of less than compassionate action. I was closed. I could not let in the light. I could not emanate the love. love. And beautiful day upon beautiful day, this sort of hung over me like a cloud and kept me from experiencing joy. And as positive psychology tells us, when we experience joy, we are truly invincible. When we are experiencing positive emotions, we can really affect change in our lives, live our best lives, and really follow our pursuit of passion and happiness. So in effect, I was hurting myself too, right?

In hurting my friend, I was hurting myself. And I've often asked this, you know, and I have friends and family members who say, no, no, you have to put this person in her place. You know, you have to send them a message, you know, make them feel the hurt and the pain. And it's something I've been struggling with. And now I have another opportunity to either lead with kindness and compassion or not.

And I've chosen to lead with kindness and compassion. And we all know the number of reasons why that is written in wonderful books by His Holiness and others, but I'm really talking about that moment of grit. Yes, two wrongs don't make a right. And it perpetuates the cycle of negativity. Theoretically, that makes sense. We read it, but when we experience it, how does it feel? And that's what I'm talking about.

How does it feel when we engage in what's not true to our nature, to our kind nature, our compassionate nature? We never want to hurt deliberately, intentionally. Two wrongs don't make a right. But on the bigger picture, we're also preserving our own peace of mind when we choose to lead with compassion. We're preserving our own ability to experience positive emotions, to live our best life. And to me, that's the answer, right? That's my own felt experience, but I want to say that in conclusion,

choosing the right path, the path of kindness, compassion, right action, is also choosing peace for ourselves. I think I'll end there. And our practice together is going to be about how we respond to that hurt, that moment where we are really experiencing the pain, the letdown of a loved one. What can we do in that moment? Before we do anything else, anything we might regret,

what can we do in that moment? And this is what we will practice together, which is a meditation of self-kindness, self-compassion. We can be there for ourselves. And so should we begin? I'm going to ask you to find a comfortable position, one that supports alertness. We don't want to be falling asleep if we can avoid it. And you can either lower your gaze or close your eyes. And let's just begin by bringing our attention to our breath, and really meeting ourselves

exactly where we are in this moment, meeting ourselves with kindness, compassion, and bringing our attention to the sensations of the breath. noticing the inhale, the cool air coming in through our nostrils, and noticing the exhale. This air warmed by our body, our love, our compassion. Noticing the sensations of the body as it breathes itself,

rising and falling with every breath. And really connecting with some quiet, stillness, silence. And if your mind wanders, well, that's what the mind does. Gently acknowledge where your mind goes. Release the thought and bring your attention back to your breath.

Noticing what you're feeling in your heart center. Whatever it is that comes up for you, meet it with kindness and compassion. There is no judgment today, only unconditional love. And now bring to mind a compassionate image, whatever that means to you. It could be a religious figure, a beautiful tree with rustling leaves. It could be the vast ocean. Or a loved one, a pet, whatever represents for you unconditional love and kindness. and as you visualize this compassionate image really bask in the love

shining from this image. Open your heart to receive this kindness.... and in the presence of this compassionate image, you are complete. You are perfect and loved. You are loved. Really taking a moment to bask in this beautiful warmth and hug of unconditional love. and bringing to mind a moment of unease that you might have experienced. And really leaning into how that felt.

Breathing into it. Remembering that you are loved. You are loved. You are complete. And letting the intensity of this moment slowly dissipate. Remembering that everything is impermanent. And this too shall pass. and silently saying to yourself, May I find peace and joy.

May I find kindness and compassion. May I find compassion and may I be free from suffering. and now releasing any moments that you've recalled and simply breathing in and breathing out moments that you've recalled and simply breathing in and breathing out. Really leaning into any shift you might be feeling. Any spaciousness you might be feeling. Remembering that you are enough.

are enough that you generated this moment of kindness and compassion for yourself today. And I'm going to offer just a couple of minutes of silence so you can really lean into this meditation. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to make a When you're ready, you can gently open your eyes. Thank you so much for that beautiful session on openness and the teachings on impermanence. on openness and the teachings on impermanence. 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 on November 12th 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.