Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lavina Shamdasani 4/17/2025

Episode Date: April 25, 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 16:47.Teacher: Lavina Shamdasani Theme: RenewalThe Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (1617-1682) with Previous Incarnations; Central Tibet; 18th century; pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, gift of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation; F1996.29.3Learn 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 New York Insight Meditation Center. I'm Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be your host today. Rubin Museum is a Himalayan art for global project, 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 work of art from our collection. And then we will hear a brief talk from our teacher, Lavina Shandasani. So inspired by our collection, we will first take a deep look at work of art.

And then after a talk by our teacher, then we'll have a short sit about 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by our teacher Lavina. Let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The artwork for today's session is hand picked by our teachers is this beautiful painting of great fifth Dalai Lama, Nawa Lopsang Gyatso. It's 1617 to 1682, along with the previous Dalai Lamas. Origin from central Tibet, 18th century, and this is mineral pigments on cloth. This is about 28 into about 17 and a half inches, Thangka painting.

The central figure that you see here is the fifth Dalai Lama, and often we refer to as the great fifth, because that is when he became, you know, the political and the spiritual leader and head of Tibet. Now, above him, the center most is the Avalokiteshvara, known as Jenrikhsik in Tibetan word, who is the Bodhisattva, often referred to as Bodhisattva of Compassion or Buddha of Compassion as well. And then to the right side, which is

to your left on top, is the great 33rd King of Tibet, Songzhen Gampo. And then the other side is the Tomtampa, one of the great figure during the great 5th Dalai Lama. Then you will see above right shoulders to the central Dalai Lamas on the two right, left and right. On the right shoulder of the 5th Dalai Lama is the first Dalai Lama, and then the other side is the second, whereas you will see on the bottom two is the central figure is Zambala, the prosperity wealth deity.

So you see Dalai Lama in the center is the fifth one holding in his right hand the stem of the lotus flower. The lotus itself is sprouting on the right shoulder. And the left hand, he's actually holding a vase filled with longevity nectar. And you will normally see a lotus throne, but you actually see like a cushion. What I understand from the expert is that this might have been during when the fifth Dalai Lama is still alive requesting him to live long. So the cushion and then the longevity vase with the nectar symbolizes asking Holiness to live long. But 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. You can find Lavina's activities on souljoybylavina.com. Lavina, thank you so much for being here

and please help me in welcoming Navina Chandrasekhar. Thank you, Tashi, and thank you to the Rubin Museum for welcoming me today in this beautiful space here at New York Insight. And thank you to all of you. I think this is finally it feels like spring today. And I really appreciate your taking the time to be here this afternoon. So as you know, I'm here on short notice. I was asked to fill in for our teacher who had the flu today. And I was thinking about what I might speak about, the theme being renewal. And interestingly, I had a coffee with a friend yesterday, a dear friend of mine who I have known for 24 years. And about a year and a half ago, we had some words. I was frustrated about

something and I just expressed my frustration. And since then, we haven't really been friends. I think it sparked something within her. The person that I would talk to every week and definitely see every other week in person was no longer interested in keeping up with that friendship. And I thought, gosh, it couldn't have been just that slight frustration. And it's been a difficult journey for me. Especially because I see her, we're in various friend groups, and we meet to play mahjong, I like to play mahjong.

And so it was uncomfortable, this sort of unspoken, you know, without conclusion, without a meeting to say, hey, what's going on? And I tried to keep things normal. And yesterday, we met after a year and a half, one-on-one. Of course, we'd been meeting all along. And it was a moment of honesty, vulnerability, and and a recognition of the hurt we had caused each other. I myself, as much as I tried, and I think I did a good job of not inflicting too much pain. But there were moments when I found it difficult to hug her and she had a niece recently and when we met for Mahjong,

I found it difficult to hug her and say congratulations. I was dealing with my own pain of the loss of a friendship. I couldn't understand it. dealing with my own pain of the loss of a friendship. I couldn't understand it. And so when she finally reached out for a coffee, I thought, well, why now? It's been a year and a half, right? I finally have made peace with where we are today

and I've moved on. I'm comfortable. I'm happy for you. I wish you nothing but the best. And I thought, well, if I don't meet for a coffee, I'm simply propagating what has been. This is my time to break the cycle. And so I did. And it brings me to forgiveness and renewal, which is what I'd like to talk about today. forgiveness and renewal, which is what I'd like to talk about today.

Renewing is about forgiving, forgiving ourselves as well as forgiving the people we love. And I forgive easily. I've forgiven my friend. And the only question I ask is, how might I have avoided the pain that I experienced along the way? Was there a way to really eclipse that suffering for myself as I look back? Because I feel good about the fact that I didn't propagate the suffering and today here we are finally renewing, forgiving, and I feel grateful that I didn't act out of anger and resentment. But what about the pain? I'm still struggling with that. And I was kind to myself. I was self-compassionate in those moments. And I don't have answers as to what I might have done more than to be kind to

myself. I think I just had to experience it and I'm better off for it. And it's definitely been a teaching moment. And it's definitely been a teaching moment. On the subject of forgiveness, I would like to share a very brief story that I came across last night as I was preparing for today, but it's a beautiful story. And there's a very wise monk who's talking to someone about forgiveness. And it turns out that this person that he's talking to, someone threw a stone at this person. And so the wise monk says to the person, well, who are you upset with?

Are you upset with the stone or the person who threw the stone? And the person says, well, of course, I'm not upset with the stone. Why would I be upset with the stone? The stone is an inanimate object. I'm upset with the person who threw the stone at me. And the wise monk says, well, if you follow that same's simply acting by their pain. So they are being thrown to do what they do because of their pain. And so if you follow this logic, can you forgive the person? Can you be more open to what goes on? I thought it was a beautiful story and I hope it resonated with you. And forgiveness, according to Buddhist philosophy, is an act of self-compassion.

Because holding on to anger and emotions, if you will, and dwelling in them and ruminating in them. And I certainly plotted on how I might avenge myself, you know. But when it came down to it, I thought to myself, I don't want to take one day away from this path of compassion that I'm on. Not a minute. It wasn't ever worth it for me. So when we hold on to anger and resentment and pain, we're limiting ourselves from experiencing our own joys, right? Our own purpose that we wake up for every single day that energizes us and fills us with deep contentment.

And so that's another argument for why we should forgive others as an act of self-compassion. And furthermore, forgiving ourselves. If we can find it within us to connect with the story about the pain, can we find it within us to forgive ourselves? Can we forgive ourselves for our own unskillful behavior, knowing that they were rooted in some pain, some suffering of our own. And forgiveness is not easy. I spent a lot of time in self-compassion just being with my sense of loss for this friend. But eventually I said, now it's time for me to release, accept the new normal and release. And I met a friend of mine, we were talking about how we

overcome pain or disappointment and I loved what he said. He says, you know, I give myself, depending on the circumstances, a finite amount of time to grieve the pain, to appreciate the sense of loss, depending on what I've gone through. And then I say to myself, and in our Hindu culture, we give ourselves 12 days when a loved one has passed. And in those 12 days, we try to stay home

and allow ourselves to grieve. And his logic was, well, if it's 12 days for a loved one to pass, then accordingly, I set myself up with a certain number of days. And sometimes we need more time and that's OK. But eventually we need to release and make room for the new renewal. and make room for the new renewal. So, along release, forgiveness, I'd love to walk you through a self-compassion meditation today. Hopefully we can connect with the deep love we have for ourselves and find it within us to release any resentment,

anger that we're still holding onto. And so you can adjust your positions, find a comfortable stance, something that will support alertness. I invite you to lower your gaze or close your eyes, whatever feels more comfortable. And why don't we begin with three deep diaphragmatic breaths just to shift from whatever we've been doing, breathing in deeply on the inhale and exhaling through the mouth for the first three breaths, really exhaling every little ounce of air in our lungs, trying again inhaling deeply and exhaling and releasing the shoulders

on the last exhale, releasing any residual tension. And now, simply breathing as you normally would in and out through the dastrels. Bringing your focus to the sensations of your breathing. Noticing the air entering on the inhale and the outflow of the exhale slightly warmer in temperature, touched by the infinite compassion, wisdom, loving-kindness. Each of you holds within. And if your mind wanders, ever so gently notice the worry, the fear, acknowledging with unconditional loving kindness and releasing the thought. And I'll let you practicing breath awareness in silence for a few minutes..... And now bring to mind something that represents for you infinite compassion, love and wisdom. It could be a religious figure. It could be an object from nature, the beautiful sun emanating Or a beautiful tree casting its dappled shadow, its leaves rustling in the wind. Whatever image for you represents unconditional love and compassion.

And as you think of this image, imagine you are the recipient of the infinite love, warmth, wisdom, that this compassionate image is emanating. by the love of this compassionate image. You can be completely yourself. Know that in the presence of your compassionate image, you can be completely yourself. There is no judgment, only unconditional love.. And feeling this warmth, basking in this love. See if you can release any remnants of hurt, anger and forgive. Inhaling, this precious love and on the exhale release. Release. And with each breath, open up to renewal... Taking a moment to really think about the new possibilities, the new joys that await you. Each moment, each day, present with opportunities for renewal. In releasing and forgiving, we make space for these new opportunities. And now letting go of the visualization, simply take a minute to enjoy any spaciousness, any peace that you might be experiencing in this moment.. And when you're ready, gently open your eyes. Thank you so much for that beautiful session, Lavina. 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.