Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Lopon Rigzen Lossal 09/11/2025

Episode Date: September 19, 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 21:33.Teacher: Lopon Rigzen Lossal Theme: Change Skull cup with Base; Tibet; 18th-20th century; bone, silver, turquoise, coral, brass alloy; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2011.13.11a-bLearn 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 Children. Every Thursday, we offer a meditation session at New York Inside 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 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, and Tashi Deleck. Welcome, welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program here at this beautiful space at New York Insight Meditation Center.

I'm Tashi Children, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be a host today. So the Rubin is a global museum dedicated to Himalayan art and its insights. And we're so glad to have all of you join us in person and online 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 that is handpicked by our teacher for today. Lopin Rixal, who will be giving us the teaching for this week.

And then we will have a short set, about 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by our teacher. Let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The theme for this month is change. And the art for today's session is this skull cup with base, a beautiful stand, origin from Tibet, dated something. time later 18 to early 20th century. And this is made out of bone, silver. You can see some semi-precious stone, turquoise, and corals. And this is a ritual object. A skull cup in Tibetan word is pepah, so it's a skull, thurpa. And the skull cup is the symbolic ritual

object representing the capacity to sustain bliss. So in Vajuriana Tibetan Buddhism, the skull cup is a ritual object used to hold offerings. If you look closely, you will also see skeleton heads and some beautiful flower motifs as well as some animal figures. So the skull cup along with the skeleton, something that is very common in the Vajirana, Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism in the paintings, these symbolize the impermanent nature, the true nature, that we all come to this world and we leave that nothing is permanent, that everything changes. So when we really have the deep understanding of that, then, you know, I think it will be so much easier when things do change. And now let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is

Lopin Riggen-Lossel, born and raised in Ley Ladakh. Lopin-Lah began his education at the Moravian Mission School before joining Numeroling Monastery in South India in 2005. In Nambroling, he went to Yishu was a Sherap Ralejee Junior High School and trained in Tibetan language rituals and foundational Buddhist studies. He later studied Buddhist debate at Sarah J. Monastery University and earn his higher secondary bachelor's and master's degree in Buddhist philosophy at the Najur Nyingma Institute

from 2011 to 2021. Lopala is a translator with Padma Mani Translation Committee. He has contributed to major works and served as an editor for Tibetan and English publications with the Najur Rigdu editorial committee. And in 2022, he has offered Dharma teachings online to many Western students. all over the world. He serves as an interpreter and translator at the annual Pallul retreat

upstate New York, where I've had the great honor of receiving teachings from Lopenedla as well and many other students that come from all over the world. And Lopenedla also led mindfulness meditation teachings to the summer children at upstate retreat. And he has completed multiple retreats under eminent teachers and continues to make Buddhist teachings accessible through translation, teaching and contemplative guidance. Lopin-law, thank you so much for being here and please help me in welcoming Lopin Rinsell. First of all, I would like to thank New York Inside Meditation Center

and Rubin Museum for having me here today. So as today's theme or the theme for this month as being the change, first I would like to discuss a bit, reflect a bit on change and then we'll try to understand what meditation is and then we'll dive into meditation. So first, when we talk about change, according to the Tibetan Buddhism, if we are able to embrace change, then it is said that we will be able to live alive more freely, more openly, and we will be able to love more intensely and more wholeheartedly and then not only that we will be able to let go of things more easily because what happens is that if we are not able to let go of things easily and are able to live are not fail to live in the reality that what happens is that what happens is that

that we face many challenges. As from my own experiential, it has happened that I've seen in my life that there are people who are not able to bear the lose of their loved ones. and once occasion there was a person at my village and

his loved wife she died very young and then in that grief of losing his loved ones he was not able to accept that lose

and that living in that grief in that suffering he was consumed by that grief and then later on he also his body became weak

and thus due to illness he also passes away not taking a very long time So, such things can be, this similar incidence can be applied to other things. So how difficult, how problematic it would be if we fail to embrace change. And then, according to Buddhism, it is said that everything that are conditioned are subject to change

are the nature of impermanence so they take an example of the world that we are living in it may seem stable it may seem everlasting but they are not even our homes that we live in

the cities the buildings one day our buildings are going to become rubles our cars are going to end up

in the yards so this is when we understand the true reality of impermanence the change and try to contemplate on this sense then we become more open as mentioned earlier

we will be able to to live more freely. We will be able to live a more meaningful life, especially talking from the perspective of a practitioner. And I would like to ask how many of you believe in afterlives. And yeah, and those who believe in life, who believes in afterlives,

the notion of this impermanence has a deeper meaning. It makes more sense. And even if one doesn't believe in in afterlife, for them also, when one is able to embrace the true reality,

of impermanence and change. Life becomes so much easy. One is able to cherish every moment and appreciate everything than one has and one is blessed with. And to talk about the meditation, when we talk about meditation in Tibetan language, we call it gom.

The literal meaning of gom and gompa is to habituate habituate our mind to settle down. Habituate our mind to not get distracted. And sometimes habituate our mind with the true reality.

Habituate our mind in the process of thoughts that inspires or encourages you to love more, have more compassion. So, if you categorize kind of the meditation, then you can categorize it into two mainly. The contemplative meditation and the resting meditation. What happens with the contemplation meditation is that in that meditation, you are going through a process of thinking. And that in that process of thinking, you are not letting your mind getting distracted

to other subjects. So you are in a way habituating yourself with that thought that enables you to grow, enables you to become more open-hearted. Especially with the settling meditation or the resting meditation, we mainly focus on. train our mind to not get distracted which we

renownedly called as the shamatha meditation there the more renowned method is to concentrate your mind

on your breath and not letting your mind and having a watch on your mind seeing that whether your mind is getting distracted from that process of breathing or not. So this is a very widely known. So today, what we are going to meditate is related to change and impermanence. And this has a very crucial role in Tibetan Buddhism.

This is what the notion of impermanence or change is what inspires thousands of people to take on the path of liberation. Remind them on the impermanent nature of everything. The outer world, the precious body that we hold that we have right now. And not only the precious body, but also the thoughts that we have. Our thoughts and our priorities also get changes with time. Take an example, when we were used to be kids, the most important, the precious thing used to be the toys. But we have, we just forgot. We have forgotten that. We don't hold that dear anymore, isn't it?

but when we become teenagers our priorities or importance become something different and then when we grow then that also gets changed so there is

nothing that we can hold on to So, first of all, when we are doing the meditation, first we will think of the impermanence from the perspective of the outer world. And then secondly, we will think about the impermanence of our pre-permanence of our precious body which we cherish the most. And then thirdly, we will think about the thoughts, our ideas, our priorities, the impermanence of it.

And as most importantly, the skull cup that was demonstrated here that has been a very primary source of reminding practitioners the impermanent nature. Especially we as human beings, there are so many important things to us. There are so many things there are so much precious for us. And among those, the most precious is our life.

So when we, as this cult of us, is made out of skull, our own body, the human skull. So whenever one sees that, that reminds us of our own impermanence in this world. I would like to share a short story regarding that you might be all, might have heard about the very renowned yogi called Tilova, a master, an Indian master. He was a renunciant. And then, as he had only in possession,

he has only a skull cup which he used to eat and ring and for all these and as he was a very realized practitioner once

a king who encountered tiloba with the radiance of tilopa he generated so much faith in devotion towards him

so So thus, he offered the king, offered tilopa a bowl made out of gold. Then it is said that the tilapa accepted that bowl, and then at the second moment, he threw it away into the river. And the king got astounded. How would you do that? So then the tilapar responded. The skull cup that I have, whenever I have something in this cup, or whenever I sees this, that reminds me of the impermanence of my own life.

If I hold on to the golden ball that you have offered, then I would generate more attachment towards that gold. And thus, it will become an hindrance on my path to awakening. So this is how the skull cup is seen from the perspective of the Tibetan Buddhism. So let's dive into the meditation. So first, when we are doing the meditation, it is very important to rest your body in a certain way that helps you

not get so dizzy and not get so distracted as well so there are many teachings related to it but the main point is keep your body straight and try to as

if you are later on if you are sitting in meditation for a longer period of time, it is very important to touch your tongue to the upper palate. That will help you to keep your throat moist and not fill your mouth with saliva, which can become a hindrance on your concentration. Restrate, then think of the impermanent or nature of the outer world, how it has arrived and how it is going to gradually change and ultimately going to cease. Our houses, our cars, all the properties, all the things that you own isn't going to last forever.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, think of the impermanent nature of the impermanent nature of our own. cherished body think of the body that we had when we were kids now it is not more that small baby think of the body that we used to had when we were teenagers think of the body that we've that we had or we have when we are in our youth youth.

Think of the body eventually it will grow old and ultimately it will grow old and ultimately we have to let it go and move on with a new life Thank you. Thank you. Now, think of the impermanent nature of our thoughts.

The things that we use to think is very important for us. Now isn't important for us anymore. the priorities that we used to give have also evolved with time. Once you used to think, when Vivi used to think that having a car is very important, or having something, is the most important goal of my life. It doesn't make much sense at all. Try to look at all the thoughts that has changed or evolved within your mind stream since from the childhood up until now. Thank you.

So, so now. we have to end our meditation here. this meditation series, we invite you to become a friend of the Rubin at Rubin Museum.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, available wherever you listen to podcasts. And to learn more about the Rubin Museum's work around the world, visit rubin museum.org. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.