Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Michel Pascal 03/20/2025

Episode Date: March 28, 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 17:59.Teacher: Michel PascalTheme: ResilienceMahakala and Protector Deities; central Tibet; early 19th century; pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2007.21.1Learn 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 Chardun, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be a host today. So 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, Michelle Pascal. So wonderful to have you back. And then Michelle will lead us for a short instruction for 15 to 20 minutes with the guided meditation.

So this month, some of you may be familiar, we're still exploring on the theme of resilience, considering what's going on around the world. I think we very much need this energy. And the art connection for today's session, which is handpicked by our teacher, is this beautiful thangka of Mahakala and protector deities.

The Sanskrit word for maha-kala can be translated as maha means great. Kala can be the fierce dark one, or it can also, I think, translate as the time, like, you know, the beyond time sort of, but often in Tibetan, he's referred to as Ngombo. In fact, Ngombo Ngonna, the dark Ngombo, the fierce, wrathful protector and this is from central Tibet, early 19th century, beautiful mineral pigment on cloth and it's about 72 x 44 x 2 inches and it's a tanka is a scroll painting. This month's theme is resilience. Mahakala is a fierce protector deity. He's known for his ability

to dispel obstacles. His example helps us to foster unshakable resolve on the path to enlightenment. Now, Mahakala, a supermundane Dharma protector who appears in a number of forms in four arms, six arms, and so forth. And what you're looking at here is the six-armed Mahakala, the Ngombogona, in the central of this painting. And this vibrant Thangka painting is dedicated to nine fierce, wrathful deities, particularly important to the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. Now there are four main schools, of Tibetan Buddhism. Now, there are four main schools, Nyingma, Sakya, Khajok, Gelug, like four main schools,

and Bern, the pre-Buddhist time. And how you can identify which school it is, is sometimes by looking at the hat, the color of the hat that they are wearing. So if you look at the top three teachers on this painting, you kind of see yellow hat, right? So yellow hats are often associated with Gelugpa school. And so Sixamah Kala is the most prominent, the largest in this painting, as you can see.

And at the top center of this painting is the founder of Gelugpa School, which is the Tsongkhapa, the Je Tsongkhapa, 1357 to 1419, and is flanked by two of the most important figures in Gelugpa School on two sides, that is the fourth penchen lama, Tempenyema, 1782 to 1853, and the ninth Dalai Lama, Lungto Jato, 1805 to 1815. So the present Dalai Lama that most of you may have seen in the television or in person is the fourteenth reincarnation, the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Although Mahakala is portrayed as a fierce, his role is that of a guardian, protecting practitioners from negative forces and destroying obstacles on the path to enlightenment.

And now let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Michelle Pascal. Michelle Pascal is a meditation teacher for more than 25 years, has led successful programs for prisoners, which help prevent suicides and reduce reoffending. He's written about 20 books on spirituality including Meditation for Daily Stress, 10 Practices of Immediate Well-being, known as the Medicine Voice. He's performed at Carnegie Hall

and played at the Peace Day Conc concert in Times Square in September 2023. In December 2023, he presented his methods at the United Nations. Michelle, thank you so much for being here and please help me in welcoming Michelle Pascal. Thank you. Ooh, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, Omani pemeo Omani pemeo Omani, be meom. Omani, be meom. Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani Pemeo Omani Pemeo Omani pemeo, it means may all I can say today be full of love.

All I can do today be full of love. O mani pemeo, may all I can say, all I can do, all I can think be full of love. Be full of love. Omani Pemeyo Omani Pemeyo Welcome to each of you. What a blessing to be with each of you today. today. Thank you, Tashi, for this magnificent moment, sacred moment. We need to live a sacred moment, especially in our world today, as we are living at this moment.

Just when Tashi was showing the tanka, the lama, the ceremony, it's amazing to realize that in our crazy world, in New York City, we are quiet. It's a blessing. It's very rare. Millions of people around us are so stressed. But we have found in New York City the only people who are calm. And when we talk about resilience, this is the key.

Because you must know that when we calm the mind, immediately we upgrade the dopamine. Dopamine, this is a neurotransmitter in our brain who stimulate the resilience, who stimulate the gratitude, who stimulate a positive mind, who stimulate the joy, the happiness. It develops an invincible resilience. Calming the mind is the best way to become resilient.

I say that to you because during many years in Los Angeles, I was the meditation teacher for the survivors of Auschwitz, the camp of concentration. You can imagine how it's impossible for them to be resilient. And we could associate Tibetan people, as Tashi knows very well. The resilience of the Tibetan people

is absolutely exceptional. How can we be resilient in our crazy world? How can we transform the dark to light? How can we transform all the negative energy that we breathe in every second in America and in the world? How can we transform this dark energy to a bright energy, to a joy. How is it possible? This is what I do every day in Los Angeles with the prisoners.

You can imagine for someone incarcerated how resilience is impossible. But 100% of the prisoners who follow the program, they say, we are happy. We are grateful. They transform the dark to light. So to live is to choose. You have the choice to come today or to don't come.

You took the decision to come. I took the decision to come from LA. Because when we calm the mind, we become addicted to the dopamine, to the resilience. Every emotion is an addiction. Keep that in your mind. Every emotion is a neurochemical addiction.

When we are stressed, we are addicted to the cortisol, the neurotransmitter of the negative emotion. So when we are stressed, for example, we want to watch the news all the time, we want to see violence, we are addicted. And the brain needs to feed this addiction. But when you are calm, you become addicted to the calm. You become addicted to the serotonin, to the dopamine,

the hormone of the resilience. So naturally, when we calm the mind, we become resilient. I will finish on that before to lead the meditation. We don't become resilient when we say to people, oh my friend, you need to become resilient. You know it's the same when people say to us today, oh you need to become resilient. You know, it's the same when people say to us today, oh, you need to prioritize your day. You need to detox your social media. You need to be more grateful.

When we talk like that, we don't realize that today in America, 75% of people are just close to burnout. How can we say today in our world, oh, my friend, be resilient, be grateful, meditate every day. Come on. It's easy to say that with a microphone, but when you go back to the real life, it disappears. So how can we calm the mind? With no effort.

No tips. It's funny, on Instagram, a dog follow me. So the name of this dog is Wednesday. And she text me this morning, oh, Michel, I am a meditation teacher. And she's a dog. She teach doggytation. You see, it's a disaster.

Everyone needs recognition. Everyone say, I am a healer. I am a meditation teacher. Come on. When you see the tanka, when you see the lama, we must be humble. We must learn the true spiritual instruction. So we become resilient when we calm the mind. And we calm the mind when we receive a calming energy, when we are tuned in a calming energy.

I arrived one hour before you this morning. And I was fascinated. Aotashi, James, Jason, everyone, Jay, take care of your seats. So prepare your seat with a lot of love. This is like that, that we feel a good energy. Meditation is not a technique. It's a transmission of energy.

So let's calm the mind. Let's meditate in the middle of New York City. And just we close our eyes. We are sitting down in a comfortable position. We do nothing. Just we are sitting down like mountain. And in our crazy world, we need to be grounded like a mountain. So just we are sitting down in the middle of Manhattan like a mountain, a huge mountain. The mountain has no time.

The mountain is in eternity. Every day we say, I am busy. I am busy. But when we meditate like a mountain, we are not busy. We are in eternity. So we visualize a mountain, we see the eternity of the mountain, and we will breathe in mentally the eternity in our mind, and when we will exhale, we will diffuse the eternity in every cell of our body. So we see the mountain

and we breathe in together the eternity. Like that. All diffuse eternity. breathing the eternity hold, diffuse again Again. And we stay in eternity. One second. Two seconds. Three.

Four. Five. Five seconds in eternity in New York City. This is possible. Omani P Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Omani, Pemeyo Thank you.. So amazing. It's amazing to calm our mind with no effort. What a joy! It's very rare. It's amazing to be calm. You feel the calming energy in this beautiful room, when we meditate like a mountain, we become a mountain in any situation, in the traffic, at the workplace, in a conflict, when our life is difficult, this is the best moment to meditate. As all the Tibetan masters were explaining, as my Rinpoche say all the time to me,

he said, Michel, meditation means integration in your daily life, and especially when life is difficult, because it's easy to meditate here. But the key of the meditation is to meditate, to transform our mind, to be like a mountain in the chaos of our world. Thank you. of our world. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Michel, for that wonderful transformative 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.