Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Phakchok Rinpoche 03/23/2023

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

Theme: Unity Artwork: Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra; Tibet; 15th century; metalwork; Rubin Museum of Art; http://therubin.org/36kTeacher: Phakchok Rinpoche  The Rubin Museum of Art presents a weekly meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area, with each session focusing on a specific work of art. This podcast is recorded in front of a live audience, and includes an opening talk, a 20-minute sitting session, and a closing discussion. The guided meditation begins at 28:37.  This meditation is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg, teachers from the NY Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine.  If you would like to attend Mindfulness Meditation sessions in person or learn more, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation.If you would like to support the Rubin Museum and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member and always attend for free.  Have a mindful day!

Welcome to the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast presented by the Rubin Museum of Art. We are a museum in Chelsea, New York City that connects visitors to the art and ideas of the Himalayas and serves as a space for reflection and personal transformation. I'm your host, Tashi Chodron. Every Thursday, we present a meditation session inspired by a different artwork from the Rubin Museum's collection and led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area. This podcast is a recording of our weekly in-person practice. In the description for each episode, you will find information about the theme for that week's session, including 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 Dele, good afternoon. This is exciting. So welcome.

Welcome to the return of mindfulness meditation with Rubin Museum of Art. I am Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador. I'm so happy to be your host today. It's a very, very special afternoon and so wonderful to see so many familiar faces and many new faces. I'm kind of curious to know how many of you are members, if you may raise your hand. Okay, and so obviously the rest are not members. Many are not members. Well, as a member, you will get to come to museum unlimited time all year round. And to all the meditation, it is free to the mindfulness meditation sessions.

So we are a museum of Himalayan art and ideas in New York City. And we are so glad to have all of you join us for our weekly program where we combine art and meditation. Inspired from our collection, we will take a look at work ofired from our collection, we will take a look at work of art from our collection. We will hear a brief talk from our teacher, and we are so fortunate to have our teacher, Jamgyon Bhakcho Rumbuche, back to the Rubin Museum. Rumbuche is on his book tour, and we are very, very fortunate to have Rumpuche. So then we will hear a brief talk from our teacher, about 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by Rumpuche. And now let's look at the art connection for today.

We're continuing on the theme of unity, and the art that Rumpuche handpicked is this Guya Samaja. In Tibetan, it's known as Samwa Dupa, Yab Yum, Guya Samaja, with Tibetan, it's known as Samwa Dupa Iyabhyum Guya Samaja with concert. So this is from Tibet. It's a 15th century gilt copper alloy with inlaid semi-precious stones. It's about 11 1⁄2 to 9 1⁄2 inches.

Beautiful sculpture. And this is up on the gallery in the second floor. Guya Samaja is one of the main tantric deity, Yidam, meditational deity of esoteric practice, a manifestation of Buddha Akshobhya, the unshakable one, one of the Buddhas of the five families, the Buddha of the Vajra family, in fact, associated with the east direction,

and it's usually depicted blue in color, so if you were to look at a thangka, you would see a blue in color. According to the blue annals, it is first taught by Buddha Shakyamuni to King Indrabodhi of Odhiyana. Now we'll have a closer look at the sculpture. As you see the Yabyum in union. Each deity has three heads and six arms. Their crossed hands are holding a Vajra and bell.

Again, in the colors, the main face would be dark blue in color and the right in white and the left in red. And you see the beautiful ritual emblems that the deities are holding. The Vajra and the bell and then the wheel and lotus. And on the left side, a second hand is holding the sword. So all of these are aids to reach the goal, which is the awakening or enlightenment, and the union of wisdom and compassion to reach the awakening. And sitting on a lotus throne, which symbolizes awakening. And so we normally have a living tradition component where these

deities, our statues and thangkas that are hundreds of years old, even to this day, it is being revered and prayed to. But today, our living tradition is Rumbuche himself is the living tradition. So Rumbuche is here for the book tour. The book is Awakening Dignity, A Guide to Living a Life of Deep Fulfillment. And I'd like to introduce Rumbuche now. Jabjab Pakchuk Rumbuche is a popular and beloved spiritual teacher who oversees humanitarian projects that includes running a free clinic, offering education to monastics and providing emergency relief for victims of natural disaster. Born in 1981 in Kathmandu, Nepal, Rumbuche was

recognized soon after birth at the early age of one as the seventh Pakcho Rumbuche, the reincarnation of a great meditation master. He completed traditional Tibetan Buddhist education at the age of 23, completing the Shedra, which is equal to PhD, and has taught Buddhist philosophy, theory, and practice in centers and universities worldwide. Thank you so much, Rumbuche, for your generosity. Thank you. Please help me in welcoming R universities worldwide. Thank you so much, Rumbuche, for your generosity. Thank you. Please help me in welcoming Rumbuche. Thank you.

Welcome, all my old friends. And I'd like to welcome the members of the museum and all of you. Very nice to see you here. Today my topic is the beautiful statue. And of course this month's theme is unity. and I'd like to talk a little bit about what does mean Guya Samadja, the name. Guya actually means a secret, means all of our nature,

for example, your own nature of your body, nature of your mind, nature of your mind, nature of your speech, meaning every living being, no matter how good you are, no matter how bad you are, doesn't matter. When you have a body and movement, speech, breathing, or mind, emotional intelligence, breathing or mind, emotional intelligence, that living being's nature, the essence of that, is actually inherently pure, uncorrupted by our negative actions,

uncorrupted by external, internal negativities. So it's completely pure. you know, negativities. So it's completely pure. And that nature is actually, when you do something good, you know, like a mindfulness meditation every day, that inherently quality does not increase. When you do really bad,

say you don't do meditation every day and you shout at people, that nature does not decrease. It's inherently present, uncorrupted, and uncreated. That's why we call it guya, meaning secret. Why? You have it, but you don't know it. Why? You have it, but you don't know it. Imagine that you're living in a really old house, made from 300 years ago, passed by your family members. And 300 years ago, your great-great-great-great-grandma thought about many generations after, they need some money needed.

So she kept whole treasure of gold, coin, hidden in the house for your kids. Right? And the people living there, they're going through trouble, but they don't know they're living on the treasure. That is called guya, secret. You have the treasure within you,

you have the nature is pure within you, but you don't know it. That is called secret, right? Now, other part of the name is the actually called inclusive. Guya sama jya, sanwa dupa. Sanwa means secret, dupa means inclusive, meaning everything within. Now, how to depict inclusive?

Imagine, in art, when you want to paint something, you say, it's inclusive. Now, inclusive, what? This is how you're going to ask mindfulness mindfulness the quality of mindfulness many of in western culture you need to achieve mindfulness through meditation isn't it yes or no yes in esoteric Vajrayana tantric view you don't achieve mindfulness quality through meditation. You need

to recognize the quality of mindfulness within you. Do you understand now the difference? Means you don't need empowered. You already within you are empowered or you are the empowerment. Just you need to reconnect it.

That is called inherently, meaning inclusive. Now how to depict the inclusiveness is, you see, it's such a beautiful way of depicting inclusiveness. For example, you can see one flower, you know, you can see that side of the upper part, you see the jewel, the fiery. This is actually called jewel, right? Jewel meaning like when you wear diamond,

you know, nowadays diamond is forever love. So this showing quality. What quality they're depicting? The quality of dignity, confidence, calmness. The quality of presence. When you have an aura, you go out, you have this very presence aura. You meet somebody, you feel you like the person, and sometimes you meet the person, you feel a little bit sketchy, right? With, you know, human beings like that, you know? So this shows that inherently, we have a fully inclusive quality within. We're not to achieve the quality,

but we are within its full quality to depict that. The Samadipa is holding, the male holding jewel down there, the female holding the jewel up there. Then they both are holding, you can see the flower, here on top, the left, and the man holding the flower. What does it show the flower?

The flower representing kindness, compassion, a feeling of inclusive to all the beings, not just focus on yourself, but sharing with all beings is representing lotus flower. It actually means compassion. So now you think compassion helps you to transform something, something. Compassion, right?

But always we think like this, compassion, quality to achieve something. That is all of But always we think like this, compassion, quality to achieve something. That is, all of us, we think like that. We need to meditate, I need to be more compassionate. But we never think that compassion is inherently a nature, is a presence within you. That's why the esoteric Vajrayana Tantra says the moral compass, the ethics, moral ethics compass, you know compass, to see the right or wrong,

is not the mind only. It's actually the nature, is the real base of the compass. And you see the compass, you have this arrow, you know, have some magnet in the arrow and moving around, where is the east and the south,

that type of arrow, is your intention, your mind south, that type of arrow is your intention, your mind. Your mind is that arrow, but the arrow stays on the compass. The compass itself is actually the inherently presence, compassion, inherently presence, dignity, inherently presence, the knowledge, the understanding, the wisdom is inherent. So that's why I did not create your nature or my nature. Your parents did not create it. There was no one created it.

Buddha did not create it. He actually said it very clearly. Buddha said, I did not create your inherent nature because it's nature. When it's created, it's not nature. keadaan yang terdiri dalam diri anda, kerana ia adalah keadaan. Apabila ia dibangun, ia bukan keadaan. Bermakna anda tidak mendapatkan keadaan, maka anda tidak akan kehilangan keadaan, kebenaran. Adakah anda faham? Adakah anda bersama saya? Ia adalah mantra yang sangat kuat.

Anda boleh mengatakan mantra yang kuat. Setiap pagi anda bangun, anda ulang pada diri anda sekurang-kurangnya dua puluh kali, dua puluh satu kali. Every morning you wake up, you repeat to yourself at least 20 times, 21 times, inherently nature is pure. Sounds very funny, very bad. But actually better than saying, I'm very bad. I'm not worth to anything. You know what I'm saying?

That sounds more worse than sounds better than inherently. You don't need to say, I'm better. That is ego. My nature is pure. Because we need to work with ego to reduce our ego, increases our dignity, reduce judgment, increases noticing, reduce anger, increases compassion, is what we practice for. So just calming the mind, have fresh awareness is increasing.

Need to increase. Confused mind who are distracted all the time need to be reduced. That's why you need to practice mindfulness, right? But you say, I need to do this again. The answer is no, you are inherent. So now you see this beautiful, you see this husband and wife union.

Now you're all pictured like this. Oh, it's making love. That is what actually comes. Now tell me, what is the most easiest to understand unity to you? When the artist needs to draw something about unity, a feeling of oneness, what is the best of oneness example in the humankind?

It's the husband and wife. When they're completely, fully in trust, love, you know, comfortableness, when they're oneness in that is the most important, insurmountable. That's why in English they say, that is my half. Do you understand the expression? This is my half.

And this is, oh, this is my half, right? Now we have one problem to clarify. The problem is that when you hear unity, you look at this, you can see, you can have a photo, husband and wife holding a hand, isn't it? Why need to be the female, the leg is crossing, and the hand is crossing, showing 100% togetherness? Why not just holding a hand? Because unity means inseparable. Unity does not mean they have two kinds combining together. That is not unity. That is a shake, shake, you know, apple shake, cocktail, mocktail, you understand? Mashed potato. Okay, so this is something potato and butter and cream

and you mix together and it become mashed potato. And this is mashed potato? No. So the unity means quality is inseparable. It's not separating. Now again give you one picture. What they holding? You can see the salt. You see the salt here? Kualiti tidak boleh berseparat. Ia tidak berseparat. Sekali lagi, saya akan memberi anda satu gambar. Apa yang mereka simpan? Anda boleh melihat lembut. Anda melihat lembut di sini. Apa yang bermakna memegang lembut?

Maksud lembut adalah apa yang berguna untuk lembut. Mengotakkan perkara. Menghapus, bermakna membuka. Lembut bermakna apa? Mengotakkan kesedaran anda. Mengotakkan kesedaran anda sendiri. opening up the thought means what cutting your doubt cutting your own clinging who are completely into it we believe ourself more than our nature that's why we struggle so much saying that i'm bad but i can say your nature is good no i don't trust that nature is good. I am really bad. You can hear your own voice, how we are actually deluded into it,

how we create the delusion. That is how the Guayasamaja tantric esoteric to give you depicting of your own nature is inherently pure. Why they painted gold? One of the metal, you know, metal. I'm no scientist, but what I know, the of the metal, you know, metal. I'm no scientist, but what I know, the silver, copper, you know. But the gold, when it's pure, is the most beautiful metal.

Nothing you can see is completely clean, right? What they show is your inherent nature is like a gold. It's just very valuable. It's very clean. How to show the most beautiful thing that your inherent nature with artists. This is how they show. So you think this deity is a kind of somebody's theory?

In Buddhist idea, we don't say it's a theory. We don't say it's a belief. What we do say is, we say it's nature. When somebody look at the, you know, painted forest, beautiful forest, natural forest, you know, uncorrupted, some, you know, designer tried to cut down tree or make some beautiful French Versailles garden.

It's beautiful, French, you know, Versailles garden is beautiful. It's human-made. You have different, it's beauty is there, but you don't feel the nature. Where you feel the nature is untouched by human being.

You go there, you see that the tree is going to make sound, vibrations are there, animals are alive, everything is moving. It's the nature is more powerful. That's why in Tantric Buddhism says,

inherently your nature is completely free by creation. It's inherently nature present. And that have the quality of cutting your doubt, has a quality of compassion, the quality of dignity is inherently there. And mindfulness actually inherently quality. That's why when you need to work out, imagining you already have a million dollars in your house,

you don't need to make it. How easy that is. You understand? You just need to invest it smartly. Now, you don't have a million dollars, you need to work so hard. You need to work many, many years to make a million dollar, you need to work so hard. You need to work many many years to make million dollar, right? Similarly, thinking your inherently nature is pure. Now you meditate.

Meditation is no need to work so hard. You just need to presently rest. Meditation comes easily. Now you say inherently I'm bad. Now you need to meditate means you really need to change 360 degree change. So that is the big differences of this. Now I just want to have, I don't have much time but I have two, why three heads? Right? Because when you need to understand the nature of all the phenomena, the Daud Shakyamuni Buddha sebutkan, anda perlu memahami tiga perkara.

Kelebihan diri anda, ego, kelebihan ego adalah nombor satu. Kelebihan semua fenomena adalah nombor dua. Dan kelebihan dari kelebihan adalah nombor tiga. Bagaimana anda akan menggambarkan sebagai seorang artis? of the empty is number three. How you going to repeat as an artist? These three things is actually one thing, but three important qualities to go. How you going to tell these people? It show three head. One person by your three heads. You understand?

Three head showing empty of ego, empty of phenomena, and empty of empty. So, all right. But why need the female need three heads too? Right? Why need female just have one head, one face? But you see again, female have, in tantric Buddhism, the female represent the most important part. That's why I found out sometimes in America, they look at a certain part of the Buddhist teaching, and they say, oh, this Buddhist teaching suppresses femaleness,

or something like that. I tell them, yes, certain part, yes. Mahayana part, some part, they are equal, same. They don't care your man, your woman, your halfada, mereka sama. Mereka tidak peduli dengan anda lelaki, wanita, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jenis, jen of recognition. You ever heard about that in Buddhism saying? Now how you are just looking one part of the Buddhism and judging whole Buddhism, they're saying you're suppression of female. I think it's really, really, sorry to say, excuse me, is ignorant. So that's why you can look at here, the three faces of the female, meaning empty of ego, empty of phenomena, empty of emptiness, you need recognition, the wisdom to recognize. So, recognition of selflessness, the wisdom.

Recognize of all the phenomena is emptiness, recognizing. Phenomena, recognizing of emptiness, meaning yourself not have holding attachment. Thiri wisdom needed to realize the thiri, you know, the quality of the emptiness. That's why the thiri female have thiri face, telling the student, you need to have thiri wisdom to recognize. Now you're going to say, but that means thiri wisdom separately? I'm going to say no. First of all, all of us,

we went to first class to 10, right? Then we went to what, 10 to something, something, 12, 13, 14, right? You have different name. I don't know that. I've never been to school, so I don't know.

I don't went to this modern school. Then we go to college, right? University. You have three steps. So you go,. Then you go to college, right? University. You have three steps. So you go, we all went through three steps, right? That means you have three minds? No. Person who is writing A, B, C, D, E, F, G,

person, after ten years of reading so fast, is the same person, it's a progression. The same person goes to university, oh my, you become very famous scientist. The scientist famous one is the same person, progress from A, B, C, D, singing when the person is six years old, isn't it? It's a progression, isn't it?

Exactly, they give you three phase, it's not separate entity, it's the progression of understanding that's why have a fully inherent equality you enlighten mean you can say enlightened but enlightened doesn't know what people say oh this enlightenment enlightened means uncorrupted uncreated nature always presence when you do good does not increases when you do bad does not decreases you not created meaning nobody can steal from you or rob from you and that is inherently dignity inherently nature and this samandhuba statue is showing a unity of understanding and the Dan ini, Sangwa Duba, menunjukkan kesatuan pemahaman

dan kekosongan sendiri adalah tidak berbeza. Tetapi, hanya kekosongan dan seperti ini. Sekarang, orang Westin berkata, Rambutji, meditasi dan keadaan fikiran memblokir fikiran. Saya berkata, betulkah anda boleh memblokir fikiran? Saya sangat terkejut. Saya tidak boleh memblokir fikiran saya. Kedua, mereka berkata, Rambutji, anda hanya menggulung fikiran anda. Oh, betul. Menggulung fikiran anda. Iaua, mereka mengatakan Rambutji hanya memblengkakan fikiran anda. Oh, betul. Memblengkakan fikiran anda.

Ia membuat anda berada dalam keadaan meditasi. Bermakna setiap malam apabila anda pergi tidur dalam tidur dalam masa dua jam, ia bermakna anda adalah meditator yang baik. Dan itu benar-benar mempengaruhi anda. Badan anda bergelut. Tetapi fikiran anda adalah semula-mula sama. Jadi mengapa perlu? Ini hanya memblengkakan kepala anda. your mind is emotionally exactly the same. So why need it? This just blank your head is okay.

No. What do you need? Meditation means you need to have the female, three aspects of female. Recognition, awareness. When you focus your meditation, you keep the awareness. In very gentle awareness.

You know, I remember my grandma. This is my last one. Now my time is up. My grandma, when she talks to talk to me, she's a very fierce woman. You know, very tough woman, I remember. But she never tap on me because I am the only grandchild, you know.

So I am the first grandchild. I am the luckiest guy. So she always very gentle to me. She holds me. She say, my grandchild. and she gives name you know my first name i'm a born into family who have so many rimbocas meaning so many spiritual masters you know my name who give to me the first name is my grandma not the spiritual man who give me the name you understand that much and our family has so much influence by the female. But you don't know this and everybody read some books

and judging everybody Buddhist this female separation, I'm sometimes feel my heart pumps goes to 160s because I say, please you should know us little bit. You know, one part of the Buddhist we love to praise women and women's the most powerful. In our lineage family line, when we pray, not the men only names there, the female names equally there, and we chant every day. And my grandma is so fierce, so strong, but at the same time, she's so gentle to me.

So I always remember her as a gentle woman looking at me and teaching me how to chant. And my first teacher who teach me chanting is my grandma. And I don't know how to read. And how I learn is like repeating. She says, Om. I say, Om. Namo. Namo.

Bhagavati. Bhagavati. Aparamita. I repeat every day like that. So I learn the long mantra. Namo Bhagavati. Aparamita. Ayu Janasumbini.

Tathagataya. Arahara. Desamizha. Bud I learned the long mantra. That whole long mantra, I need to breathe it two times. I learned this from my beautiful grandma. Right? So when I look at the statue, it shows its femaleness. Recognition. It's gentle, but it's very clear. And that is the mindfulness, quality of mindfulness. Unity is the most important part.

And inherently, quality is the most important part of our Vajrayana Tantric Esoteric Buddhism. And that is the biggest difference from other teachings of the Buddha because this gives you empowerment and reminding you don't need empower, you already inherently, you are the empowerment. And this is my unity talk today. Terima kasih. di kaki anda seperti ini. Dan anda boleh tutup mata anda atau anda buka mata anda, anda boleh memilih diri anda

dengan selesa. Dan pertama, anda hanya beri perhatian, berbentuk, saya rasa semua orang tahu. Kemudian perlahan-lahan, kemudian kita hanya berehat. Just be aware of your breath. Gentle awareness. Thank you. Gently re-aware your breath, breathe very normally. Thank you. Please be gentle, aware. Thank you.. ཅ་ོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོོ� Thank you. Gentle, aware to your breath. Thank you. Gentle, aware of your breath. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for that very awakening session, Rumbhji. That concludes this week's practice.

To support the Ruben and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member at rubenmuseum.org membership 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 2 Raveena Arora, is out now and explores the transformative power of emotions using a mandala as a guide. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. And to stay up to date with the Rubin Museum's virtual and in-person offerings, sign up for a monthly newsletter at rubinmuseum.org slash enews. I am Tashi Chodron. Thank you so much for listening. Have a mindful day.