Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Rebecca Li

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

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  22:56.Teacher: Rebecca LiTheme: Loving Future Vasudhara and Hvashang; Tibet; 17th century; pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; gift of Shelley and Donald Rubin; C2006.66.626Learn 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 week, we offer a meditation session that draws inspiration from an artwork from the Rubin's collection and is led by a prominent meditation teacher. You can find more information about the related artwork. work in the episode description. Our mindfulness meditation podcast is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg

and teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and supported by the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism. And now, please enjoy your practice. Hello, everybody, Tashi DeLake. What an amazing week as millions inspired by monks and their rescue dogs. Aloka, Walk for Peace, spreading messages of mindfulness, loving kindness, compassion, and peace. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts Mindfulness Meditation Program. I'm Tashi Chuddin, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be

a host today. The Rubin is a global museum dedicated to presenting Himalayan art and its insights, and we're so glad to have all of you join us for our 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've chosen for today. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher Rebecca Lee, and then we will have a short set, 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. Now let's take a look at today's theme and artwork.

Before we dive into the art connection for today's session, I'd like to mention that we have just launched our 10th, annual spiral magazine. It's now available online and in print. This year, we explore the concept of wrath through a Buddhist perspective. The purpose of wrathful deities is to protect practitioners from negative forces and destroy obstacles on the path to enlightenment. So, wrath is a positive thing. It's a protector. And the artwork for today's session is Vasudara and Jahashang. Origin Tibet dated 17th century. This is mineral pigments on cloth,

and it's about 28 into 234th inches, and this is a beautiful Thanka painting. Jahashang is an iconographic figure. His name means Chinese monk. There is a teaching that he was sent as an emissary by the Tang Emperor of China to invite Shakyamuni Buddha to the Chinese imperial court. At the end of his journey,

he discovered that the Buddha had left this earthly plane. However, he became a patron of the Buddha's foremost students, the 16 Arhat's and a devoted follower of Buddhism himself. Now Vasudara's name means shower of wealth. She's also often likened to Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth. Vasudara is closely associated with Zambala, another Buddhist deity of wealth. Vasu Dara holds a gold, vase that is brimming with stalks of grain. This signifies her bountifulness. Her right hand is

extended outward in the mudra of generosity. Her body has a golden hue which is color associated with giving. Now let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Rebecca Lee. Dr. Rebecca Lee is a Dharma heir in the lineage of Chan Master Shenyan, the founder and guiding teacher of Chan. Dharma community. She teaches meditation and Dharma classes, gives public lectures and leads retreats in North America and Europe. Rebecca is the author of Allow Joy into our hearts. Chan practice in uncertain times and her latest book titled Illumination, A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No Method, was published by Shambala Publications in October of 2023. She's a sociology professor and lives with her husband in New Jersey.

Her talks and writings can be found at Rebeccalee.org. Rebecca, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Tachi, for introducing this artwork for us. And I really love this artwork in showing how loving future can be represented as

loving the future generations by supporting them, bringing men joy and with gifts of wealth and abundance that bring joy and alleviate their suffering. And also, we can understand it as being manifested in the continuation of Buddha's teachings. When we think about loving future, oftentimes we think about gift for future generations, maybe in the form of maybe money, right? Oftentimes maybe we think about how we can manage our money so we can leave something behind for our children,

future generation, maybe grandchildren, to perhaps help them alleviate stress, financial stress, that they don't need to worry as much about making ends meet or maybe helping them with their education so they're not saddled with student loan or debts and make it a little bit easier for them. Or maybe for those of us who can afford it, we may think about besides our immediate family, making donations to charity or leaving behind some donation for endowments,

as a gift to the future generations, helping them with their education or medical care, or leaving them with a cleaner environment in many different ways to improve their material conditions. And these are all very important ways to send a love to the future generations. And while these are very important, the continuity of Buddhist teaching, it's something that we can all contribute to. Whether we have the means to give money as donation or to leave a lot of money to future generations.

So for those of you who are thinking, well, I can't really give much in terms of money, we can all contribute to our future, to future generations through our effort in supporting the Dharma. Very often, practitioners would send me email or tell me in classes. Things like that, they would say the Dharma is such a gift. Or like they would share with me about a very difficult situation that they just live through. Perhaps the passing of a loved one or some very difficult situation in the family. conflict or sickness of family member. And they will talk about how thanks to the practice that they were able to get through

these very difficult times. And I also had practitioner who told me how their family used to be filled with conflict. There was a lot of argument and a lot of painful moments because everyone was suffering so much and they would tell me how thanks to the Dharma, thanks to the practice, that now their families actually filled with love and they feel very hopeful for the future generation, living a joyful life. So I'm sharing this with you to show us how, what truly a precious gift, a Dharma, the Buddhist teaching is.

and when I said that we can all contribute to it, I'm referring to the fact that whenever we practice, whenever we listen to Dharma teachings, like what you're doing now, whenever we read a Dharma book or ask questions, ask for guidance to clarify our understanding of the Dharma, learn to meditate, and also learn to work with ourselves to stay with our meditated practice,

both on the cushion and off our meditation seat in our daily life. And also whenever we support the Dharma by, for example, volunteering our time, maybe making financial support to Dharma centers, as well as groups like the Rubin here who are offering Dharma teachings. And also like supporting, helping teachers. Whenever we're doing any of these, we are planting seeds for the flourishing of Dharma for future generations. So for example, right here at the Rubin,

we have this wonderful mindfulness meditation program and podcast, and this didn't just happen. This is the fruit of many years of work by all the program staff, doing their wonderful job planning and executing the program without fail week after week, and they still continue to do this work. And also everyone who participated in the program over the years, I can still remember the phases of many practitioners who attended the sessions over the years. and asking questions, providing financial support, as well as moral supports.

And all these were part of the causes and conditions that allow the program to continue. And making the Dharma teaching and practice available to many, many people who may not otherwise had a chance to encounter the practice, especially because they hadn't had a connection to a temple or a Dharma center. And in fact, a number of participants in the program here ended up in the retreats at the retreat center that I taught. So this is an example of how whenever we practice, we are helping to plant the seed for the trees that will bear fruit in the future for others.

And similarly, whenever my student thank me for guidance that they are receiving from their practice, that they are connecting with the love from generations of practitioners, teachers, volunteers, and donors who help to keep the teachings alive. And when I think about it, like, I can feel the love from all the volunteers and practitioners who engage in the practice, sitting through all the leg pains, you know, all the volunteers who spend their weekend, their evening, supporting the Dharma Center where my teacher, Master Shenyan taught, supporting him, encouraging him to teach and expand the capacity of our center so that someone like me, who when I moved across the country,

I was able to have this wonderful place of practice and engage in Dharma study. And all the moments that they were engaging in the practice, manifestation of their love to future generation. So that right now, as I'm sharing the teaching, everyone in future moments can benefit from the precious gift of the Dharma. And every moment we practice besides

planting the seed for the continuity of the Dharma for others in the future moment. Every moment we practice, we ourselves suffer less right now. And when we suffer less than we are less prone

to cause harm in our actions, both in our speech or in our, our bodily actions. Because we are less prone to fall into unhelpful habits, many of us had these unhelpful habitual reactivities, maybe being critical or trying to fix people, or blame and judge, or engage in actions that inflict harm, maybe to make us feel better because we are suffering. So when we practice, we suffer less and we, in turn, are less prone to cause harm to others. Also, when we are not consumed by suffering, then we are, for one thing, more present and more available to others when others need us,

perhaps because they are suffering. We can be fully here for them. And just by our full presence, maybe we're able to offer something that they need, but even if we're not able to do or say anything, just by our full presence that allow others to feel loved and that in itself bring joy. because we are ourselves not suffering.

We are connected with the Dharma joy. This helps us maybe I can share a story, share with me recently, just a few days ago by a practitioner. She encountered the Dharma through a friend who has been practicing for many years. So without her connection with this friend, she wouldn't have a chance to encounter a Dharma practice. It's because she doesn't have any connection with a Dharma center or a temple.

And what happened is that she's been suffering a lot from losing a loved one. A very close family member passed away. And she's just been consumed by grief and suffering a great deal and not able to accepted and as a result, it's very agitated. From her own telling, she talked about she's just being this very mean person and not really a kind or even though that's how she wanted herself to be. And after she's been engaging in the practice, she started with learning how to meditate, learning the Dharma and make the commitment to engage in more concentrated period of practice by attending retreats and participating in Dharma courses that I've been offering.

Of course, these were all made possible by the practice of an action of past practitioners. And she was talking about how the practice allowed her to suffer less. Recently, when she experienced moments of grief, when she thought about her loved one who passed away, she was able to just stay with the very painful sensations, painful sensation of grief without giving rise to any aversion that causes more suffering. And she was able to notice how it just arises and parishes and without adding any more suffering, which allowed her to be clear and present. and allow her to not fall into habits of being mean and critical and judgmental

that allow her to live life in greater clarity and with more peace. And she was able to see how when she's suffering less, she's also more available to support her loved one. She talked about how when her daughter called her and sobbing because she, she was really struggling in school, she was able to stay with the practice and not try to fix her problem, not try to be in a hurry to stop her from sobbing, and was just there with her full presence, loving kindness. And at the end of the call, she shared how, like, her daughter went through that emotion and then ended up laughing with her.

And she was just amazed by what a miracle the practice is. It brought about these moments that it would have been impossible in the past she felt. And what she noticed was that just by being fully there, she allowed her daughter to feel loved. And this is an example of how our practice, just engaging in the practice, allows us to send love to a future generation. And as you can see, when we give it a try, when we feel more love and there's less suffering,

then we can release all the unhelpful habitual reaction. activity that generate all kind of tension that gets us to act our most unhelpful habits, maybe being defensive or being critical, and instead allows us to act with more kindness and more clarity and wisdom. and that allows us to see our situation, our causes and conditions more clearly, which allows us to make wiser decisions in our daily life. And every time we make the decision with wisdom and clarity, instead of making foolish ones, that condition in future movements,

And that is another way our practice can be a way to send our love to future generation, or really how we can use our practice to condition future moments for all beings. So many of us may have this experience of having an aging parent. So some of us may have the fortune of noticing how some elderly individuals, because they have been making wise decision with clarity about their situation, make wise decision about their money, finances, and also making wise decision about how to go about their life and taking good care of their health,

and all that allow them to create future conditions where when they need support, when they need help, their children find it easier to care for them when it comes time for them to need help. And this is a great way, a great gift for others in future moments. And how do we do that? It's by taking good care of this moment, engaging in the practice, taking good care of our body and mind and our living situation.

Then it in itself is the loving of future. And really, when we think about it, every moment we remember to practice, this moment we suffer less. And when we suffer less, we are already making the world a better place. And every moment we suffer less. And that will spread because as we are more available, we cause less harm to others. Everyone we encounter benefits from it. And in turn, they act with more kindness to others.

And they condition future moment for all beings. And so I like to invite you all to spend the next 15 minutes to practice meditation together so that we can all make use of the Dharma, make use of meditation to collectively make a better future. So I like to invite you to put yourselves in a comfortable position making sure your posture allows your body to relax and I will take you through a whole body relaxation and we begin.

Feel the relaxation of the top of our head directly experience the subtle sensations of the scalp relaxing and feel the relaxation spread to the forehead, check to see if we hold tension in the area between our eyebrows by habit, perhaps from worrying and allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation. spread to the eyeballs and eye muscles. We tend to hold a lot of tension in this area by habits

from all the comparing, judging, analyzing, planning. And right here, right now, we can give that a rest. and allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation spread to the facial muscles

check to see if we hold tension in some part of our face by habit perhaps to hold a certain facial expression for the world to see. And right here right now,

there is no need to do that. We can give these puzzles vacation and allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation spread to the entire head and feel

Feel the relaxation, spread to the neck and shoulder muscles, directly experience the subtle sensations of these muscles softening. Like melting butter as we allow, allow the tension to melt away. And feel the relaxation. Spread down the arms to the forearms. And all the way down to the fingertips. And feel the relaxation.

Spread to the chest area. Check to see if we hold tension in this area. by habit, perhaps from anxiety, sadness, grief, fear, and right here, right now. We can give them a rest, tension to melt away and feel the relaxation, spread down the torso all the way down to the lower abdomen where we often hold a lot of tension by habits that the skeletal structure can hold up the body and these muscles do not need to work so hard

we can give them a vacation too and allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation spread to the upper back directly experience the subtle sensations of these muscles softening like melting butter As we allow, allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation.

Spread down the back to the lower back and all the way down to the buttocks, where we feel the sensations of the body's weight on the seat and feel the relaxation spread to the thigh muscles and down and all the way down to the toes and feel the relaxation of the entire body sitting right here, right now, with this wakeful, clear mind, moment, after moment.

As we do so, we notice the subtle changing sensations of the body breathing is the different. contract and expands. The whole body moves a little bit and we can rest our attention gently on the subtle changing sensations as the body breathes

moment after moment to gently anchor the mind to each emerging present moment allowing the body to breathe. On its own, the body knows how to breathe. It's been doing so since the moment we were born. Stressed our attention gently. On the subtle changing sensations of the body breathing,

there's no need to hold on the breath too tightly, generating tension. Just maintain gentle contact. And from time to time, you may notice your mind drifting off, losing contact with a direct experience

of subtle changing sensations of the body breathing. When that happens, not a problem. Use that as an opportunity to practice, practice remembering to come back, to reconnect with the direct experience of the subtle changing sensations of the body breathing. It doesn't matter how often the mind drift off as long as you find your way back. You are practicing well, and from time to time, you may notice thoughts and feelings coming by to visit.

Maybe memory or fragments of conversation, and when they do, allow them through. They're already part of the present moment. blocking them, pushing them away, only generate more agitation, and tense up the mind, allow them through. There's no need to search them for them, but when they hear, let them through, and allow them to be experienced

as they are moment after moment, start the feelings to be felt and seen and hurt as they are. There's no need to explain them, analyze them, label them, just experience them as they are moment after moment, and when they are ready to move on, them to move on after moment, in this total clear awareness of the body mind,

sitting in this space, maintain this clear awareness. As we transition from stillness to motion, as we move our fingers one by one, move our palms, and rotate our body from small circle into bigger and bigger. circles in one direction. Stay with the changing sensations as the body moves. Moment after moment notice the urge to allow the mind to scatter.

Just because the formal meditation period has ended, the practice continues. Just changing form. Now we stay. with each moment as it is while the body is moving. We change direction, rotate the body from small circle into bigger and bigger circles in the opposite direction. Take good care of this transition from setting meditation into motion. allow us to take the clarity and stability cultivated and setting meditation into our life

lived in motion. Thank you, everyone, for your practice. Thank you so much for that, Rebecca. And thank you all for listening. That concludes this week's practice. If you enjoyed this podcast or are a weekly listener, we invite you to support this series by donating and becoming a friend of the Rubin at Rubin Museum.org slash friends. The Rubin is a non-profit that relies on the generous support of donors like you to create meaningful experiences with Himalayan art around the world. If you are looking for more inspiring content, check out our other podcast, Awaken, which uses art to explore the dynamic path 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,

sign up for our newsletter at RubinMuseum.org slash newsletter. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.