Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Rebecca Li 02/15/2024

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Theme: Love Artwork: Yogini Nairatmya; Tibet; 17th century; gilt copper alloy, gems, and pigment; gift of the Nyingjei Lam Collections and Anna Maria and Fabio Rossi; Rubin Museum of Art; C2018.3.1 (HAR 68463)http://therubin.org/37z Teacher: Rebecca LiThe 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 21:35. 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 Frederic P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism. And now, please enjoy your practice. Welcome to mindfulness meditation at the Rubin Museum of Art.

I'm Jacqueline Smith, Manager of Programs and Education, and I'm delighted to be your host today. We are a global hub for Himalayan art with a home base here 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 by our collection, we will first take a look at a work of art. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher, Rebecca Lee, and then we will have a short sit of 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. Now let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The work of art that we've chosen for all of you today is Yogini Narate Mia, which is on view on the fifth floor of the museum. Our theme for the month of February is love, and Narate Maya exemplifies love.

Having transcended ego, she is in a state of heightened awareness and compassion. She is free to fully express love. Naradmiya means the selfless one or egoless one, and she is a meditational deity. She is the consort of Havajra. This depiction of Naradmiya is a stunning example of 17th century Tibetan sculpture. Note the intricate level of detail and the embedded gemstones. Nuretmiya is adorned with a crown of skulls. Her serpentine necklace contains 50 skulls. She poses gracefully atop a corpse. This signifies her victory over the selfish mind. Having risen above the trappings of ego, Nuretmiya is in a state of perpetual bliss. And now let's bring on our teacher for today, Rebecca Lee. Dr. Rebecca Lee is a Dharma heir in the lineage of Chan master Sheng Yen, and she is

the founder and guiding teacher of the Chan Dharma community. Rebecca teaches meditation and Dharma classes, gives public lectures, and leads retreats in North America and Europe. Lee is the author of Allow Joy Into Our Hearts, Chan Practice in Uncertain Times, and her new book titled Illumination, A Guide to the Buddhist Method of No Method was published by Shambhala Publications in October. She is a sociology professor and lives with her husband in New Jersey. Her talks and writings can be found at www.rebeccalee.org. Rebecca, thank you so much for being here. Please join me in welcoming Rebecca.

Welcome, welcome everyone. It's so wonderful to be here with you, especially on the day of the snowstorm on Tuesday. It helps me see what a miracle it is that it's not today. We actually all get to be here to practice together today. And I always love to come in February when the theme is love. And there are a lot of different ways to think about love. And of course, because of Valentine's Day, there's a tendency for us to think about just romantic love. But actually, love really can be expressed in many forms towards anyone we encounter in any situation. That's why I really love today's artwork about how someone who is free from the

habits of suffering from the ego and then can just express love in whatever form that is appropriate in the present moment. And it is very much in tune with the topic of my book, Illumination, which is about the practice of silent illumination. Because silent illumination is not just about meditation. Love is very much integral to the practice of silent illumination because silent illumination is not just about meditation. Love is very much integral to the practice of silent illumination. Last evening, I held my monthly Dharma study course with my students in Chan Dharma community. And one of the practitioners shared this very moving story of her practice over the past couple months integrating the practice of being present moment to moment, cultivating this clear awareness, which really is the practice

of silence illumination. And she found that one thing that she really noticed was her ability to find meaning in a very small mundane act of her daily life. So like doing dishes, oftentimes we're like, ah, it's a chore, I just want to get it over with. Every moment she remembers the practice, she feels so connected with everyone in her life, with herself, that she's like, oh, my doing these dishes actually is an act of love to everyone in my life because cleaning my home, it's making the space more beautiful and lovely for everyone, including myself. So doing one thing in our daily life becomes an act of love because of this sense of connection. She also shared this story about her mother that she visits every week who has Alzheimer's. And some of you may be able to relate to this. And she felt that this practice

of silent illumination is so wonderful that instead of feeling that it's so difficult, I don't know what to do. It's like every moment I just be with my mother as she is this moment. And maybe she can't remember what she said last moment. Doesn't matter. Just be fully with her as she is in this moment. And that is love. And in fact, maybe we can learn from this way of being with everyone in our life. Wherever we're with in this moment, they may be upset, they may be grumpy, they may be very excited about something. Be with them as they are in this moment. And this is the practice of silent illumination. So silent illumination is the practice of cultivating loving kindness as well. Because when we're able to be with the present as it is moment after moment in a cultivation of total clear awareness of what is going on, the body and mind in this space.

practice of silent delimitation. It's about how to transition from using a method, because you might remember the subtitle of the book is the Guide to the Buddhist Method of No Method, which sounds kind of very mysterious. So is there a method or there's no method? And really it's pointing to the fact that we start with the practice with a method. And many of you might be familiar, and we will be doing that in our guided meditation. We start using a method like the changing sensations of the body breathing to anchor us to each emerging present moment. And so that helps us settle our mind. But as the mind settles, actually we can transition into the method of no method. Really, it's about allowing, allowing the body and mind in the space to be as it is moment after moment.

Really, it's to reconnect with our natural state of being, reconnect with our natural capacity of compassion and wisdom. And we already have it, our innate Buddha nature. Sometimes we just forgot, and then we believe I have to go get it outside of ourselves. No need. We just need to drop that which is getting in the way of ourselves to reconnect with our innate Buddha nature. And that is the practice of silent illumination,

cultivating this total clear awareness of the body-mind in this space, moment after moment, just being here. So sometimes when we are engaging in the practice, there will be this common question, what do I do when there are thoughts coming through in your meditation? Like, well, actually, thoughts are already here. Allow it to come through. Anyway, we try to fight against it, block it out. It just tenses up the body and mind. Many of you might have experienced that. well, it just tenses up the body and mind. Many of you might have experienced that.

That just hates the mind unnecessarily. But you might find that there are some thoughts you're unwilling to let through. And then cultivating clarity about that actually allows us to gain insight into our mind, into our very entrenched, subtle habits. And after the thoughts and feelings maybe in the form story or memories allow through let be allow it to be as it is unfolding moment after moment and fully felt and seen and heard as it is oftentimes we find that we are kind of editing out, blocking out some aspects of what we are feeling,

not allowing ourselves to feel a certain way. And so allow ourselves to be fully heard and seen and felt. Really, it is a form of love, genuine love for ourselves, to really hear ourselves, allow ourselves to be seen. And when it's done telling ourselves how we're feeling, allow it to move on moment after moment. And also we'll notice that sometimes maybe we get tired. The attention might dull a little bit. So when we notice that that too is awareness, we can kind of sharpen gently the awareness a little bit and maintain the practice. And so oftentimes you might notice when the mind drifts off,

we might think that that's some kind of failure and get frustrated with ourselves. But actually recognizing the mind drifting off is a form of awareness. You are practicing well, so there's not a problem. It is an opportunity to practice remembering, to come back, to reconnect with the present moment as it is. So when we practice this way, what we're doing is to release the unhelpful habits of harshness. We recognize that our culture sort of also encourages this,

being very harsh with ourselves, being very hard on ourselves. Like, what is wrong with me? Why can't I stay on my breath? Why does my mind want to drift off and go do these other things? I want to meditate. And then we start beating ourselves up, saying unkind things to ourselves, this harshness, wanting to punish ourselves. And harshness, you can see, is the opposite of love.

So when we practice silent illumination, what we are doing is we allow every moment to be experienced as it is. Allow these thoughts and feelings to arise to be fully felt and seen and heard. Even when we recognize, we see as, I can't believe, I think that, I should not feel that, I should not feel angry, I should not get mad at that church. No, should. All the things that we use to beat ourselves up, that is what's happening. No problem.

Let me hear it. Feel it. Feel these feelings fully. And actually, when we do that, we'll notice they're just thoughts. They're like bubbles. They come up. And then they move on. They're not you. They're like bubbles. They come up and then they move on.

They're not you. They're not who you are permanently. And we recognize the true nature of our being. And we might find that we have mistaken these transient thoughts as who we are, as the essence of ourselves. And when we are able to stay with every moment this way, we are able to release these unhelpful habits of harshness. We see how it's triggered, the belief behind us, telling ourselves that we are unacceptable, and then not really offer that, and then not act on this urge to punish ourselves,

to beat ourselves up. And remember to be kind and tender and gentle to ourselves. And when we practice this way, we are able to also do this for other people in our life, because we spend a lot of time with ourselves. And it is not about just telling ourselves, I want to love myself, I want to love myself. But every moment, we remember to see this habit of harshness arising and not follow it, not act on it and release it. That is the practice of silent illumination. release it. That is the practice of silent illumination. And actually, one of the practitioners talked about how she did exactly that. She found that as she cultivated more clarity into the subtle habits of her mind, she realized that she's been kind of very resentful

in her life because she has not listened to what she really wants. So she feels like, I'm always not doing what I want to cater to other people. And she finds herself increasingly resentful to her friends. And she finally realized she's been lying to herself. And she'll just honor her thoughts and listen to herself and just do what she actually really wants to do. And she has become happier. And guess what? Her husband benefits from her being happier. So she's actually bringing benefit to everyone in her life. You can see that the practice of silent illumination is to free us from the habits of suffering. Because suffering arises when we react to what's going on in the present moment

with unhelpful habits of habitual reactivity, vexations. And so when we recognize these unhelpful habits of reactivity about to show up and release them. Then there's just what's going on in the present moment. No suffering. But present moment as it is. And one of the practitioners in my class, he's been a very dedicated practitioner,

and he always had these questions about these problems at work, so stressed, and he has a very busy job. And talked about, he realized how easy it is for him to kind of fall into this survival mode. Some of you may be able to relate to this, like, I have too much to do. I can't worry about other people. And we can get into a very kind of selfish mode. I just need to get what I do, even though I don't care how it will affect other people. And so he noticed that with his practice, noticed this habit kind of sneaking up on him. And he doesn't want to be like that. And so when he noticed the habit showing up, hey, no problem. I'm not that selfish person. It's like, I can just release them. I don't need

to follow it. And then come back to the practice, remembering that we are all truly interconnected so that he can remember to pay attention to the impact of his action on others, on his colleagues, and be conscientious and be considerate. This too is a form of love, especially we spend time at work a lot. When we approach our work this way, we are cultivating this loving-kindness towards everyone in our life. And so you can see the practice of silent illumination is not just about sitting there, spacing out, or trying to make the mind a certain way, making it blank, making like nothing happening in the mind. That is not what silent illumination is about. The practice of

silent illumination is actually very engaged. Like the artwork today, you can see there's this being at ease, but alive, fully engaged with every moment, every unfolding present moment as it is. moment, every unfolding present moment as it is. And so what we're doing inside the practice of silent illumination is to cultivate clarity of how we get in the way of ourselves. And this habitual reactivity that cause our self-suffering, which in turn often cause us to act towards others that cause harm that we don't mean to do. And that's often because we forget that we are all interconnected. And so in the book, I talk about the various habitual reactivity in various forms of mode of operation. I can share with you a couple common ones. One is what I call the aversion mode. Some of you may be able to relate to it. The mode of operation refers to the fact that the way we live our life, the way we relate to others, relate to the world, they don't

stop when we sit down to do meditation. They show up in our meditation. So when we actually engage in the practice of silent illumination, cultivate this clarity of how we are reacting to what happens in meditation, we gain insight into these habits. So for example, a lot of practitioners when they notice thoughts, it's no problem. They happen. They come visit you. No, it's my enemy. I'm gonna engage in war against it. Get into the fighting against the thoughts. So believe that they are actually practicing. They believe their job is to create a blank mind

and keep all the thoughts out of their mind. And it is quite common. And I want to talk about it because it is not just something that will affect your meditation. Because a lot of people come to practice meditation to cultivate this peace and loving kindness and compassion. If we are not clear that this is what we're doing in our meditation, when we react to thoughts with this aversion,

I hate the thoughts, try to get rid of it. Instead of love and compassion and peace, we are cultivating more hatred, more aversion in our mind. And so it is no small matter, as you can see. And it is actually possible for one to become more agitated, more hateful as we practice in this way. And I had a student a long time ago who told me that his grandmother loved to meditate and is the most nasty person in the world. I said, yes, you can become that more and more self-absorbed if you don't go about meditation practice with the right view. And so the practice of sun illumination that I talk about in the book

help us gain clarity of this habitual reactivity that shows up in our meditation, that also reflects our life. And also, they are not a permanent part of ourselves, so no need to get mad at these habits that we notice. Actually, recognizing these habits means that we are gaining more clear awareness. And as we become know these habitual reactivity more clearly, how they show up moment to moment, then we actually can release them by not perpetuating.

Every moment is brand new and we can just know and choose, I don't need to believe in this. I don't need to follow it and act on it. So let's practice this meditation together. What we do is we will relax our body. And take you through full body relaxation. And you see how we can learn to transition into the practice of silent illumination. And we begin.

And we begin. Feel the relaxation at the top of the head. Directly experience the subtle sensations of the top of the head. Allow the tension to melt away. And feel the relaxation spread to the forehead. Check the sea.

We hold tension in this area by habit. Perhaps from worrying. And allow, allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation spread to the eyeballs and eye muscles to the eyeballs and eye muscles. Often hold a lot of tension in these muscles in our daily life. From all the planning, comparing, analyzing, judging,

right here, right now. No need to do any of that. We can give these muscles a vacation. And feel the relaxation spread to the facial muscles. Check to see if we hold tension in facial expression for the world to see. Right here, right now, there is no need to do that. we can give these muscles medication and allow allow the tension

melt away and feel the relaxation spread to the neck and shoulder muscles directly experience the subtle changing sensations of these muscles softening like melting butter as we allow the tension to melt away And feel the relaxation spread down the arms, all the way down the forearms and the fingertips and feel the relaxation spread to the chest area. to see if we hold tension in this area by habit maybe from anxiety

sadness grief fear here right here right now you can give them a rest and allow allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation

thread down the torso all the way down to the lower abdomen trust that the skeletal structure can hold up the body. These muscles do not need to work so hard. can give them a vacation too and allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation spread to the upper back

Spread to the upper back. Correctly experience the subtle sensations of these muscles softening. We allow, allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation spread down the back all the way down to the lower back the buttocks where we feel sensations the body seated on our seat and feel the relaxation spread down to the thigh muscles, down the legs, all the way down to the toes and feel the relaxation of the entire body sitting right here, right now wakeful for your mind

moment after moment If your mind is already settled, you can sit in this clear awareness of the spotty mind setting the space moment to moment and if you notice the mind feel a bit scattered you can make use the subtle changing sensations of the body breathing. You anchor yourself. Rest your attention gently on the subtle changing sensations of the body breathing

the anchored mind to each emerging present moment allowing the body to breathe on its own the body knows how to breathe on its own. The body knows how to breathe in doing so since the moment we were born. Moment after moment, stay with the changing sensations of the body breathing. And if you notice mind drifting off, losing contact with the direct experience of the changing sensations of the body breathing.

Not a problem. Make use of it as an opportunity to practice remembering to come back to the direct experience of the subtle changing sensations of the body breathing no matter how often or how long the mind drifts off. As long as we find our way back, we're practicing well. And if we notice thoughts, feelings coming to visit us maybe in the form of story, a memory

playing some scenes from past moments body problem allow them to come through they're already part of the present moment. Trying to block them out. Only agitate the mind. When they are here, allow them to be fully felt and seen and heard as it is moment after moment. and when he's done visiting you

allow them to move on on his own there's no need to be in a hurry to make them go away they will move on on their own moment after moment they will move on on their own. Moments after moments,

allow the body-mind in the space to be as it is. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Maintain this clear awareness as we transition from stillness to motion, as we move our fingers one by one, and 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 as soon as the body begins to move. I would want to stop being clearly aware every moment because the formal meditation period has ended. And rotate the body in the opposite direction. and rotate the body in the opposite direction. We take good care of this transition from stillness to motion and we can carry the clarity and stability

cultivated in sitting meditation into our life lived in motion in whatever activity we engage in. Thank you so much, Rebecca. That concludes this week's practice. To support the Ruben and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member at rubinmuseum.org membership. 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.