Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Rebecca Li 05/22/2025

Episode Date: May 30, 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 18:57.Teacher: Rebecca Li  Theme: CompassionAvalokiteshvara; Tibet; 12th century; copper alloy, silver inlay, traces of pigment; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2002.24.1Learn 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, and Tashi Delek. Welcome.

Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Arts mindfulness meditation program here at this beautiful space at New York Insight Meditation Center. I am Tashi Churdun, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be a host today. Wonderful to see so many of you despite the rain all morning. 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 in person and online 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 have

chosen today. It's actually handpicked by our teacher, Rebecca Lee. So art we have chosen today. It's actually hand picked by our teacher Rebecca Lee. So wonderful to have you back. We will then have a short sit about 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. So let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. This month we are still exploring on the theme of compassion, which is so needed, especially now. And the art connection for today's session is this beautiful sculpture of Avalokitesvara, known as Jenrek-Zig. As you see here, it's the origin from Tibet, dated 12th century, copper alloy with silver inlays.

You will see traces of pigments. And this is about 13 x 9 x 7 inches. A beautiful sculpture. Avalokiteshvara personifies the compassion of all the Buddhas. He is the most revered deity in Tibetan Buddhism. Now Avalokitesvara, also known as Chendrekzai in Tibetan, described as the patron deity of Tibet. He is considered the bodhisattva of compassion and is often associated with his Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Holiness is known to be the emanation of Avalokitesvara. One of the most recognizable mantra in the world or specifically in Tibetan Buddhism, even a child would know the mantra is the Avalokiteshvara's mantra, often known as six syllable, om mani pedme hum. Sometimes there is a seventh one added called shri, om mani pedme hum shri. And Avalokiteshvara, some of you may be familiar, appears in many forms in two arms, four arms, six arms and thousand arms and in 11 headed, most of the time in peaceful but in the 11 headed thousand arm you will also find a fierce wrathful face as well and most of the time appears white in color and also in female form in Chinese, known as Kuan Yan. But here you see him in this beautiful depiction in his simplest form

in a male with two arms, his hands holding the stem of lotus bud. And here is a close-up look, the very elaborate crown. And then you can see here, sitting in the royal ease position, left leg extended, right leg folded, sitting on a lotus throne, and his left foot stepping on a lotus as well. May Avalokiteshvara inspire us to cultivate compassion and awaken our true nature which is the loving kindness and compassion that is within each of us. 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 Shen Yin, who is the founder and guiding teacher of Chan Dharma community. Dr. Rebecca Lee 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 latest new book titled, Illumination, a guide to the Buddhist method of no method was published by Shambhala Publications in October of 2023. She is a sociology professor and lives with her husband in New Jersey. Her talks and writings can be found at drrebeccalee.org. Rebecca Lee, thank you so much for being here and please help me in welcoming Dr. Rebecca Lee.

Welcome everyone. Thank you, Tashi, for your kind introduction. Yes, this month's theme is compassion. I don't know about you, but sometimes it may feel like a tall order, especially seeing the introduction description of what it means to be like Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara with this boundless compassionate heart. It can feel like a tall order, especially when we ourselves are struggling. struggling. And recently I have practitioners who share with me how he's been just really stressed

out at work dealing with the uncertainty brought by the tariff situation at his business and constantly worrying about whether the business would make it. And all the people whose jobs are on the line and then their families relying on their income in an incredibly stressful situation. And I also had another practitioner dealing with being laid off and trying to find a new job unsuccessfully. And many others dealing with themselves being able to keep their job, witnessing their colleagues being laid off from funding cuts, decline in earning at their workplace, and others worry about cost of living going up

amidst this uncertainty and worrying if they will be able to afford their life. Incredible amount of stress. And what they have shared was that they haven't been able to function properly. And some of you may be able to relate, not being able to function properly in the sense that like, you don't know, but you just feel irritable and kind of you don't feel motivated. You're supposed to do this, but you can't get yourself, bring yourself to do certain things.

And then maybe find ourselves falling into habits we know are not healthy, like binge watching TV or binge eating things that we shouldn't be eating. And then beat ourselves up. What is wrong with me? What is wrong with me? wrong with me, what is wrong with me. And when we find ourselves in moments like this, it is an excellent moment to practice compassion. And the person we need to cultivate compassion to is this person who is really struggling, suffering, and also in the midst of beating ourselves up.

First order of business is to recognize that it is quite normal to feel stress in the midst of great uncertainty. The book, Allow Drawing to Our Hearts, was actually on talks that I gave during the early weeks of the pandemic. And my students who are working with it recently to help themselves, they're like, you know, Rebecca, like even though it's about a pandemic, it feels like what's happening now.

And because dress a lot of uncertainty is similar, the cost might be different. And so recognizing that it's normal to feel a lot of stress and feel irritable in midst of uncertainty, and it will help us remember to be unconditionally kind to ourselves, meaning I'm irritable and I'm like kind of saying things that's not so nice. Forgive ourselves, unconditionally kind to ourselves. And this is also why it is

important to engage in the meditative practice of cultivating moment to moment clear awareness of the body-mind in this space at all times. Why? Because when we do that, it allows us to have this clarity in the midst of this stability of mind that will allow us to notice this feeling of stress and anxiety. Because sometimes we can be so stressed out that we don't even know we are stressed out. We just act out our stress by being irritable, by beating ourselves up. But when we are able to notice this feeling of stress, instead of believing

that I should always feel super duper calm all the time and nothing else, it's like it is in the midst of this clarity, it's like oh wow there is stress, there's stress here, interesting. And this allows us to see that this feeling of stress and anxiety is actually giving us some very important information that we have been dismissing. So maybe it is actually telling us that you know what, all the things on the to-do list, there's no way we can get it done because I am so spent by exhaustion or stress. And this is also the time we can recognize this very entrenched habit of harshness we inflict on ourselves.

The habit of harshness being like forcing ourselves, often time even though we are really struggling to force ourselves to just power through. So I'm exhausted? Okay, well then rest less. Like skimp on resting time. Sleep less. And even though it is time to eat, well you work while you're eating. When you're walking from this place to the bathroom, trying to like listen to something while you are doing that, no moment of rest. This whole puppet of harshness, and you can see how self-defeating it can be. Like we don't deprive ourselves of rest, trying to catch up, and then we end up being more exhausted and more irritable, and we get stuck in this vicious cycle. When we can cultivate this moment to

moment clear awareness we can know, oh wow I'm doing this I'm like not letting myself any moment of rest and you might notice that habits it's like we have our headphone or like listening trying to learn something all the time and getting information and no moment of just being with the present moment as it is and when we catch ourselves doing this like how about just eat my food be with the body mind as it is this moment and be with the body mind as it is this moment. And that actually, we don't even need that much.

It will give us the opportunity to recognize, oh, there is too much on my plate. I don't have the enough bandwidth or energy and time to do all that. Let's see where adjustment is needed. And so that we can recognize the adjustment needed. That moment is the moment of compassion, this unconditional kindness to alleviate ourselves of this impossible situation we find ourselves. And when we think about this, this is actually the

practice of cultivating wisdom. How so? Because it is allowing ourselves to see clearly the true nature of reality. The reality being this being. That every moment is brand new. Every moment is the coming together of causes and conditions. Causes and conditions of this body mind. Of what's going on in our world, in our life. So we may think that you know this is my usual schedule. I usually can. I usually can work with this full schedule. I'm a busy person. I like being busy. You usually being able to do this does not mean that I can always do this. So how about this movement? How is this movement of

body mind and my life not like? Had I been dealing with, for example, health issues that is taking a lot of energy. Maybe the health issues making it impossible for me to sleep well, that is making me feel quite exhausted. Maybe situation at home, situation at work that is taking a lot of time, a lot of energy. And of course, weather. We have noticing the weather that might make it a little bit hard to feel energetic. All this, allowing ourselves this moment as we are and recognizing, watching out for this habit

of I should be able to do that, the shooting. That is the habit of harshness I'm talking about. And being fully present with the present moment experience of ourselves so that we can recognize the need for adjustment in this moment. It is also the cultivation of wisdom in the sense that is seeing the situation clearly. Remembering recognizing it has cause and effect, we like to believe that we can be examined from that. So for example, the schedule we've got ourselves into will require 100 units of energy.

But the fact is that we haven't been able to sleep and we only have 80 units of energy. But we still believe that we can do the work that requires 100 units of energy. We believe we can defy gravity. We can be exempt from law of cause and effect. And fretting about and getting frustrated with ourselves for not being at 100%, not having that 100 unit of energy is not going to make it so. Actually, we probably will end up exhausting ourselves more. So this is the moment when we can give rise to humility, that work with where we are now so that we can release this habit of harshness, trying to beat ourselves into being able to do the work that requires

more than what we have now. So this unconditional kindness to ourselves is supported by wisdom. It is not about being indulgent or being irresponsible, forgetting about the effect of our action on others, so that when we make adjustments, we can think about how this would affect other people in our life life so that we're not just disappearing dropping the ball. That is not what we are talking about. And remember even when we forget to be kind to ourselves and falling into this habit of harshness, remember it's okay. Unconditional kindness. Being kind to ourselves even when we forget to be kind to ourselves. And remembering to do that will give us greater capacity to empathize

with those around us who are also struggling. When we can do this to ourselves then we are able to recognize their struggle and meet them with kindness while still helping them to be accountable for themselves. So let's take some time to practice together in cultivating this moment to moment clear awareness What I do is I will take you through the whole body relaxation We begin When we begin, you the relaxation of the top of our head directly experience the subtle sensations of the scalp relaxing As we allow the tension to melt away 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, allow the tension to melt away and feel the relaxation spread to the eyeballs and eye muscles we often hold a lot of tension in these muscles by habit By all the comparing, analyzing, judging, planning Right here, right now We can take a break from that and allow the tension to melt away. relaxation spread to our 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 right here, right now we don't need to do that. We can give these muscles vacation and allow, allow the tension to melt away. to melt away and feel the relaxation spread to the entire head and feel the relaxation spread down to the neck and shoulder muscles

Directly experience the subtle sensations of these muscles softening like melting butter as we allow allow the arms to the forearms all the way spread to the chest area. Check to see if we hold tension in this area by habit. Perhaps from anxiety, sadness, grief, fear. Now we can give them a rest And allow the tension to melt away And feel the relaxation Spread down the torso All the way down to the lower abdomen Trust 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, 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 the tension to melt away. And feel the relaxation spread down the back, to the lower back, to the lower back and all the way down to the buttocks

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

And as we do so We'll notice the subtle changing sensations Of the body breathing And we can rest our attention gently on the subtle changing sensations of the body breathing 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. the moment we were born And from time to time, we may notice mind drifting off, traveling somewhere else,

losing contact with the direct experience of the subtle changing sensations of the body breathing. When that happens, not a problem. opportunity to practice remembering to come back to reconnect with the direct experience of the subtle changing sensations of the body breathing breathing. It doesn't matter how often the mind drifts off, as long as we find our way practicing well. And from time to time, you may notice thoughts, feelings coming by to visit.

And when they do, allow them through. They are already part of the present moment. Blocking them out, chasing them away only agitates the mind. and allow them to be fully felt and seen and heard as they are moment after moment there is no need to add anything, try to explain them and when they are ready to move on even though it may feel like it's in the middle of a story allow them to move on moment after moment

moment after moment meaning 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, and 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 our urge to allow the mind to scatter

just because the body is now moving and the formal meditation period has ended. The practice continues. Just changing form. Change direction. Thank you so much for that Dr. Rebecca Lee. 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 four, 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.