Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Sharon Salzberg 01/04/2021

Episode Date: January 7, 2021

Theme: Renewal Artwork: Padmasambhava Tibet; 19th century; Ground Mineral Pigment on Cotton; Rubin Museum of Art, Gift of Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation; http://therubin.org/30y Teacher: Sharon Salzberg The Rubin Museum presents a weekly online 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 a recording of the live online session and includes an opening talk and 20-minute sitting session. The guided meditation begins at 15:49. This meditation is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg, teachers from the NY Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine. To attend a Mindfulness Meditation online session in the future 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, Dawn Eshelman. Every Monday 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 practice, currently held virtually. 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 Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine. And now, please enjoy your practice. Please enjoy your practice. Happy New Year. Hi everyone. Welcome to Mindfulness Meditation Online with the Rubin Museum of Art and my name is Dawn Eshelman. It is so nice to say those words, right? I hope your new year is off to a great start.

your new year is off to a great start. I went sledding on New Year's Eve and screamed and it was so cathartic. And it's just, it's really interesting here in our meditation program, where we offer this weekly opportunity to sit together, even if we're apart, and look at art to frame a session and then sit together. It's in that practice we know so much about this idea of beginning again. And our wonderful teacher today, Sharon Salzberg, teaches so beautifully about this idea of beginning again when you drift in meditation and coming back to, for example, your breath or your object, whatever it is. But here we have this beautiful collective opportunity to really mark this time together in the Gregorian calendar. And of course, you know, we'll celebrate again with the Lunar New Year and Losar, which is in the middle of

February this year. So, so glad to have you join us for this weekly program where we combine art and meditation online. And so nice to see so many of you joining from all over. It's the, it's the benefit of, of meeting together this way. We'll take a look at a work of art as we always do. meeting together this way. We'll take a look at a work of art as we always do. We'll hear from the wonderful Sharon Salzberg and then we'll sit together for about 15 or 20 minutes. So this month we're talking about renewal and just what that means to have this opportunity to begin again. And we're looking at a really auspicious figure here in our art. If you were able to take a peek at it before we began today, you'll know who I'm talking about. So we're beginning this year together with this really vibrant, colorful, beautiful tanka. This is the great Padmasambhava.

This is the great Padmasambhava. And Padmasambhava is said to be the second Buddha. He is known for bringing Buddhism to Tibet and is said to have incarnated or manifested as a fully enlightened being, which is what the Buddha foretold. But we also are reminded here of the Tibetan Buddhist experience and belief of rebirth, and that's the ultimate beginning again, right? This is an artwork from the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism, and it is from Tibet in the 1800s. It was made. And here we see our main figure Padmasambhava sitting on this multicolored lotus throne and surrounded by many figures. We'll get into that a little bit later, the detail there. But this beautiful green halo behind his head and then this kind of rainbow here almost looks like a rainbow over him. So Padmasambhava is considered by the second Buddha by the Nyingma school which is the oldest

Buddhist school in Tibet and known as the ancient ones. And here he is with the steady composure gazing on all beings, white in color with this kind of reddish hue. And his face, we recognize him sometimes from this mustache and goatee. And his right hand holds to the heart this upright gold vajra. He also holds in his left hand on his lap this white skull cap filled with nectar, jewels, and a long life vase. So great offerings for a new year there. In Buddhism, renewal, as I mentioned, can be associated with rebirth. And we'll see many incarnations of Padmasambhava and the Bodhisattvas. This picture, this painting, this thangka teaches this importance of preserving one's learnings

and renewing one's beliefs, recommitting to practices. So there's a good New Year's message for you. So happy to have Sharon Salzberg here with us to kick off the new year. Sharon is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Berry, Massachusetts, which is about to celebrate, I believe it's 45th anniversary. She has a couple of amazing books out. A couple. She has many wonderful, practical, really helpful books. If you're looking to refresh or start a practice, great resources for that, including Real Change, the most recent.

So you can find her books at the Rubin Museum store. And we're delighted to have Sharon Salzberg here with us. Hi, Sharon. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Aren't we glad to be able to say that? What a wonderful moment. Happy New Year, everybody.

It's like New Year's cards this year have been very funny. Like, we made it, you know, and things like that, which is no small thing, actually, given the adversity and challenge that so many have been going through. So here we are, and the topic is renewal. And what a fantastic topic. It has, I think, those larger meanings, of course, of beginning again, of having a sense of possibility, of not feeling so stuck, and a sense of some kind of resource that we draw on.

We can't renew if we are depleted or exhausted. There's just not the wherewithal. There's not the sustenance to actually be able to renew. But lately, just in this immediate time, I've been having a specific sense of renewal because I got a new credit card this year. And through some unfortunate circumstance, which I could also go into as a side note, but I'm getting all of these notices from people saying, we were unable to renew your subscription, we were unable to renew your whatever for this podcast, for this magazine, whatever it is. And occasionally I get the notices like, would you like to renew?

And it just made me have this funny sense of the word renewal, or a particular sense of the word renewal, as in subscribe, as in keep on going, as compared to letting go of. And so each time I get one of those notices, it's like a moment in time, like, huh, do I actually want to keep on going, say, with this particular newsletter? I haven't maybe read it in seven months, but I compile them, you know, and think, oh, someday I'll get to it. think, oh, someday I'll get to it. But is that real? Is that realistic? Or, oh, you know, I don't know that I want to let go of this yet, because there's so much possibility here, or whatever it might be. And that reminds me of a particular teaching of the Buddha where I have long said this is actually my favorite passage from a sutta or a discourse. Where the Buddha said, let go of that which is unwholesome or unskillful. So the word unskillful or that sense of what is unwholesome doesn't mean bad or wrong or evil. It means those, say, forces in the mind that if we get entangled in them, they lead to suffering. They lead to our own greater suffering. They lead to our causing suffering for others. others. And this is not to say that feeling a certain feeling or having a certain thought pattern is the problem. As one of my teachers, as Tibetan Lama Sukhner Rinpoche said, it's not the thought that's the problem, it's the glue. So when we get lost in something and we nurture it and we

rehearse it and we really get into it, we identify with it, then that's what gives energy to certain patterns. And what the Buddha is saying is that certain of those patterns, by nature of their isolation, their constriction, the burdensomeness of it, different characteristics of some patterns will lead to suffering. They are unskillful. They're unwholesome. If we nurse hatred, if we get completely obsessed with greed, if we get consumed with jealousy, those things hurt. They really do. And so the Buddha says, let go of that which is unwholesome or unskillful, that which will cause suffering. You can let go of the unwholesome or unskillful, that which will cause suffering.

You can let go of the unwholesome. If it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it. And that, of course, was the line that was dazzling for me when I first began meditation practice, which was 50 years ago in three days. January 7th is when I started my first retreat. So I thought, oh, the Buddha is saying, yeah. It was kind of a sneaky way of the Buddha saying, yeah, you can do it too. If it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it.

If letting go of the unwholesome or the unskillful led to more suffering, I would not ask you to do it. But because it leads to more happiness, I say, let go of that which is unwholesome. What does that mean? It means we see certain habits, we see certain patterns, we see certain floods of emotion. And we're not condemning them, we're not putting ourselves down for what we're feeling, but we're saying, I kind of don't need to go there again and follow that out into action, because I know where it leads. So let go of that which is unskillful or unwholesome. And the Buddha went on to say, cultivate the good. You can cultivate the good. If it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it.

And because it is possible, I say cultivate the good. If cultivating the good were to lead to more suffering, I would not ask you to do it. But because it leads to greater and greater happiness, I say cultivate the good. So what does that mean? You see an impulse toward generosity. It's not like crazy, you know, for all you New Yorkers out there, and I know you're not all from New York, but since I am, you know, I always say don't give up your uncontrolled apartment. That's not generosity. That's just folly. But if you have an impulse toward generosity and it's reasonable, act on it, even if you feel frightened or you feel hesitant or you feel it's not enough or whatever it might be.

Cultivate the good. You see that the difference between looking through somebody, ignoring them, and actually wishing them well is how you pay attention. You know, not dismissing somebody as an object in your field of vision, but that's a person who wants to be happy just as we all want to be happy. So we take the time to pay attention, thank people. You know, we feel like we're so alone and strong and we don't need anybody. But the truth is we need people. We all need one another. People need us.

We need others that we live in an interdependent universe. And we can take the time to thank somebody who's done something for us. Cultivate the good. And internally, when we see the beginnings of a wish to extend loving kindness or to be kind, we actually take the time to nurture that because we can. So let go of that which is unskillful or unwholesome. Cultivate the good. If it were not possible, we would not be asked to do it. And yet it is possible, and that is very much our path.

So even as we practice and we may have an object of awareness, say the feeling or the sensation of the breath as what we call a primary object or home base for our attention, many things will come and go. Images, sounds, emotions, Images, sounds, emotions, intentions, thought patterns, all kinds of things will arise and pass away. And even as we let them arise and pass away and steady our attention more on that primary object, we also know, we notice that, first of all, it's not the arising of something that's the problem. It's the glue. When we glom onto it and we nurse it and we create a whole self-image around it, like this is who I really am or this is going to last forever. who I really am, or this is going to last forever. We notice that. And we also notice almost kind of the flavor, the nature of certain kinds of thoughts, certain kinds of intentions, like I will seek revenge in 2021, or I will be kinder in this particular instance. And so we're not dismissing that.

We're not getting embroiled in it, but we also take note of the difference because that's what guides us on in meditation, in life. When these thoughts, these feelings arise, we can go for it, or we can gracefully, without condemnation, be able to let go. Okay, so let's sit together. See if you can sit comfortably, you can close your eyes or not. You can start by listening to sound, whether it's the sound of my voice or other sounds. It's a way of relaxing deep inside, allowing our experience to come and go.

And bring your attention to the feeling of your body sitting, whatever sensations you discover. Bring your attention to your hands and see if you can move from the more conceptual level, like your fingers, to the world of direct sensation,icking up pulsing, throbbing, pressure, whatever it might be. You don't have to name these things but feel them. Thank you. Bring your attention to the feeling of your breath, just the normal, natural breath, wherever you feel it most distinctly, and on the same level of feeling sensation. You don't have to name the sensation, but that's where we rest our attention. You can find the place where the breath is strongest for you or clearest for you. Maybe that's the nostrils or the chest or the abdomen. Find that place, bring your attention there, and just rest.

See if you can feel one breath. Without concern for what's already gone by, without leaning forward for even the very next breath, just this one. As images or sounds or sensations or emotions arise. They're not very strong. If you can stay connected to the feeling of the breath, just let them flow on by. But if they arise more with a bang, and they're kind of enticing, in terms of getting lost in them, you can notice what they are.

How do they feel? How does that anger feel in your body? How does that joy feel in your body? Just spend a few moments recognizing the nature of whatever it is that's now become predominant. See if you can let go and bring your attention back to the feeling of the breath. Thank you. you you you you you you you you you you you you

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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you And for all those perhaps many times you're just gone. You fall asleep, you get lost in a fantasy, whatever. It's okay.

You can recognize that, see if you can let go gently, without judgment, and return your attention to the feeling of the breath. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and when you feel ready you can open your eyes or lift your gaze and we'll end the meditation thank you sharon thank you all thank you so much everyone we'll see you hopefully next week. That concludes this week's practice. If you would like to support the Ruben and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member. Thank you for listening.