Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Sharon Salzberg 03/29/2021

Episode Date: April 1, 2021

Theme: Facing Chaos Artwork: Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara; Tibet; 18th century; pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Art, gift of the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation; F1996.16.3; [http://therubin.org/31g] ; 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 12:30. 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. Hi, everybody. Welcome to Mindfulness Meditation Online with the Rubin Museum of Art. My name is Dawn Eshelman. Great to be here with you. Coming to you from New York City, where the Rubin lives in Chelsea, a museum of Himalayan art and ideas.

And it's great to have you all here for our weekly program, our practice, where we combine art and meditation online. We've been talking all month about this idea of facing chaos, and there's kind of a beauty in the chaos that I'm about to describe to you, as I wish you a happy Holi. For those who are celebrating, this is the Hindu Festival of Springtime and Colors, Holi. For those who are celebrating, this is the Hindu Festival of Springtime and Colors. And if you've seen the imagery and been a part of it, of course, you will never forget it. It is this really fun explosion of colored powder that people toss around on themselves and each other. And this is to celebrate springtime and divine love. And it's nice to end our month of discussing facing chaos on kind of this idea of chaos that can be beautiful or that we can deal with chaos in a way that brings us a sense of humor and fun to what we're facing together. We will look at this artwork again together. We were looking at it as you were waiting here. This is beautiful. Thousand-armed

Avalokiteshvara. This is a thangka from 18th century Tibet. And here we have Avalokiteshvara with 1000 arms and within each palm is an eye, an eyeball. Can you see that? To kind of look closely there. And this is Avalokiteshvara who, despite all of the many things going on in the world, despite the chaos, despite these challenges. Avila Kuteshvara, through this symbolism, is showing us his ability to see everything and to have compassion for everything and everyone. So we see this central figure here, Avila Kuteshvara, white, with one of his sets of hands in prayer right over his heart there. And he actually has 11 faces, 11 heads in different colors above that main face. And then even a wrathful face near the top there, that one that's in the dark blue or black color, where you can see flames for the eyebrows and fangs, just as we recognize with

many of the wrathful protector figures. So Avila Kadeshvar can come in many forms, but they are all compassion. This form can remind us that we can also be compassionate, no matter what we're faced with here. And right now, I am delighted to bring on our wonderful teacher, the fabulous Sharon Salzberg, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Berry, Massachusetts. Her latest book is Real Change, Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World. Although you'll find so many of her books just so useful in a practice and beautiful reads as well, real happiness and many others. So Sharon has been a constant and regular participant on,

in many of our onstage conversations at the Rubin and we're so delighted to have her here. You can find more about her at SharonSalzburg.com. Welcome Sharon. Thank you so much. It's's uh as we said when we were on just doing sound check and stuff it's the last day of chaos as if so welcome everybody i'm in barry massachusetts i saw somebody signing in from conway um i'm an inveterate chat reader so uh i i love that feeling of coming together even though it is so different and happy holy it's also passover the second passover i've uh experienced uh basically all alone uh which is kind of strange and chaotic, and also moving to connect to

the fundamental symbol of moving from constriction to liberation, which is the holiday of Passover. So I've been thinking a lot these last few days because of our coming together here about chaos. And I realized that sometimes when we use the word chaos, we're actually describing disruption and uncertainty and shifting patterns. And I actually went online this morning and bought a kaleidoscope. I mean, it was all in the children's section, but because that is so much my sense of things shifting and moving

and just one little turn and you're looking at a very different picture. Some elements of what we call chaos are actually, I think, potentially delightful. It's like the unexpected. Being able to be surprised by different elements of life instead of feeling so stuck or so limited, so constrained, so constricted.

Mostly when we think of that much disruption or change, it makes us very uneasy. We can't find our way. We have that sense of the uncertainty is too deep. We don't know, not only do we not know the bigger picture, we don't know what the next step should look like. And it's very frightening. It makes for a lot of anxiety. It's chaotic. But I also, in reflecting on Avalokiteshvara, realized that in so many ways, when we are facing uncertainty, instability, shifting patterns, all this change, we find the greatest refuge not in being able to necessarily successfully manipulate the different parts that are happening to make a

cohesive narrative, but we bring the cohesive narrative into the situation because of relying on our values and our sense of purpose or our greatest sense of meaning. And for Avalokiteshvara and what that image symbolizes, of course, that is the state of compassion. There may be, you know, a chaotic, disruptive, uneven situation at work, but we may have this sort of ultimate purpose of bringing kindness into our conversations, into our encounters. That will give us the sense of the kind of integral thread that we can rely on, that we can rest on no matter what. And it may be that we want to keep learning. We want to be able to discern and surprise in different situations. Sometimes, of course, we do try to affect the pattern around us and say, wait a minute, you know, there's too much going on.

Let me see if I can simplify things, different factors that are kind of impeding my movement right now. Let me see what I can change. And actually moving in the direction of simplicity is also an adventure that we don't necessarily often undertake. I think commonly when we think of the word adventure, we think of something wild and, you know, breaking loose or something like that. But getting simpler, moving toward being a little calmer, not having so very much going on, might be an interesting way of seeing if we can affect the kind of chaos around us.

But most fundamentally, I really do believe it largely comes from within, from our recognizing what we're feeling. You know, this is anxiety producing. This is really difficult in some way, perhaps. Remembering what we maybe really care about the most, our most fundamental aspiration, see if we can bring that to life in the situation that we're in and going forward. I mean, of course, and going forward. I mean, of course, with any kind of aspiration or resolve, we forget,

and we get confused, and we get overwhelmed, and all of that. That's certainly true. But that lesson 101 from meditation practice, which is that you can begin again. You can completely blow it. You can lose it. You can lose touch with what you really want, but you can start over. It's something that we can bring to life. I think a kind of introspection we all could do that would be quite useful is to see what that narrative thread might be for us. What's the theme? What's the deepest expression of values we would like to bring forth in a real way? You know, not in a kind of overly idealistic way, but in a day of being on Zoom or commuting or being at work, whatever the situation is, alone or with our family, whatever we find ourselves living out,

to be able to actually find that refuge. And of course, if compassion is a part of that story of our lives, it's something that we explore, we discover. It's something that we explore, we discover. It's never wrong to think about bringing compassion into a situation. So many times we just hear the word and we think weakness or passivity or giving in. But let's really look deeply at the nature of compassion and what it can bring and what it does bring into our every relationship and the way we treat ourselves, especially going back to what I just said, when we have to begin again, when we've fallen down, when we've made a mistake of some kind or haven't lived up to that aspiration. lived up to that aspiration. How do we speak to ourselves? And let's just have that adventure and see what it's like if we at least make the experiment to see if compassion, that movement of the heart that responds with wanting to understand, with more curiosity than condemnation,

with kindness rather than condemnation, with kindness rather than judgment and really see where it brings us. Let's sit together. You can start, just see if you could sit comfortably, close your eyes or not, however you feel most at ease. And start by listening to sound, whether it's the sound of relaxing deep inside, allowing our experience to come and go. Of course we like certain sounds and we don't like others, but if you're not responsible for responding to the sound of your body sitting. See if you can feel the earth supporting you. you Feel space touching you.

Usually when we think about touching space, we do think about picking up a finger and poking it in the air. But space is already touching us. It's always touching us. We just need to move into receptive mode. Feel your hands and see if you can make the shift from the more conceptual level, fingers, shape of your hands, whatever, to the world of direct sensation, picking up, pulsing, thrombing, pressure, whatever it might be. You don't have to name these things, but feel them. Thank you. And bring your attention to the feeling of your breath, just the normal, natural breath. You don't have to try to make it deeper or different. See if you can find the place where the breath is strongest for you or clearest for you.

Maybe that's the in and out movement of air at the nostrils or the rising falling movement of the chest or the abdomen. You can 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. Thank you. If images or sounds or sensations or emotions should arise, but they're not very strong, if you can stay connected to the feeling of the breath, just let them flow on by. You're breathing.

You don't have to fight them. You don't have to follow after them. It's just one breath. But if something does come and pull you away, you get lost in thought, spun out in a fantasy, or you fall asleep, truly don't worry about it. This is a moment, it's very interesting, notice how you speak to yourself and if that voice is kind of harsh or punitive if you feel like you failed see if you can inject a phrase there whatever you like like it's okay or I just need to begin again. Some voice of kindness and then see if you can let go gently

and bring your attention back to the feeling of the breath. Thank you. Thank you. No matter how many times you might have to let go and begin again, it's fine. 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 so much. 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.