Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Swami Chidananda 03/14/2024

Episode Date: March 22, 2024

Theme: Reawaken Artwork: Sherab Chamma, “Loving Mother Of Wisdom”; Tibet; 19th century; pigments on cloth; Rubin Museum of Art; http://therubin.org/383 Teacher: Swami Chidananda   The 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 19:29. 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 Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism. And now, please enjoy your practice. Good afternoon, everyone. Tashi delik and Namaste. Welcome.

Welcome to our weekly mindfulness meditation at the Rubin Museum of Art. I'm Tashi Chodron and I'm so delighted to be your host today. I host programs here, Himalayan programs, and I'm a community ambassador. programs here, Himalayan programs, and I'm a community ambassador. And I'm kind of curious to know how many of you have been attending here regularly for the weekly meditation. Okay, wonderful. And then how many of you are first time? I did notice new faces. Welcome. And in between. Thank you so much. So I've been away for like two months and I've missed you all, especially on Thursdays. And I've always included all of you in my prayers during my pilgrimage in India. So those of you who are first time,

we are a global hub for Himalayan art with a home base in Chelsea, New York City. And we're so glad to have all of you join us for this weekly program where we combine art and meditation. Inspired by our collection, we will first take a look at work of art. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher, Swami Chidananda. Welcome back. And then we will have a short sit, 15 to 20 minutes

for the meditation guided by him. And let's take a look at today's art. So this is the beautiful Thangka painting of Sherab Chhamma, the loving mother of wisdom. It's from origin from Tibet, 19th century. The medium is mineral pigments on cloth, about 43 and quarter into 30 inches, and a beautiful Thangka painting. It's a scroll painting. And the theme for the month of March is reawaken.

March is also Women's History Month. So this beautiful work of art celebrates the divine feminine. May the loving mother of wisdom reawaken us to embody compassion and loving-kindness. That is so much in need, especially now, right? This beautiful Thangka painting is the female deity of Poon religion. Sherap in Tibetan means wisdom, Cham means compassion, loving-kindness, Ma means mother, so Sherab Cham Ma, therefore the loving mother of wisdom. She's the principal female deity of Bern religion, and the Bern religion is the ancient indigenous religion of Tibet.

She also takes the primary role of the loving mother of wisdom, that of a compassionate maternal figure that encompasses the nature of wisdom. She is the mother of all Bern deities and enlightened ones. She has multiple names in various forms. She sometimes appears in fierce, wrathful form, whereas here you see her in a very peaceful form here, sitting in a Vajra position, holding a mirror in the left hand. And now let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Swami Chidananda. Swamiji is a spiritual educator and monk initiated in the Vedic Hari Bhakti lineage, holding the distinguished title of Swami. Through the study of scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita

and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Swamiji has gained a deep understanding of the science of yoga and has devoted his life to helping others on their inner journey. Before entering the spiritual path, Swamiji had a successful career as an investment banker and entrepreneur. Now he uses his experiences to convey the ancient yoga systems in a relatable and accessible way for those seeking to reconcile Western and Eastern philosophies. Additional information about Swamiji can be found by listening to his podcast, The Path of a Swami. Swamiji, thank you so much for being here and please help me in welcoming Swami. Agnyana ntimirandasyaya gyanajanashalakaya jaksharumilitamena vasmeshe gaurave namah Hello, nice to see all of you.

So today, the artwork is of the loving mother who gives us wisdom. So in the Vedic tradition, the mother, the feminine form, plays a very huge role on our spiritual journey. In India, there is a tradition called shaktas that celebrate, worship, and connect to the divine mother. So the mother in the Vedic tradition is two attributes associated with her. One is of grace and the other is of wisdom.

So what does it mean to have the grace of the Divine Mother? And I think this one story that I will share with you helps us to really understand what it means by this grace. Long, long time ago in India, there was a princess and she was extremely smart, very, very intellectual. And she went around and defeated many scholars in all types of debates. And she told her father, I will not marry anybody that cannot defeat me in a debate. So many, many suitors came and everybody she defeated. But as she was doing this, she was also very prideful, very arrogant about her intellect. And all of the other, we call them pundits or

teachers, wanted to take revenge on her. And so they decided, you know what, let us find the least intellectual person in the entire city and figure out a way to have her marry him. So they went and they searched and they looked everywhere. They came across this person and they said, yeah, this is the one. And they went to him and said, we are going to engage you in a debate with the princess. When you defeat her, you will marry her and then become a prince yourself. So the man said, how am I going to defeat the princess? I have no knowledge. I have no understandings of scriptures. There's no way that I can do it. And he said, don't worry. All you have to do is when we give you the sign, either put one up in the air, two or three. That's all you have to do.

So we say one, you put one, two or three. The man said, okay. So the man was brought to the kingdom, was presented in front of the princess, and they started engaging in a debate. And so as they started to go back and forth, she would present a point, and the man would look at the pundit and the pundit would say, so the man would just go and put one finger up.

The pundit said, don't speak. Don't say one word. Just use your hands. Okay. The man would put one and all the pundits there, they would say, wow, that's a great answer. He put one because of this, this and this. So every time she would bring out something, he would put a hand and they would analyze and make it sound as that was the correct answer, the correct rebuttal. So this went on for some time and the princess became fully convinced that this man was actually very smart.

And she conceded to him and they ended up getting married. But the first night, as soon as she heard him speak, she realized that actually he was not intellectual at all. And they had made a big mistake. intellectual at all. And they had made a big mistake. And so she grabs the hand of the man and takes him to the temple of Kali. The Kali is a form of the divine mother worshipped in the Vedic tradition. And she throws him into the temple, locks the door and says, don't come out till Kali comes and blesses you with some wisdom. And so the man sat inside of the temple of Kali, prayed, cried, said, I'm so stupid, Ma. You know, all of this happened. Please help me. And then after three days, Kali appeared and said, son, you're not letting anybody come in.

Now other people have to see me. Food has to be served. Please go. And he said, no, I will not leave till you give me grace, till you bless me with wisdom. So in that moment, the Divine Mother said, okay, put out your tongue. She took her hand, slapped the tongue. She took her hand, slapped the tongue. And the moment the tongue was slapped, immediately he received the wisdom of the grace of the Divine Mother. And he started, in that moment, starting to write poems about her and her love.

And he received so much wisdom that when he went out, his wife wanted to be with him. And he said, no, I've had the grace of the divine mother. I'm going to travel around India and sing her glory. And so this great poet we call Kalidas. And he was a great poet in India. And all of this knowledge, all of the poems that he wrote was in fact because of the grace of the Divine Mother. So when we have the grace of the Mother, then the question becomes, what type of wisdom do we ask for? The Divine Mother comes to you, is in front of you and says, ask me anything, I will bless you. What do you ask her?

Who asks for material wealth? Okay, that's good. Who asks for a husband or a wife? Chocolate cake? So grace and wisdom. What type of wisdom? What do we ask the Divine Mother? This is very important. And there's a beautiful story about wisdom. There was a great saint in India and his name was Radharaman Charandas.

And all the time, everywhere he would go, he would chant the names of the Divine. So in the Vedic tradition, the ultimate reality is love. But that love manifests in a vibrational frequency, which are called mantras. So when you chant the mantra, it's non-different than love. And so this great saint would go around all of India chanting the names of the divine. And he would chant this mantra called Haribo, which means all grace, all glories to the divine. Haribo. You can say it, Haribo. Haribo. So he would go around chanting Haribo, Haribo, Haribo. So he would go around chanting, Haribol, Haribol, Haribol.

And so as he was doing it, he was with his band of disciples. And one moment, as they were chanting in a circle, a dog runs into the middle of the circle and starts barking. But the bark sounds like Haribol. And so the dog starts barking, Harib, Haribo, Haribo. And the owner of the dog runs to the circle and says, please forgive me. You know, she just came out of nowhere. I'm going to take her back. But as he tried to take her back, the dog refused to leave from the feet of this great saint. And so no matter how hard he tried, the dog refused. And this is documented.

This was only 175 years ago in India. And so no matter how hard the dog refused. And so the saint says, okay, if you want, leave her with us and we'll take care. And the man said, okay, we'll leave her with you. So in that moment, the saint named the dog Bhakti Ma. Bhakti Ma, the mother of devotion. And so everywhere the saint would go from that moment on, Bhakti Ma would follow him. And as he would chant, she would also chant. So he would say, Hari Bol, Hari Bol, and she would say, Hari Bol, Hari Bol. And this went on for many, many years.

And she was well known and she was venerated as a great devotee of the divine. So time came where Bhakti Ma passed away. So when she passed away, the great saint said, we have to throw a big festival for her. She was a great devotee. We should glorify her. We should let others know of her. So he goes to all of his disciples and says, go and invite all of the big saints,

the Swamis, the Acharyas, and tell them to come for this great festival of Bhakti Maa. So all of the disciples went and said, we want to invite you. A great devotee passed away. We're having a big festival and we'd like you to come and be there. And then the Swamis and the teachers would say, ah, so how old was she? And they'd say, oh, she was about 15,

16 years old. I said, 16 years old? She was so young. Like, yeah, yeah. It's like, ah, so how is that possible? And they said, well, she's a dog. And they were aghast to say, you want us to come to a dog's festival? You want us to come and glorify a dog? Do you know how great we are? We're great teachers. That's beneath us. We're not coming to see a dog. So all of the disciples went and they said to the saint, nobody is coming. Nobody wants to come to the festival. So the saint looked at them and said, Well, if no humans want to come, invite the dogs. And the disciples said, What do you mean? Go to the dogs. Tell them that one of their own has died.

Give them the date. Give them the address. And of course, right? I'm the disciple. Imagine, I would think, oh, my guru, my saint has gone mad. He wants me to go and invite dogs to a festival. But they had faith. They had faith in the words of the teacher. They had faith in the words of their guru. They said, okay, if this is what our guru wants, so be it. They went around and they go to every dog and say, I'm sorry to disturb you. One of yours has passed away. Please come for the festivities. It's on this date, on this time,

this is the address. So they went all around the city giving the invitations. And eventually the time came when the festival would happen. And as they were about to begin, all the dogs started lining up. They all started to come from all around the city. And they would all line up in a straight row. And so usually when the food is given, immediately you're so hungry you eat it before you wait for the next one. But every dog did not touch the food till all of the plates were served,

till all the food was given. And then afterwards, the saint said, what did he say? Hari bol. The moment he said hari bol, the dogs also said hari bol. And they all started eating the food. Once the food was done and this miracle happened, all of the other teachers heard about it. This festival of dogs where the dogs have shown up, they're all in a line eating. So they all

started running. They all wanted to witness this great event that was happening. Then once the food was finished, all of the dogs bowed down, and then they went on their way. So here, what is wisdom? Wisdom is to understand that the divine resides in the hearts of all beings, not just humans, but in animals, in plants. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that this whole world is like a pearl necklace. A necklace, each pearl is connected by a thread. If you cut that thread, the necklace ceases to exist. In the same way, we are all connected through love. And once we understand that very fact of this reality, then everything in our life changes.

So as you move towards the Divine Mother, as you receive her grace, ask to understand, ask to have the wisdom that we are all connected, that we are all one. So we're going to do a very simple meditation that helps us to understand this fact of oneness. So in the Vedic tradition, the common vibration that is in every mantra, is in every form of love, is Aum. So when we chant Aum, we take a journey from the mind to the heart. So a lot of times in different traditions, they might say Aum differently. They might say Aum. But for the purposes of the Vedic practice, we should say

aum. Okay? Life is long, and we can go on pilgrimages to many places. But the main pilgrimage is only 40 centimeters. It's from here to here. And by chanting Aum, it allows us to drop into the heart. So today, it's very simple. I just ask you to just chant out loud Aum with me, okay? But don't start and stop with me. Go at your own pace. Because a group we should continuously chant om okay go at your own pace but try your best to say it out loud because the vibration will not only help us it will help everybody in a two mile radius okay so it's a great way to just go within and just feel that love, feel that grace of the Divine Mother. And if you find that your mind is running, you could do a very simple mudra where you take your hands and you put your middle finger, ring finger and pinky down like this. Okay.

And keep your index finger out and take your thumbs and close it okay you could place it here or here as you wish and that will help to control your mind so you can focus one time together. Aum. Nice. So just go at your own pace and I'll let you know when we can stop. Okay? So I'll chant one mantra before we begin to invoke the grace

of the teachers. Sri Gurubhyo of the teachers. Sri Guru Byo Namaha Sri Swami Vishwananda Yamaha Sri Mahavatar Babaji Namaha Sri Mahavatar Babaji Namaha Sri Mahavatar Babaji Namaha We can begin to chant home Aum. Aum. Aum.

Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Om. Om. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Om. Om. Om.

Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om. Om.

Om. Om. Om. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Now, take your hands and rub them together. And place it wherever you need healing, whether it's your mind or your body. Take your hands and imagine

that you're holding a ball in front of your chest. and imagine that you're holding a ball in front of your chest. That ball represents Mother Earth. Take all of that light and that love that you feel inside of you and bring it to your fingertips and to your palms. Feel that love emanating from your hands. Now slowly start to share that love with Mother Earth. She's going through a hard time. Send her all of your love.

Send the people on this earth love Lauka Samasta Sukhinom Bhavantum Lauka Samasta Sukhinom Bhavantum Lauka Samasta Sukhinom Bhavantum Thank you. Aum. Thank you. Thank you so much, Samiji. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes this week's practice. Thank you. and in-person offerings, sign up for our monthly newsletter at rubinmuseum.org slash enews. I am Tashi Chodron. Thank you so much for listening. Have a mindful day.