Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Swami Chidananda 08/01/2024

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

The Rubin Museum 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 15:50. Teacher: Swami ChidanandaTheme: InterconnectednessArtwork: Prayer Wheel; Tibet; 19th–20th century; wood, metal, and pigments; Rubin Museum of Art; gift of Thomas IsenbergThis program 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.Learn more about the Rubin Museum’s work around the world at rubinmuseum.org. 

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, and thank you for coming out to the Rubin Museum of Art. My name is Tim McHenry, and I'm a Deputy Executive Director here and a founding staff member of this museum dedicated to Himalayan art,

a global hub for that art form, which has a base, I'm happy to say, in New York City and happy to share mindfulness meditation with you today. happy to share mindfulness meditation with you today. So this program brings art and meditation together. And so the usual format is we share a work of art that represents our theme, which is interconnectedness, interdependence today, and then hear a teaching from our host teacher, Swami Chidananda, and then we partake in about a 15-minute sit. So the art that we've chosen today is a prayer wheel. Why? Because a prayer wheel is a function by which practitioners can spread the best wishes for all sentient beings through the spinning of a wheel that's within this particular casement. And this particular prayer wheel is a stationary one that you might find outside of a house or a temple that a practitioner can activate.

And what is important to note is that the wheel inside actually probably has many, many inscriptions of prayers that practitioners have wanted to send out into the world. And it's also got the mantra of Om Mani Padme Hum, the mantra of Avola Kiteshvara on its finial. Now prayer wheels come in many many different forms and this one that you see in the dark is activated through a circular bar and you circumambulate in a clockwise direction. And then you also see here in the hand of a practitioner a handheld spinning device

that's also spun in a clockwise direction like that. Again, to spread the blessings. So Ladakh is in the very north of India, and this is in the very south of India in Namdrolim, where again, there are multiple versions of prayer wheels that practitioners can spin. So that recognition that whatever action, So, that recognition that whatever action, whatever wish I take when I spin the wheel can connect with all the sentient beings is really an expression of this interconnection

and understanding that we are all one. And we have the power to affect the possibilities for others through our expression, through our wish. So our teacher has had a very radically interesting path to his current state as a teacher. He has had a very successful career as an investment banker, as an entrepreneur, and now he's a spiritual educator and monk trained in the Vedic Haribhakta lineage up near Ithaka in New York State, where there is a monastery. And he's come all the way down to New York City to share his wisdom with us tonight.

His name is Swami Chidananda, no stranger to the Reuben. And we're really delighted that he has shown his willingness to travel far in order to spread a message which will doubtless, through you, go even further. Swami, thank you so much, Swamiji, for joining us at the meeting. अख्ञानान्ति मिरंदस्या ज्ञाना जनाशलाकाया चक्षरुन्मेलितम्मेना धस्मेशि गुरवेनमा Namo Amitabha. Hundreds of years ago, there was a town called Kashi. In that town, there was a queen. And the queen wished to have a big theater play. And so she hired a lot of great artists,

and they came up with a play with the main character being a princess of five years old. So they tried to find somebody who can play this role. They searched the kingdom, and unfortunately no one fit this description. So they were thinking about it for some time. And eventually, the queen thought, you know, I have a son. He's five years old. Why don't we dress him up?

Why don't we make him look like this princess? And he can play that role. And so all of the artists said, yes, that's a great idea. Let's do that. So they brought the prince, they decorated him nicely, and he played the role of the princess. And the entire kingdom loved the play. And once it was done, the queen was reflecting and said, you know, I'd like to remember this moment because it was such a beautiful play. And so she had one of the artists draw a picture of the son playing the role of the

princess. And so this big picture was created of her son as the princess, and it was titled The Princess of Kashi. And there was a date as to when it was done. So this artwork was created and it was placed somewhere in the kingdom, but after many years, it got lost. And the prince ended up growing up to be around 18, 19 years old, and he was in line to be the next king. And so he would spend a lot of his time traveling around the kingdom in his horse, exploring and speaking with the people.

And as he was going through, all of a sudden he stumbled across this very old picture that was titled The Princess of Kashi. this very old picture that was titled The Princess of Kashi. So he came across the picture, and he saw the painting of this girl, or who he thought to be a girl. And he started to look at her, and he was enamored with her. He said, wow, she's so beautiful. Who is this little princess?

What is this Princess of Kashi? And so all of these thoughts started to go into his mind. And then he looked at the date and he calculated that, ah, this girl is around his age. And so more and more he went into his mind and he started to reflect and think, I wonder what this girl looks like now. What can she be like? She must be a teenager now, my age. And so in his mind, he started to have all of these fantasies about this girl. And as the fantasies started to take root, they started to develop an attachment. And the attachment was to find this girl and to marry her. And so he searched all around the kingdom for this princess. And everywhere he went, he couldn't find her. And so, of course,

like all things, when we have a certain attachment for something that we desire and we don't get it, we inevitably start to suffer. And so because of his desire not being met, he started to experience a lot of suffering. suffering. And one day, as he was with his head down in the state of suffering, his uncle walked by and he looked at him and he said, what is wrong with you? Why are you in such a sad state? And the prince says, uncle, I've fallen in love, but unfortunately I can't find this person that I'm in love with. So the uncle says, is there a picture? Can you show me what she looks like? And so he said, yes, but it's a very old picture of when she was younger. I can show it to you. So of course, at that time, there was no Instagram or Facebook. So they had to go to the source of the picture. And so the prince took the uncle to the

place where the picture was located. And he says, this girl, this is the one I've fallen in love with. And of course, the uncle is old enough to remember the time of the play. And so he looks at the picture, he looks at the prince, he looks at the picture, and he smiles and he says, Prince, you have to sit down for this. And so the prince sat down, and he says, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that your suffering will come to an end, but not in a way that you think. He said, this girl that you have become infatuated with, that's none other than you. You are the princess of Kashi. This was you when you were younger. And the moment the prince realized that, all of the suffering, all of the

attachment is completely gone. And that's the same thing with us in our life. When we're born into this reality, due to what we call maya or spiritual ignorance, we are covered with avidya. And because of this avidya, this ignorance, we forget our nature. We identify with this personality of Swami Chidananda. We go through this world engaging with material desire and going through the ups and downs of pleasure and pain.

And when we don't get what we want, we suffer. When impermanence comes into our life, we suffer. And that's all because we have forgotten that we are actually that princess. And you see, to understand our nature, our nature in the Vedic tradition is called the Atma, or what we refer to as the soul in the West. And in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that the Atma cannot be burned. It cannot be wetted. It cannot be dried. Nothing can touch it. This is in chapter 2, verse 25 and 26 of the

Bhagavad Gita. So when we understand our eternal nature, then the suffering ceases. then the suffering ceases. To realize who we are, though, we don't need to go anywhere. We don't need to go to India. We don't need to travel to different places. That realization is actually only a 40-centimeter journey. It's from the mind to the heart.

That's all. It's just 40 centimeters. But sometimes it can take an entire life. Because you see, everything that you need to know of who you are is within you. We compare it to a light, a candle that you see in front of you. If a candle wishes to know its true nature, to know its true nature, all it needs to do is look at itself and be illumined by its own flame. The flame allows it to understand its nature. The candle does not need anything external to help it to know who it is. It's by its own flame that it reveals who its true nature is. And in the same way, for most of us, we look outside. But in reality, everything is within us. That flame in the Vedic tradition, we call it Sat Chit Ananda, truth, consciousness, and bliss. That's our nature. We are that ultimate truth.

We are that supreme consciousness. And ultimately, we are also this bliss that we just need to turn within. We need a little bit of a reminder. And so that reminder comes in the form of a vibration. In the Vedic tradition, also in the Buddhist tradition, we see that there is always a harnessing of vibration. When you see the prayer wheel, you saw that there was also

a bell associated with it. So the vibration is what carries the prayers out into reality. The vibration is what helps it reach the people that you want to connect to. And so for us, the vibration that we utilize is a very simple one. It's Aum. So Aum allows us to turn within it allows us to realize our true nature a lot of times people will pronounce Aum A-U-M but when you take these three syllables and you put them together the rules of Sanskrit dictate that when you pronounce it, it turns into Aum.

So even though it can be spelled A-U-M, the way that it is pronounced should be Aum. And that Aum carries that energy of truth, consciousness, and bliss. So when we chant that continuously, it helps our own consciousness to turn within rather than be attached to the outside. So for the next 10 minutes, we're going to do a very simple practice that allows us to turn within, to connect to that truth, consciousness, and bliss. And all that is required from you is to simply chant Aum. But to chant it not quietly, but out loud. Because like the prayer wheel, that when it is spun, it's meant to reach many people. When we say Aum out loud,

that vibration is said to reach a two-mile radius. So everybody in a two-mile radius will feel the power of us chanting Aum together. We will essentially create our own prayer wheel utilizing the vibration of Aum. So for us to do that, you just have to say it out loud. Also, it's important that the Aum acts like a wave. So we don't start and stop together. Go at your own pace. Because as a group, the vibration of Aum will continuously be resonating,

even though you might take a momentary break. So like a wave, just go at your own pace as you chant Aum. Okay? You can have your eyes open or closed. And also you can engage your hands in a mudra that can help you to calm your mind as you start to chant Aum. And all you have to do is take your index finger and your thumb and you put it together in this way, put it on your knees and this is called a Jnana mudra.

And this will help you to calm your mind. So let us practice one time just to make sure we are all doing it together. So you can say it with me. Aum. Exactly. So really try and feel it in your heart and your solar plexus. Let that vibration of truth, consciousness, and bliss start to awaken within you. Let that mind go and start to drop into the heart, okay? So I will begin and you just start and we will just go for the next 10 minutes and I'll let you know when we finish. When we finish, you will then rub your hands together and you'll generate a little bit of heat. And then once you are finished, you can place it anywhere you need on your body that is

ailing. So it could be your mind or any of your body parts. And that will help to soften the pain. Okay. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum.

Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum.

Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum Aum. Aum Aum Aum. Aum.

Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum

Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum.

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

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

Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum. Aum Aum Aum. Aum. Om. Take your hands together and rub them.

And place it wherever you need healing. And place it wherever you need healing. You can do this up to three times. I'm going to make a With your eyes closed and your mind in a calm state, look back at the last seven days and bring to your mind a particular situation where you reacted or spoke in a way that you are not happy with. Where you displayed certain negative tendencies,

because maybe you are overcome with a particular situation or person. Now in that calm state of mind, reflect and see what other options were available for you. How else could you have handled that particular situation? handled that particular situation. And allow yourself to see what the outcome would have been if you chose a different path. Now going deep within your heart, feel the divine, feel that truth, consciousness and bliss and allow that energy to help you to make a different decision in the future.

Allow that energy to break certain patterns inside of yourself and to choose a path from love rather than limitation when you're confronted with another situation. Now together we'll chant Aum three times. Aum Aum. Aum. Thank you. Follow that with another sound. But the sound that I want to make is expressive of a thank you, Swamiji, I want to make is expressive of a thank you, Swamiji, for having us be an active participant in this extension and this understanding of how we connect through this vibrational

expression of the primordial syllable om. So, Swamiji, again, thank you so much for giving us that open opportunity. Swamiji, again, thank you so much for giving us that open opportunity. That concludes this week's practice. To support the Rubin and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member at rubinmuseum.org 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.