Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Tracy Cochran 02/03/2020

Episode Date: February 6, 2020

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 17:48. If you would like to attend Mindfulness Meditation sessions in person or learn more, please visit our website at RubinMuseum.org/meditation. This program is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine. Sharon Salzberg led this meditation session on February 03, 2020. To view the related artwork for this week's session, please visit: http://therubin.org/2yv If you’re enjoying this podcast, you can listen to more recorded events at the Rubin, such as the conversation by Black American Buddhist leaders on activism and community, with DaRa Williams, Kamilah Majied, and Willie Mukei Smith. You can find it at: https://rubinmuseum.org/mediacenter/black-american-buddhists-on-activism-and-community

Welcome to the Mindfulness Meditation Podcast, presented by the Rubin Museum of Art. We are a museum in Chelsea, New York, that connects visitors to the art and ideas of the Himalayas and serves as a space for reflection and transformation. I'm your host, Dawn Eshelman. Every Monday, we present a meditation session inspired by a different artwork from the Rubens Collection and led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area. This podcast is a recording of our weekly 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 Insight Meditation Center, the Interdependence Project, and Parabola Magazine. If you'd like to join us in person, please visit our website at rubinmuseum.org slash meditation. And now, please enjoy your practice. And now, please enjoy your practice. Welcome. Welcome to our weekly mindfulness meditation here at the Rubin Museum.

My name is Tashi Chodron, and I manage a program called Himalayan Heritage, and then also lead meditation on selected Saturdays called Awakening Practice. Some of you have been very supportive in attending all of these programs in the past. Thank you. And those of you who are interested, we will be starting the meditation in the Shrine Room in March and April. So if you're interested, the front desk can give you more information. So the theme for this month is impermanence. And impermanence is simply the idea that everything is constantly changing. Now, when I think of the impermanence, my connection as a Dharma practitioner

is that the foundation of the teaching is called ngondro, which is preliminary practice. And in that, the practitioners recite and contemplate and meditate on impermanence, sort of accumulating 100,000 times. 100,000 times. And so what that does is when you come to a little sense of understanding of the impermanence, then whatever situation you are going through, whether it is a hard time or any situation, when you understand that these two shall pass, or that it is impermanence, and that things change, then it gives you some hope. Do you agree?

Okay. So, with that, we do have this beautiful art here displayed on the screen. And this is the Wheel of Life. here displayed on the screen. And this is the Wheel of Life. It's from Eastern Tibetan style of painting, an 18th century painting. This is actually something that you will find outside the monastery entrance.

If you had traveled to Himalayas, you probably are familiar. I see some heads nodding. So that's what you find outside. And it's a very important tool, a visual tool, an iconography that often experts think that this may have been the one and only that Buddha himself may have drawn to teach us about, you know, the changes, to teach us about how to give rise to the wisdom that each of us are born with. And I often say, as a human being, in the teaching it says, precious human rebirth.

So being born as a human is considered so precious. And I think we all need to understand that, to be thankful and to be, you know, hopeful and to be grateful. Now what you see here is you see many circles. So the inner circle with the three poisons, the three animal associates with the three poisons or three afflicted emotions, which are the snake, rooster, and the pig. You know, snake associates with anger, rooster with desire, and pig, the root cause of all the afflicted emotions, which is ignorance. And then you see the clear path and the dark path, like the half, the second circle in the center, which is talking about, you know, if you do good things, meritorious, and if you do bad things, you know, bad karma, things like that.

So I will be outside the theater to take you in front of this painting and tell you more about it. So if you're interested, you can meet me outside the theater. Our teacher for today is Tracy Cochran. Thank you so much. Tracy is a writer and the editorial director of the quarterly magazine Parabola, which can be found in the Rubin gift shop or online at parabola.org. the new issue is out and also I found out that there's a chapter in there that Tracy

wrote about Buddha. In addition to Rubin Museum, Tracy teaches at New York Insight and every Sunday at Hudson River Sangha in Tarrytown, New York. Writings and teaching schedule can be found online

via Parabola on Facebook and Twitter as well as TracyCockran.org so please help me in welcoming Tracy thank you applause so we have this wonderful illustration behind us that shows us how life goes. And it goes from heaven to hell.

That's what it depicts here, yes, it does. And this, as Tashi told us, is an illustration that you can see outside monasteries denoting external realms from heaven to a kind of secondary or demigod realm, the human realm, the hungry ghost realm, the animal realm, and hell. And there are actually about 33 hells, I think, in heaven. So if you were hoping to escape that notion, you've come to the wrong place. escape that notion, you've come to the wrong place. But the difference between this cosmology and the one that many of us grew up with is that even hell isn't permanent. Even hell isn't permanent. Even hell is something that we can ultimately be free from. It's not easy.

And it takes a long time. But it's not impossible. But it's not impossible. And this depiction of heaven and hell isn't just external in some distant realm. It's also inside each of us. Each one of us, even on any given day, can cycle from heaven to hell. And one of the most wonderful aspects of this particular depiction and this cosmology is that they say that it's lucky. You heard Tashi talk about what a blessing it is to be human. And you could see a few skeptical faces. I didn't see you, but I could feel it. I'm not so sure I agree with you that it's so lucky. But the difference between being in heaven, what's the drawback of heaven? Can you

imagine? There is no motivation to change anything. Think about it, you laugh. But it's like everything is exactly, exactly perfect for you. I mean, you should see the faces from where I'm sitting. It's like you can't even imagine what that would be like where everything was so perfect. Not one single thing needed to be changed, as hard as you thought. Then you begin to notice that when we're in this human realm, there is something in us that aspires. There is something in us that aspires. And a lot of times we do that in an unskillful way and we think that if we just buy something

or switch our moisturizer or something, that we will be happier. Right? Some kind of external fix. But what is really, what we're invited to see is that beneath that reaching outward, that endless desire outward, that endless desire for something outside, there's something else inside that begins to stir a vitality or a vibrancy to be part of a greater life. And we can't know what that is, but it's a yearning to be more alive. And also a knowledge that we keep repeating ourselves and ending up, of course, I can't resist mentioning this, yesterday was Groundhog's Day. And growing up in America, in a Western tradition, not only am I heartened that Puxatawney Phil saw his shadow,

and it means spring's coming, but we also think of the Bill Murray movie, Groundhog's Day, where he repeats himself and repeats himself thousands of times. Because he has to learn French and so on. So it's thousands of times. Until he gets sick of himself and lets go and accepts life exactly as it is and discovers a kind of vibrancy and love. And that, in a way, is what we're doing here.

in a way, is what we're doing here. We want to get off the wheel, that endless repetition that leads to rebirth after rebirth. Even if you don't believe in rebirth, you can see and feel how patterns repeat in your life. And I can't resist. I thought this was hilarious, but I'm told it's not a funny joke. I saw on the internet this morning that Pax Atatini Phil, the groundhog, also saw his Jungian shadow.

And see, I've got Jungians in the crowd. They're therapists or people who've been in therapy. And the poor groundhog is seeing his Jungian shadow and now predicts a long, long winter of the soul. See, it is a funny joke. And it does, it has a point that's directly connected to this wheel. That when we are in a realm like hell, hell is a place of suffering, unrelenting suffering. And you have felt it.

It might be due to illness or to loss or to the illness of a loved one, or a loss from a loved one, or in a culture. And you can't feel, or see, or imagine anything outside of that suffering. This is the characteristic of hell, that in the Buddhist cosmology, if a blind tortoise in the ocean won, where the odds of that tortoise

putting his head through a yoke, one yoke also floating in the ocean, is the likelihood of getting out of hell. That's a pretty depressing metaphor for getting out. for getting out. But this is how it feels when we feel really, really, really trapped. Has anyone here felt trapped? Ever?

Desolate? And it might be just a problem. I'm seeing a few hands. It's okay, you don't have to raise hands. It's like, yep, I get it. It's true. We all have. And when we're in that state of desolation,

we feel like they're blind toward us. But I'm here to tell you that there's a way off the wheel that can begin right now with all of us together. And I am not making this up. Anyone who knows me knows I'm not prone to being positive. It's the truth. The truth is that no matter what is going on in your life, there will be more. There will be more.

Life will flower around you. Life will take root and flourish even as you feel desolate. Life will support you and surprise you and be with you so that even if you have experienced a trauma or a sorrow that you can never forget. And we all do. You will be surprised to discover that you will also be able to experience more than that. more than that. A quality of awareness, a capacity to love, a creativity, a compassion, a generosity, a wisdom that you never knew.

And that the gift of the idea of impermanence is that no matter what your story, no matter how it began, the ending can change. And it can start right now. So let's sit together. And we take a comfortable seat with feet planted firmly on the floor and back straight and notice how it feels to let the eyes close. If you're not comfortable with that,

you can look at the floor, but if you can, let your eyes close and just notice how it feels to be here right now, sitting here with others, seeking the same thing. And notice how it feels to bring an attention to your body and your feelings and your thoughts that doesn't judge. That just notices

with gentle regard. Just noticing what's happening right now. Let everything happen, the thinking, the sensing, all the impressions that are coming in. Let them be. And bring the attention to the sensation of sitting here. of sitting here. Letting yourself soften and open to the unknown. And we begin to see that we're more than thinking. that we're more than thinking. We're also this attention, this light inside,

this vibrancy of feeling alive. Thank you for watching. Any time you feel lost, you can come home to the sensation of being here, finding welcome every time and no judgment. Thank you. And notice that the stillness that surrounds you isn't an absence, but something full of life that supports you. Thank you.... And notice that everything can be acceptable, everything happening inside you can be seen Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And notice that in stillness, you're not shutting down, you're opening. You begin to remember your connection to life. That it's inside and outside. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Notice how it feels to be present. Thank you. Thank you.... And begin to see that whenever you're lost in thinking, no matter how dark, you can come home to the experience of being in a body, breathing. You can come home to the experience of being in life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And see that when you let the attention come home to the body, you feel more grounded and open and less alone. Thank you. Thank you.

That concludes this week's practice. If you would like to support the Rubin Museum and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member and attend in person for free. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.