Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Tracy Cochran 02/16/2023

Episode Date: February 24, 2023

Theme: Loving Kindness Artwork: Butter Lamp; Tibet; 18th century; Metal, silver; Rubin Museum of Art; Gift of Ralph Redford; http://therubin.org/36cTeacher: Tracy Cochran  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 16:34.  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, 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. Tashi Delek and welcome. Welcome to the return of in-person mindfulness meditation with the Rubin Museum of Art. I'm Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador.

I'm happy to be your host today. Okay, so wonderful to see so many of you. This is only our third return of the in-person session. And I'm kind of curious to know how many of you have been attending this session pre-pandemic. Wow, many hands. Thank you. And then how many of you have been attending the online session that we've been hosting last three years? Oh, great. Many. And how many of you have been attending for the first time today? Oh, great. Wow, so many of you. Thank you so much. Those of you who are first time, we are a Museum of Himalayan Art and Ideas in New York City,

and we are so glad to have all of you join us for our weekly program where we combine art and meditation. Inspired from our collection, we will take a look at work of art from our collection. We will hear a brief talk from our teacher, and our teacher is Tracy Cochran. And then we will have a short sit, 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. Let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. We are still exploring on the theme of loving kindness. And the art connection for today's session that is handpicked by our teacher today is this beautiful butter lamp which is on view on the fourth floor in the Tibetan Buddhist shrine room. The butter lamps are a common feature of Tibetan Buddhist temples and monasteries throughout the Himalayas.

The offering of butter lamp is the offering of wisdom and light of knowledge to eradicate darkness or ignorance. Therefore, it has a crucial place in daily rituals. The benefit of offering just one butter lamp is said to be immeasurable. But look at this butter lamp. It's so beautifully made and metal and silver. This is a 18th century and a gift of Ralph Redford and you see this beautiful floral motif of course very beautifully done and I've noticed this conch shell right in the middle of the butter lamb and now let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Tracy Cochran. Tracy has taught mindfulness meditation and mindful writing at the Rubin Museum of Art

and the New York Insight Meditation Center, as well as in schools, corporations, and other venues worldwide. She's also a writer and the editorial director of Parabola, an acclaimed quarterly magazine that seeks to bring timeless spiritual wisdom to the burning questions of Parabola, an acclaimed quarterly magazine that seeks to bring timeless spiritual wisdom to the burning questions of the day. Her writings, podcasts, and other details can be found on her website and on parabola.org. Tracy, thank you so much for being here, and please help me in welcoming Tracy. Please help me in welcoming Tracy. I'm so happy to be back.

I was the last teacher here three years ago before Pandemic. And I'm back. And it feels wonderful. I feel so good. And it feels wonderful. I'm so glad that Tashi showed us the living tradition because it reminds us that these lights, these lamps are real. And, of course, the Buddha's last words before he died, his beloved disciple Ananda said, give us something to help us. And he said, be a light unto yourself,

be a lamp unto yourself. And scholars think that the same word for light also meant island, an island. The story that comes to mind for me is a folktale from this continent, from Alaska, near the Arctic Circle. I'll tell it very short and my version of it. It's about two old women, two old women who were part of a group

who called themselves the people, just the people. And these two old women were given to complaining at this point, you know, because they didn't feel so great. They had aches and pains and things just were harder than they used to be. And things seemed darker than they used to be, and food was scarcer. But things got so difficult for the people that the heart-wrenching decision was made to leave them behind. They couldn't carry them anymore. Literally carry them on.

Litter is made of spruce boughs. And the old women were devastated. You can imagine. You don't have to imagine. We know how it feels to be rejected. Everybody here to feel left behind. It was shattering, particularly for one of the old women, because her daughter and her

grandson were among those who made this decision or obeyed the decision of the chief. And they were shattered. And they left her a hatchet and some leather robe. But off they went. What else could they do? They were starving. So these two old women sat there shattered, devastated.

And in a world that seemed so harsh, it was harsh, so dark, so cold, they thought they would die in no time. in no time. But together, they came to the decision that they would rather try than just die. And I'm not telling the story to make you sad, but because something extraordinary happens in just that moment. The moment when your hopes are dashed.

The moment when you feel disappointed. When something or someone has really let you down. It could be a diagnosis. It could be something to do with your children, your job, your life. And there's that taste of sitting there in snow, but just sitting there in ashes. but just sitting there in ashes. And that's the moment, that stillness, when we experience a taste of what's really meant by letting go.

See, these old women were living in their heads. We're thinking, we're comparing. And how am I doing compared to other people? How am I doing compared to last year or 10 years ago? But the shock of being left behind made them grow still and come back to themselves, come back to the body. What do we know? What is wisdom for us? What do we really know? And we know how to be still, how to listen,

how to sense our bodies. So doing that, these women began to remember things they knew from childhood. They knew how to catch rabbits. They knew how to build shelters and how to build up a fire and the equivalent that we can feel right here is just letting yourself relax a little bit just be at ease remember how it feels not to have to perform all the time in your head to say something clever or be prepared for what comes next, but to just rest, just listen. So they survived day by day, and then together one night by the fire, And together, one night, by the fire, they remembered a place, a special place,

a river that was full of salmon, that was wonderfully sheltered, abundant food, abundant protection. Why had they forgotten this place? Why had the people forgotten this place? They were distracted. They were looking for shortcuts. They were panicking. It's so helpful to realize that this idea of a place, again, is that place, that sense of touching the earth that appears when we stop, we just stop running or grabbing for a clever answer, when we just let the thoughts go and come back to the body. So the women set out, and day by day they walked.

They went past all notions that they had of their own limitations, and they made it to this place. And there they built a camp. There they caught salmon and rabbit and squirrels. There they survived until they had surplus food. And then, I'm shortening the story, inevitably the people who had missed them terribly, not only were they not thriving. They weren't doing well. But they were haunted, including the chief. Haunted by this part of them.

It was like cutting off a part of yourself that they'd abandoned. And so they sent a scout and three young men to go find them. They backtracked, expecting the old women would be dead. Surely they would have died, but the place was empty. And the scout went on and on and found them. But what's interesting is the women expected to be found. And they went to a place just next door, a hidden place. Because after all, they'd been rejected. They'd been abandoned by their people and their feelings were hurt. Can you imagine?

So they waited there. And the scout approached, and eventually the young man approached, and they really were awed by the wisdom of these women. The wisdom of these women. And the women eventually let the people approach. But what's interesting about this twist in the story is that the Buddha makes that gesture of touching the earth, which is the first thing you should do if you get lost in any situation, in a forest, in your life.

Come back to your own aliveness, your body. Be an island, be a light. Listen, remember, remember not just what you think, but what you most deeply know, which is that there's an attention here inside you, a presence that we share, and that this supports us, and that this, in fact, is a form of love.

So the women let life come to them and began to let love out. They shared food. They shared wisdom. They shared food. They shared wisdom. They shared life. And just before we come to sit, it's so touching to realize, more than touching, words fail, that we come together here in this space to share something truly beyond price. There's a presence here inside us and between us that's a form of love, a source of light. That's a form of loving kindness. So in a very real sense right now,

right here, we are all in love i i wanted to say that because it was valentine's day a couple of days ago and so let's sit together for 15 or 20 minutes and take a comfortable seat with your feet on the floor, your back straight. As straight as you can comfortably make it, and notice that you can be upright and also relaxed. And let your eyes close.

You can gaze at the floor if you have difficulty closing your eyes, but it's really wonderful to let them close. And just notice the aliveness that's here inside you. And notice that there is a knowing, a presence that doesn't have to think about how you are. It simply senses, notices. And notice the energy in the room. This is resonance or vibration of presence that's here and let yourself see that you can let everything be the thinking, the picturing in the mind, tensions that come and go. Let everything be there without comment. And notice that you can gently return to the sensation of being in a body,

breathing right here, right now. And notice how it feels to let everything be accepted and acceptable, to be seen with kindness. Thank you. Let everything be met by an allowing presence. Notice that it's gentle and kind. Thank you. Just rest in the stillness that's alive, attentive, Attentive. Thank you. When you get lost in thinking or dreaming, just come back to the aliveness in the body. Noticing that it opens you to this larger presence, this stillness that's alive. Thank you. You can notice how much bigger you are than you're thinking. Open, sensitive, resonant, deep, present. Deep. Present. Thank you. Thank you. Notice the presence here beyond words. Kind, open, holding you. Seeing without judgment or comment. Thank you. Thank you. you that's how it feels to be held in loving awareness,

to be seen with acceptance, kindness, without comment Thank you. Thank you. Notice that you belong here in presence, in life Thank you. And notice that there really is a light of liveness inside you, responsiveness, a wish to be here, here. Thank you. Just being in loving awareness. Thank you. Thank you. Tracy thank you so much for that beautiful illuminating session that concludes this week's practice to support the Rubin and this meditation series we invite

you to become a member at rubinmuseum.org. If you are looking for more inspiring content, please check out our other podcast, Awaken, which uses art to explore the dynamic paths to enlightenment and what it means to wake up. Season 2, hosted by Ravina Arora, is out now and explores the transformative power of emotions using a mandala as a guide. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. 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.