Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Tracy Cochran 03/21/2024

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

Theme: Reawaken Artwork: Green Tara; Tibet; 13th century; brass with inlays of silver; Rubin Museum of Art;http://therubin.org/384Teacher: Tracy Cochran  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 12:06. 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. Hello, everybody. Good afternoon, and Tashi Delek. Wow, so much has been going on at the museum lately.

How many of you had a chance to come to the opening? All right, yeah. So that was something, right? You know, 3,000 people signed up to show up for the public opening on Friday, and we had such an amazing time. So welcome, welcome to the Mindfulness Meditation with the Rubin Museum of Art. I'm Tashi Chodron, and Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador. And those of you who are new, we are a global hub for Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador. And those of you who are new,

we are a global hub for Himalayan art with a home base in New York City. And we are 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, Tracy Cochran. And so wonderful to have Tracy back here. She's been with us for so many

years. And we will have a short sit, 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her. So let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. And month the theme is reawaken and the artwork for today's session is this beautiful sculpture of green tara origin tibet it's dated 13th century and it's a brass with inlays of silver and semi-precious stone. And this is about 18 and a half into 12 and a half, nine, about almost ten inches. So this is a beautiful sculpture. The theme, as some of you may know, is the reawakened for the month of March. And month of March is also Women's History Month. So this beautiful work of art celebrates the divine feminine. May Tara reawaken us to embody compassion and loving kindness.

And the Tara is known as Dolma in Tibetan word, means she who liberates. And she's the female deity associates with compassion and loving kindness. Tara manifests in 21 different forms. And out of the 21 forms, two of the most common or the popular Taras are white Tara and green Tara. How you can identify which Tara it is, is you look at how she's sitting. So White Tara sits in a full lotus position, whereas Green Tara sits in a royal ease position. So you see here, she's sitting in the royal ease position, left leg folded, right leg extended, and in this beautiful

gesture of supreme generosity or giving. And Tara, in this beautiful aesthetic with wearing hoop-like earrings, which associates our beautiful aesthetic signature of the Nepalese aesthetic. And you will see the beautiful inlay of semi-precious stone like turquoise, which is also Nepalese aesthetic, a 13th century work of art, remarkable example of an early Tibetan sculpture. Green Tara embodies compassionate action and the willingness to embrace all beings without judgment. She's also known as mother of all savior. The mantra for Tara is this 10-syllable mantra, Om Tare Tu Tare Ture Swaha. It's memorized and recited by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. And even as a child, especially example for myself, growing up in the Tibetan refugee camps, we all know this mantra, the Um Tare Tu Tare Ture Soha.

The mantra explains as, I prostrate to Tara, the liberator, mother of all the victorious ones. So let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Tracy Cochran. Tracy has been a student and teacher of meditation and spiritual practice for decades. She's the founder of Hudson River Sangha, which is now virtual and is open to all. The link for her weekly meditation can be found on her website, tracycochran.org. In addition, Tracy has taught mindfulness meditation and mindful writing at the Rubin Museum of Art and the New York Insight Meditation,

as well as in school corporations and other venues worldwide. Tracy, we have a very exciting program coming up, April 19th, a book launch, and her book presents the art of being at home in yourself. It'll be a meditation and a workshop, mindful writing. So I hope all of you can join. And more about Tracy can be found on her website. The book that Tracy edits and is the director of Parabola magazine is also in the gift shop as well. It's one of the best sellers in our gift shop. And thank you so much for being here, Tracy.

Please help me in welcoming Tracy. I'm always happy to be back. I love the image of Green Tara and this theme of reawakening because most of us didn't grow up as Tashi did with this tradition and these images. But there's something so generous about Torah, like the Buddha, that we're invited to connect to, in a sense, to reawaken in ourselves these great forces that they represent. In the case of greeting Tara in particular, she symbolizes enlightened action, enlightened action just coming when it's needed, a kind of compassion and also wisdom.

It's like an extraordinary friend and guide. And I was thinking as I walked here, because you probably noticed it's really cold. It's really cold. And March is so difficult because you're hoping it's spring, right? And it's Arctic outside. But spring, it is here, that green. And not just upstate where you can see little buds and crocuses, but inside, inside.

I invite us right now to, even before we start to sit, bring the attention to yourself. Just let the attention rest right here, your own experience. And this practice and these great images like Tara are here to remind us that you may come into this space completely caught up in worry or you may be sick or love someone who's sick or all kinds of things can be going on in your life and you can be so dense with thought. But we come into this space and just let ourselves soften. Just a bit. And we start to reawaken.

Remember that there's a presence here. Presence inside you. That's responsive and kind. Where there's something inside us that that could feel like leaving a dark little room and come out to the sunlight. We're not just our thinking. We're not just our pain. There is also a possibility to connect with a greater

life. And Tashi kindly mentioned that I've written a book, I hope you'll look at it. It's called Presence, coming out in April. And I remember when I was invited to write the book, I thought, oh, oh no, what am I going to say that moment? And away by myself, I spent a week just walking on a beach just by myself and remembered, remembered that there is something I had to share

and something we all have to share, which is when we bring the attention home, back to the body, back to the present moment, something opens, something appears instantly, like Tara. Presence. Presence is inside and outside. It's our living connection to a greater life. So let's sit.

Let's sit and see for ourselves. So let yourself be comfortable. Take a comfortable seat. And that means upright. Let yourself be upright. Relax and upright like that statue of Tara. You don't

have to have your legs like that, but a kind of noble ease. Let yourself take up space. And let the eyes close. And notice. Notice there is an attention here already. You don't have to strive for it or invent it. It's here. And notice that this attention softens what it touches. Let yourself be seen by this kind and spacious attention. So Just sink into sensation, into the experience of being here. noticing how it feels to be completely acceptable. Just like this. If thinking is present, just lightly note it.

Pain, pain. Sorrow, just notice it. Let it be seen with compassion. Rest. Be still. Be still. And out of this, the life that's here, this vibrant attention, that spacious, compassionate, Attention. Spacious. Compassionate. Accepting. Thank you. Notice the life in stillness.

The compassion in it Notice that everything can be here. Thank you. Thank you. Notice that this attention that's here is vast like the sky, but also deep inside, very, very intimate and compassionate. and compassionate, seeing and accepting everything that comes up Thank you. Let yourself soften more. Sink into sensation. into sensation, into presence, Thank you. Thank you. That's how it feels to trust presence, to rest in stillness, and allow yourself to be seen My attention that's vast and close and kind. Thank you. Thank you. Notice that everything is acceptable, going away, drifting off and coming back. Everything just natural, just nature, worthy of compassion and interest. Thank you. Thank you. Notice that her presence is your home, more real, more you than any story. Thank you. When you don't know where to go, be still. And know it has. That you will open. Thank you. Notice that this stillness, this attention is kind. Thank you. Thank you so much for that beautiful session, Tracy.

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 this meditation series, we invite you to become a member at rubinmuseum.org membership. 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 e-news. I am Tashi Chodron. Thank you so much for listening. Have a mindful day.