Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Tracy Cochran 11/07/2022

Episode Date: November 11, 2022

Theme: Awakening Artwork: Major Events of the Buddha’s Life; Northeastern India; 12th century; “Andagu” stone with pigments; Rubin Museum of Art; http://therubin.org/360 Teacher: Tracy CochranThe 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 18:52.  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 Monday, 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 practice currently held virtually. 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 and supported by the Frederick Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism. And now, please enjoy your practice. Hello everybody, Tashi Delek and welcome to Mindfulness Meditation Online with Rubin Museum of Art. I'm Tashi Chodron and I'm happy to be your host today. It's so great to see so many of you on the chat letting us know where you're joining from. I see Lancaster, Georgia, sunny northern Manhattan. Yes, it's very strange to be in the 70s

at this time of the year in November. We have Brooklyn, San Francisco, Seattle and from the five boroughs of New York making best use of the virtual platform. Thank you so much. And for those of you who are new, the Rubin is a museum of Himalayan art and ideas in New York City. And it's great to be here with you and to practice together for our weekly session where we combine art and meditation online. As many of you may know, we will take a look at a work of art from our collection together and we will hear a brief

talk from our teacher and today is our wonderful teacher Tracy Cochran and then we will sit together for a short sit, 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by Tracy. And now let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The theme for this month of November is Awakening and Art Connection is this beautiful sculpture made of Andhagu stone with pigments depicting major events of Buddha's life. This is from northeastern India. It's about from the 12th century and about six and a half into four and a half into one and a half inches sculpture. Bodhgaya, also known as Durjaden in Tibetan, is one of the most important and sacred Buddhist pilgrimage center in the world. It was here under a banyan tree, also known as the Bodhi tree, Gautama attained

supreme knowledge to become Buddha, the enlightened one. The place of the Buddha's enlightenment was and continues to be an important pilgrimage site. I've had the great fortune of visiting Bodh Gaya as young as a few months old with my mother and grandmother and my most recent visit was a year before the COVID. While in Bodh Gaya, some pilgrims picked up small souvenir sculptures dedicated to Buddha's life and this small portable stone relief carving is an example of such an object. The image of the Buddha at the center shows his seated under a Bodhi tree, his right hand touching the earth, a common visual reference to the moment of his enlightenment, in other words, awakening.

This figure and the six Buddhas at its sides represent the seven weeks the Buddha spent meditating in Bodh Gaya under the Bodhi tree. the Buddha spent meditating in Bodhgaya under the Bodhi tree. The scenes of this intricate stone sculpture depicting events from the Buddha's life culminating at the top with his achievement of nirvana often refer to as Mahabharinirvana, the Buddha's death. This scene always reminds me of growing up in exile in Tibetan refugee camps in India. My mother used to tell us to sleep on the right side, with our right side of face resting on the right palm, just like how Buddha went to sleep, so we will have better dreams.

The physical appearance of the Buddha, as you see here, featuring a disproportionately short and thick neck, is a direct reference to the main image that occupied the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya from about the 11th to the 13th century. Now let's bring on our teacher for today. Welcome, Tracy. It's great to have you back. Tracy Cochran 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 to the Rubin Museum of Art, Tracy Cochran has taught mindfulness meditation and mindful writing at the New York

Insight Meditation Center, as well as in schools, corporations, and other venues nationally and internationally. She's also a writer and editorial director of Parabola, an acclaimed quarterly magazine that seeks to bring timeless spiritual wisdom to the burning questions of the day. bring timeless spiritual wisdom to the burning questions of the day. Her writings, podcast, and other details can be found on her website and on parabola.org. Her new edition, Darkness and Light, is out now. Welcome, Tracy. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Tashi. I'm very happy to be here. And I'm delighted to be speaking about the story of the Buddha's life and as you saw in that artwork people would sometimes take a small altar or replica with them that would denote all the key moments in the Buddha's life story, his great journey

to awakening. And what I was mentioning to Tashi before I was speaking about in my own meditation group is it's interesting to know that his story included darkness and light. It wasn't just a blinding trajectory to the top, to awakening. It's very interesting to remember, to consider that when he left home, he left the palace and he left his position. He left his marriage for the darkness of the unknown. When he did that, it must have been considered a tragedy. We have evidence that it was.

There was crying. They even, they wept when his horse came back without him. Someone even punched the horse. Poor horse. Who was later rewarded in heaven. But anyway, the point is that story, just like our stories, contained times of darkness, of not knowing what would come, of seeming failure, and also light. And there's a tendency, particularly in our culture, to want it all to be light all the time or to think that we've done something terribly wrong. In fact, last night when I was leading meditation, I talked a little bit about light pollution. And because it's daylight savings time, we're moving into the darker season in our hemisphere. And it seems to be the case that the whole planet practically cannot bear darkness. And views from our Earth, from space, are a kind of yellowish glare of light.

There are whole cities that can be seen from outer space. Might there be another way to be with darkness? And after I speak and we meditate, Tashi's going to show some images for those who can stay of Bodh Gaya, the place of the Buddha's awakening, and the Bodhi tree, the tree under which he sat. What's interesting to reflect on for just a moment before we sit is that when he sat under the tree, it's portrayed in the ancient story as a night. He sat through the night. And it was a night that lasted 40 days, 40 days. And apparently scholars of ancient texts and many traditions think that the word 40 wasn't literal.

It meant a long, long time. time, like 40 days in the desert, or Moses and his people spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. The point of that number and of the story is that sometimes it's necessary for us to descend into darkness, to not know. And there's a sacred mantra in Tibetan Buddhism, Om Mani Padme Om, the jewel in the lotus. And this means many things. But one thing we can consider as its meaning is the jewel of the mind descending into the heart.

Descending into the heart. The Buddha was sitting in the dark. He didn't know what would come. But he used the mind, the awareness of the heart. He wasn't looking at his phone. And yes, I know they didn't have smartphones then. The point is he wasn't looking at his phone. And yes, I know they didn't have smartphones then. The point is he wasn't distracted. He wasn't strategizing how to get out of the darkness

or picturing his life beyond darkness. What was he doing? He was sitting and watching. He was looking within. He was watching his thoughts, his feelings, noticing the ones that lifted him up and those that made him descend. He was looking. He was coming to see himself, his likes and dislikes, his tendencies, his past lives. And again, not so he could strategize his way out, but so that he could open to a deeper kind of awakening. It turns out that awakening might not just be a flight up.

It might be awakening downward to come to know our own hearts, our own bodies. all of our distractions and even our hopes so that we can come in touch with what's here, even in darkness. In the darkness of the unknown, what did he do? There is that famous gesture of touching the earth. gesture of touching the earth. Mariah came to him and filled him with fear, fearful images of what might come, just assailing him. But instead of getting hooked in and

letting the mind take him, he reached down and touched the earth. He was here. The body was here. It was part of life. And according to the ancient stories, the trees burst into bloom. The earth answered him. We are with you. Yes, you are here. And we are with you. Last night it was quite beautiful.

One of the students at my sangha is blind. And I mentioned the gesture of touching the earth. And she said that when she first was learning a new way of seeing, of being in the world, learning a new way of seeing, of being in the world, she was very frightened because she couldn't see outward. She couldn't see ahead. She was given the guidance to touch the earth. Touch the earth. Come back to yourself, to your

elemental knowing. I am here, just being here. And then notice the heart without poking and prodding for it to come up with words, just notice its presence. And notice like the Buddha did in his seeing that the heart has likes and dislikes, aspirations and things it withdraws from. Let it be that simple. Because that simplicity, that willingness to be with what we are,

just that begins to open us to qualities that are anything but small. open us to qualities that are anything but small. Qualities of patience, of openness, of faith. Faith that more will be revealed, more will open. And of course, in the great story of the Buddha's awakening, it did, by the light of the morning star, that patience, that quiet attending to what was arising inside him gave rise to awakening.

How extraordinary for us to get to sit together and remember that awakening took place in the dark. It took place as his, the Buddha's, willingness to descend into his own experience, not relying on something that came before, old thoughts, old traditions, but something unknown. As I prepared to sit with you today, I came across a wonderful quote from Trungpa Rinpoche. He says, everybody wants to change their lives instead of using their lives to awaken.

Isn't that great? It means opening, because opening does open the door to awakening opening to our whole story not just liking the light parts the fun parts, the times when we want but also opening our hearts and our bodies

and our willingness to look inward to those dark times, to see what sustained us in sorrow, in grief, in uncertainty, in bewilderment, to see that there's a mind here in the heart below the thinking mind that has qualities of knowing, of faith, of constancy, of being with that can lead us to a deeper truth. that can lead us to a deeper truth. There's a great Indian sage named Sri Nisargadatta who says very wisely, the mind creates abyss and the heart crosses it. We die and die and die in this life. We imagine all kinds of ends for ourselves

when things go upside down or plunge into darkness. And the heart often very quietly reminds us, I am here. I am here. So let's sit together, see for ourselves. So take a comfortable seat. That word comfortable is important. It means upright, as upright as you can be, but also relaxed. Also allowing yourself to be soft, to be just like you are today, without straining and striving to be And if you're able to allow your eyes to close, the better to have an inner experience. And notice when you close your eyes, there is still a glow, a soft light, a knowing that isn't thinking. It's more like seeing, like being with.

And notice that this softening, softening that appears when we close our eyes can touch everything that's here, including tension, places of pain or worry. Notice what it's like to let yourself rest in stillness, in darkness. No striving for answers, for dazzling insights. Just being. Just being. Just breathing. Just willing to allow awareness to appear. Thank you. And notice that all these thoughts can be in the head, to the sensation of being present. And notice that the attention around the body and inside the body is not the same as thinking. It's light like the sky, like a gaze Thank you. And notice that you can bring the attention to the heart, to the center of the chest, without seeking that the heart have any particular feeling, that Quiet. Whatever you find. And notice that this heart brings a feeling of intimacy with what is. That we have a feeling about being here on the earth. It doesn't have to have words.

Just a feeling of closeness. Depth. Depth. Somehow we know we feel our connection to mystery. Thank you. And notice how it feels to let yourself just let go and let be. And let awareness appear. Thank you. Just rest in stillness, in darkness, noticing that it's not an absence, but something very full and alive, nourishing you, touching you. Notice how it feels to let go and trust that the Earth is supporting you, is with you, part of you. Thank you. Just let go. Let go of all thoughts or hopes about awakening and notice what's here. Your basic willingness to be here, to be part of life, to open,

to wake up, not with thoughts, but with seeing, sensing, feeling, presence. Thank you. Notice how it feels to all of it acceptable. All of it human. Thank you. Noticing that stillness, that darkness can be nourishing, supporting, like going into the forest to sit down and see, to touch the earth. Leaving the known for the unknown. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for that beautiful session, Tracy. That concludes this week's practice. If you would like to support the Ruben and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member of the Ruben.

If you're 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 two, hosted by Raveena Arora, is out now and explores the transformative power of emotions using a mandala as a guide. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.