Mindfulness Meditation Podcast - Mindfulness Meditation with Tracy Cochran 12/11/2019

Episode Date: December 13, 2019

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 18:23. 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. Lama Aria Drolma led this meditation session on December 11, 2019. To view the related artwork for this week's session, please visit: http://therubin.org/2y0 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. I'm your host, Dawn Eshelman. Every Wednesday at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea, we present a meditation session led by a prominent meditation teacher from the New York area. This podcast is a recording of our weekly practice. If you would like to join us in person, please visit our website at rubinmuseum.org meditation. We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and teachers from the New York Insight Meditation Center. In the description for each episode, you will find information about the theme for that week's session, including an image of a related artwork chosen from the Rubin Museum's permanent collection.

And now, please enjoy your practice. Welcome to the Rubin Museum of Art and to our weekly practice, our meditation practice. My name is Dawn Eshelman. So nice to see so many of you here today. Anybody here for the first time? Welcome. Great. Nice to have you. Who comes every week if they can? Howdy. In between. Great. Howdy. In between. Great. So nice to have you all here and to get together to meditate, to share our practice, and also to think about this theme that we're talking about this month, which is generosity. which is generosity. And this is the time of year to really connect with what that means to us in a really authentic way.

How are we being generous to ourselves and to our loved ones and to strangers and everybody in between? We're looking today at a beautiful butter lamp. This is from Eastern Tibet. And we have some examples of butter lamps in the museum, but I'll draw your attention to the fourth floor shrine room where there are several that you can see kind of in context, right, within a shrine and shown sort of as they would be shown in a shrine room.

These are offerings. These are symbols of generosity that a practitioner would utilize as part of their practice. And they represent the offering of light to enlightened beings. And they are sometimes called the Dharma light. And you'll see them in a variety of sizes. This example is quite a large one. And there's an inscription identifying three monks that donated to create it

and the place of their offering, which was at the Batang Monastery in Eastern Tibet. And there's an inscription on it that says, the vessel of the precious substance that illuminates all the world was carved out of the second precious substance, which is silver. It is a joyful offering. So I also just want to invite your senses here a little bit. If you were to imagine we were in a shrine room right now, and the only

light that we had was from these flickering candles, it would be quite a different experience, right? And there might also be quite a noticeable and unique smell. These butter lamps are often lit with yak butter, right? And there's a strong and pungent smell that is interesting to think about experiencing as part of just the experience of the senses that is really employed when a practitioner is practicing. that is really employed when a practitioner is practicing. Speaking of generosity, I just wanted to remind you all about this fabulous magazine, which is called Parabola,

and it is edited by our fabulous teacher today, Tracy Cochran. But this is something that, if you're looking for a gift, could fit the bill. This issue this month is about the return of the goddess. And there's all kinds of incredible goddesses here. I think it ends with Wonder Woman, you know, relevant. So Tracy Cochran is back here with us. So nice to have you back, Tracy. She is the writer and editorial director of Parabola. This is the quarterly magazine, and you can also find it online at parabola.org. In addition to teaching here at the Rubin, she teaches at the New York Insight, and every Sunday at Hudson River Sangha

in Tarrytown, New York, and her writings and teachings and her schedule can be found online on Parabola Facebook, Twitter, and TracyCochran.org. Please welcome her back, Tracy Cochran. Thank you. So, I wish I could convey to you how beautiful you look. to you how beautiful you look. And some of you look doubtful, but it's the truth. And it's been the subject of great poems like Hafiz, the Persian poet, who said, I wish I could show you when you're in doubt or in darkness the beauty of your being.

Just being here, listening, not just to this voice but to yourselves, but to yourselves is a way to a kind of quiet radiance. And I notice that this is the last month of the decade. And tomorrow will be the last full moon and Rumi and other great beings have pointed out that there is a moon inside of us a quiet radiance that we can listen for. So a couple of weeks ago, I was invited to teach at a private high school in New York. And the kids I taught were 16, 16-year-olds. And when I sat with them,

I became aware that they probably heard me and perceived me. Like, do you know in Disney movies there'll be these old trees that speak with the voice of wisdom? And like in Pocahontas, there's this wise old tree that speaks. And I could imagine that they thought there was a great distance between us. Because at one point I said, you know, I'm somewhat older than you. And they laughed with, right, you know, with hilarity. Like, boy, that's know a thing or two. I know, for example, that things change.

And they can change quite suddenly. And I also know that there is an attention inside us that can see, that can hold, that can meet everything that comes without judging. It isn't fixed, but it flows. So there's a famous story of the Buddha that after he reached enlightenment, he became fully enlightened. What do you think he did next? He went for a walk with no destination.

First, he stood for a long time. I imagine his legs went to sleep because he was sitting for 49 days. But he was also standing to give the tree that he sat under the gift of his attention. He just stood and offered his gaze to this tree. What an extraordinary thing to do. And then he walked without any pressure to achieve. It had been achieved. achieve. It had been achieved.

And without fear, imagine how it tastes to be completely present without fear and without pressure. And so he walked and he encountered someone who stopped in his tracks, because he had never seen someone like this. And the person said, are you a god? And the Buddha said, no. Are you an angel?

Because his radiance was so great. And the Buddha said, no. Are you a wizard? Nope. Are you a man? And this is where it's confounding. The Buddha said, no. So what's left? The Buddha said, I am awake.

I am awake. And I've thought so often about this story because it kind of stops there. That this person who beheld the Buddha, when you see an angel, it's not entirely comfortable. That's why they have to say, fear not, because they're so bright. They're so luminous. They illuminate several things at once. Your deepest wish to be seen and accepted exactly as you are. And the Buddha, according to the ancient stories, could see you back and back and back and back. and back, and back, and back. This life and all your lifetimes could see to the heart of your suffering and your deepest wish, your aspiration to be free.

So he could see that and also what gets in the way. So you're confronted often in the same way that you are when you sit with so many things at once. Your capacity to be radiant, your, I'm not kidding, your inherent ability to have a light of attention inside and outside that can see without judging, with compassion and wisdom. And at the same time, you can feel your pain. You can feel your tension and those edges, what you fear to show,

what you carry that you can't put down. So the greatest gift, the greatest gift we can give anyone, parabola notwithstanding, is the gift of our attention, our full attention. Imagine what it's like to be in the presence of someone who is radiant, who's in no rush, who can be with you exactly as you are. Sharp edges and softness and thinking again of my young friends

I was thinking that another thing that we come to know is that darkness is not always an absence. Sometimes darkness is also a gift. And there's a fragment of a poem by Rilke that I so often think of, especially at this time of year when it's dark. And it goes, Quiet friend who has come so far,

who has come so far. Feel how your breath makes more space around you. And let this darkness be a bell tower and you ring the bell. And you ring the bell. And it suggests that our presence, when we sit down to give ourselves the gift of our attention, makes a healing space, a safe space, even of darkness. And we begin to see that the true light we always think we want,

or some of us, I can't speak for everybody, a dazzling light that would vanquish all darkness. But there's a light that appears in the midst of the darkness, in the heart of it, that illuminates it. illuminates it and some of us know that a lamp, a candle can throw a light in a darkness that can be seen from so far and in the same way,

what I've come to know being this wise old tree that I'll share with you is that this thing called enlightenment, it may be moments, little moments of ease, of freedom from fear, of being present And that those moments are something that we can look back on and take heart from. And call forth to accompany us in the darkest night. So let's sit and feel what it's like to be here with eyes closed. and just like the poem notice how your breath

the rhythm of it your sensation can make a space around you. Your own breath. Your own sensation of being in a body. and let yourself feel how it is to be present here. Breathing. breathing sensing and notice that there is a light of attention inside you that isn't thinking. It's not calculating.

It's not pushing to resolve anything. It just sees everything that's happening. and see that you sense what's happening. Temperature, sound, impressions of all kinds. and see that you can come home to this sensation and breath and seeing. seeing. No matter what takes you away, you can come home and find welcome and no judgment. Thank you. and see that whenever you get taken by thinking, you can come back to something else, to sensation, to sensation, to a basic, warm-hearted responsiveness to the present moment. Thank you. And as you soften and settle,

notice that stillness is open, not closed. We're open to life inside and outside. Thank you. Undertekster av Amara.org-gemenskapen Thank you. and see how it feels to be safe, to be completely acceptable exactly as you are, seen without judging, without rush. Thank you.... and see that there is a presence that finds us as we settle and open. A presence that isn't just ours, but shared. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. and see that you can begin again anytime just come home to sensation

and breath and the light of an attention that doesn't judge. that we're coming home to the vibrancy of life. And our connection to it. Thank you. Thank you. And see that this attention is naturally generous, open, giving itself to what comes without judgment. Thank you. Thank you. And as we prepare to stop, notice the warmth inside you, the basic goodness responsiveness in you there's something that is happy to be here, to be alive and that meets life

with generosity. Thank you. Thank you, Tracy. Sessions are free to Rubin Museum members, just one of the many benefits of membership. Thank you for listening. Have a mindful day.