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 Insight 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, Tashi Delek, and welcome.Welcome to Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum of Art.I am Tashi Chodron, Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador, and I'm delighted to be your host today.
We are a global hub for Himalayan art with a home base in New York City, and we're so glad to have all of you join us for our 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, Kimberly Brown, 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.
The artwork for today's session, which is handpicked by our teacher, Kimberly Brown, from a list of art.It's this beautiful painting, a Thangka painting, mineral pigment on cloth.
It's origin from China, dated 1600 to 1699, and the size is about 144.24 x 75.57 cm.Mineral pigment on cotton. The theme this month, we are exploring on the theme of openness and this beautiful Thangka painting, Maitreya.It's Jawa Chamba in Tibetan.
Maitreya is both the Buddha of the future and the Bodhisattva of loving kindness.Maitreya is associated with new beginnings in his role as the Buddha of the future.He represents our openness to a new dawn.
This is a beautiful, very unusual combination of Tibetan aesthetic and the Chinese imagery and painting techniques.The central figure, the Bodhisattva and future Buddha Maitreya, is marked by his traditional Tibetan Buddhist iconographic attributes.
He is red in color, has a stupa in his crown, and holds a blossoming branch with a vase on top. However, the watery grotto and bamboo backdrop is closely associated with Chinese paintings of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
The painting figure can nonetheless be identified as Maitreya through the surrounding narrative scenes.
The scene in the upper right corner depicts the story of the sage Kashapa passing on a robe to Maitreya, symbolic of the transmission of the Buddha's teachings.
The background reflects that the artist had a good grasp of Chinese landscape painting, with layers of ink and specialized brush techniques. A number of the figures follow Chinese conventions of hair and dress.
However, color notations in Tibetan script visible under the pigment layers throughout the composition suggest the hands of Tibetan artists at work. Now let's bring on our teacher for today.Our teacher is Kimberly Brown.
Kimberly Brown is a meditation teacher and author.She leads classes and retreats that emphasize the power of compassion and kindness meditation to reconnect us to ourselves and others.
She studies in both the Tibetan and Insight Schools of Buddhism and is a certified mindfulness instructor.
Her latest book, Happy Relationships, 25 Buddhist Practices to Transform Your Connection with Your Partner, Family, and Friends, was released in February.You can learn more about Kimberly on her website, meditationwithheart.com.
Kimberly, thank you so much for being here, and please help me in welcoming Kimberly Brown.
Hello, everyone.The theme of this month here at the Rubin is openness. Which is a quality that means being receptive, being non-defensive.And it also means having a balanced mind.
So when your mind is not trying to close things down that you can't control or you don't want, or reject things that you don't understand, or trying to refuse things that are unexpected.
And this quality of mind in Buddhism, openness, is actually one of the three fundamental qualities of our nature.Our Buddha nature, our inherent self, our true presence.
Those are all words for our consciousness beneath all of our greed, hatred, confusion. And these three qualities are spaciousness, luminosity, and the quality of unimpededness, or openness.
Now, the spacious mind, that's sometimes called empty, an empty mind.That this quality that we have, this presence, it's not conditioned.It's not born.It's not dependent on anything. and the quality of luminosity or luminous mind.
You'll sometimes hear this called a stainless mind.It means that you can't damage your nature. I mean, I could hate for a year, be really upset all the time.
But beneath that, my mind is always still pure and stainless and luminous and spacious and unimpeded.That's the openness.It's free.Beneath all our delusion, our minds are free from hatred and greed.
And that's why you'll often hear this quality of unimpededness or openness.It's also called unconditional love. So you can see how openness relates to love and compassion.It's part of their characteristics.
And that's why today's artwork is of the Bodhisattva Maitreya.Because she, as well as all awakened beings, Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, all of them represent this open mind, this open heart.
And remembering that in this tradition, mind and heart are the same.Chitta, C-I-T-T-A.And this openness of mind and heart, it frees us.It frees us from obstacles like fear and confusion and separateness.
All of those close our minds, close our hearts.It closes down from loving ourselves and other people too. And so this open quality, this openness is necessary, too, for indiscriminate compassion.
That's the ability to open our hearts to everyone and everyone's struggles with a sense of wanting to alleviate suffering, no matter who the beings are, if we like them or we don't like them, if they're our best friend or our strangers or our enemies.
And you likely can sense when your nature is impeded or closed.You can feel it in those moments when you're frustrated or angry.Those moments when you feel that you're right.
I mean, I can even feel my heart and my mind close when I get defensive or scared.It feels like a tightness, a constriction.It's the opposite of openness.
But when I feel at ease with my mind, when I feel safe, I can feel this relaxation, this quality of openness.And you probably can do that too. So today let's do a little practice that might help you tap into this quality of openness.
You can settle into your seat and close your eyes. But always know that you can open your eyes.That's an equally appropriate way to meditate.It's just that you want to keep your eyes looking down and not looking around.
So if you'd like, you can keep your eyes open and just let them gently gaze down.Or just close your eyes.And take a moment just to settle in here. Noticing your breath, your body.I'd like you to put a hand on your heart and a hand on your belly.
Then you can easily feel the movement of your breath.And you can also tap into your own loving presence. And I'd like you to take a moment to understand, to recognize, why are you participating in this meditation today?What motivates you?
What brings you to take time in your day to practice with your heart and your mind and learn mindfulness and kindness?Take a moment.Take a moment to understand this intention.
When you feel you know what your intention is, I'd like you to say it three times to yourself.It might go something like, I wish to feel less hard on myself.I want to be more free.I want to be kinder to myself or others.
Whatever yours is, just say it three times to yourself. And continuing to keep your hand on your heart and a hand on your belly, I'd like you to make a connection with a person who's been kind to you.
An easy, loving person, someone who's been supportive.Don't pick your sibling that you struggle with sometimes.Pick someone that's really a simple person for you. And you can imagine they're here with you.
And also when you do this, think of a moment, an actual moment of kindness that they gave you.So you might see your best friend and remember when they were at your wedding.
You might see a moment when someone cooked you dinner, lent you money, helped you with homework. And sense their presence.You can imagine they're sitting with you.Allowing them to look you in the eye, maybe gently touch your face.You might feel that.
Just imagining their presence.And say to them, may I be open to your loving presence. May I be open to your loving presence.May I be open to your loving presence.And continuing, just for a couple of minutes, silently, quietly saying this to yourself.
May I be open to your loving presence.Connecting with this dear one. Checking in with yourself.Maybe you need to reconnect to this being, this loving person.It's OK.Gently begin again.May I be open to your loving presence.
And just for another two minutes, giving your gift to this loved one. May I be open to your loving presence.You can let go of that phrase, keeping your connection with this loving person.Noticing your breath, your feet.
And with this loving person present, you might imagine the two of you together in a place that's meaningful to you or just feel that they're here with you.Now saying to yourself, may I be open to my loving presence.
May I be open to my loving presence.May I be open to my loving presence. And continue to repeat this to yourself, like you're giving yourself a gift. And again, just checking in with yourself.Where is your attention?
Maybe you have to come back and begin again.Reconnect with yourself, with this dear one.May I be open to my loving presence.Just for another minute or so, repeating this to yourself. May I be open to my loving presence.
You can let go of this connection with yourself, but keeping your dear one near you, this loving being, and bring in others that you care about, your friends, your family, your pets.
Bring in people that you don't really like or that are frustrating or have hurt you.Bring them in here to imagine they're with you.And start to imagine all the strangers, people you'll never meet.May we be open to each other's loving presence.
May we be open to each other's loving presence. May we be open to each other's loving presence.Say that just a few times. May all beings be open to each other's loving presence.You can let go of these phrases, let go of any technique.
Let yourself rest for a couple of seconds here.You don't have to meditate or not meditate.Just be.Notice your feet, your breath, light entering your eyelids. And thank yourself for this practice, for your efforts, for your beautiful heart.
And take your time as you open your eyes and bring your attention to our conversation.You can stretch and move as this meditation concludes.
That concludes this week's practice.To support The Rubin and this meditation series, we invite you to become a member at rubinmuseum.org slash 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 slash e-news.I am Tashi Chodron.Thank you so much for listening.Have a mindful day.
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