Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum with Kate Johnson

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 slash meditation.

We are proud to be partnering with Sharon Salzberg and the teachers from the interdependence project.

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.

So Kate is our teacher today,

And it's great to have her back.

She teaches mindful yoga in New York City public schools and Buddhist meditation at the interdependence project.

She holds a BFA in dance from the Alvin Ailey School at Fordham University and an MA in performance studies from NYU.

She's trained at Spirit Rock Meditation Center,

The interdependence project,

Laughing Lotus,

And the Presencing Institute.

And she's working on a book right now about waking up to power and oppression as a spiritual practice,

Which will be published in the fall of 2017 by Parallax Press.

Please welcome her back,

Kate Johnson.

Don't just welcome me back,

And I feel like welcoming you back.

Hello.

Is there anyone here who's here for their first time at the Rubin for meditation?

Oh,

Welcome.

Welcome.

And people who have been here who are regulars,

This is a place where you come to sit often.

Look at all those hands.

Wow.

Yeah.

It's nice to be back and to feel like we're coming back to be in community.

So I was really excited to be here with Maha Kala today,

My co-host for this meditation.

Because Maha Kala is,

Among other things,

A protector deity.

So often in the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism,

There will be chants during evening practices to Maha Kala for protection.

There's also,

As Don mentioned,

Just the wrathfulness of the deity doesn't mean that the deity is bad.

That actually,

This is a deity that can help us to—I've read that the five kind of head crowns represent the five hindrances,

Classical hindrances that are taught in Buddhist meditation.

So the clinging,

The aversion,

The sleepiness,

The doubt—attachment,

Aversion,

Doubt,

Restlessness.

Thank you,

Of course.

My favorite.

And sleepiness.

So that these hindrances to our spiritual practice are actually transformed in the darkness that Maha Kala represents.

And I thought,

Wow,

What an opportunity to actually reframe and shift our perception of how we relate with darkness in our meditation practice,

In imagery.

Certainly we know that throughout history,

The duality,

The dichotomy of light,

Good,

Dark,

Bad has been used to justify oppression of dark-skinned people and violence and domination.

So that's worth shifting,

Right?

And then in terms of our own spiritual practice,

We have a bit of a bent towards the light.

There's a lot of rhetoric around like going to the light,

Like bringing in the light,

And moving towards the light.

And light is wonderful.

It's vital.

It's inspiring.

It's uplifting.

It's outward moving.

And so is the darkness,

Which is kind of inward moving and restful.

It's the more yin energy of our meditation practice.

And so I was really interested and curious today as we move into the meditation to explore a little bit about more of what can be known in the darkness of our own experience,

In this place of restfulness,

Of receptivity.

I used to help my mother in the garden when I was a child,

And she taught me that the darkest soil is the most fertile.

So to think about this space of our meditation practice as a fertile ground for transformation,

For planting seeds that will later blossom in our minds and hearts.

So let's go ahead and practice.

You wouldn't mind just shifting into a seat that feels comfortable to you and let the feet feel firmly planted on the ground if possible.

Hands can rest on the thighs.

They can be palms down or palms up or clasps in the lap,

Just somewhere where the hands can can rest.

And if you're willing,

Go ahead and go ahead and close your eyes.

And just notice when we lightly bring the lids together,

The kind of restfulness,

The seeing of the dark side of the lid.

Understanding this as a warm,

Healing,

Soft darkness.

And allowing the eyeballs to kind of rest back into their sockets.

Before we start working with any particular technique,

Just really feeling the soles of the feet as they're touching the floor.

Feeling your seat where it's connecting with the chair.

The hands touching each other,

Perhaps touching the legs.

Lips touching,

Eyelids touching.

Kind of deepening your awareness of these points of contact.

Using the sensation,

The deepening sensation of contact as a way to ground and settle the energy of the body.

And as you sit here,

Also remembering,

And to the extent that it's possible,

Feeling that we're resting on the earth.

That below this building,

Below the sidewalks.

And connect with a dark,

Rich soil that is there.

That supports all of life.

Connects us with all of life.

Makes life possible.

Seeing if you can invite the body to rest into that.

The goodness and the darkness of the earth.

And then turning your attention towards your breathing.

Start to really feel the sensations that happen when you breathe in and when you breathe out.

And then start to feel the energy that you're breathing with.

So we're not observing it as if we're seeing it,

As if the lights are on and we're kind of outside of the experience looking in,

But we're actually right in the middle of it,

Feeling our way as if we're in a dark room.

And as we sit,

You might hear sounds,

The rumble of the subway or of your belly if you haven't eaten lunch yet.

Perhaps you might come and go,

Plans or memories.

And all that's fine,

Just let that happen.

And keep training our attention on feeling our breath,

Bringing the sensation of breath into the foreground of our experience.

And to support that,

As you breathe in,

You notice the sensations of breathing in,

You might silently say to yourself,

Breathing in,

And as you breathe out,

You might silently say,

Breathing out.

And as you notice,

Your mind and heart start to settle.

If there's a pause that's available at the end of the outbreath,

Before the next inbreath comes in,

You can use that pause for resting so that the inner note might be something like breathing in,

Breathing out,

Resting.

Again,

We use that pause to rest into the support,

The warm darkness,

Solidity of the Earth.

You you you you you you from time to time you might notice if there's any tension that's crept into the body and invite that to dissolve into the warm darkness softening the eyes face belly refreshing our awareness of the breath is this one breath that we're on not liking the light of day when we can see our head resting in the darkness of our experience it's just this moment what does it feel like now you you you you breathing in breathing out resting you you you you you breathing in reading out resting back into the darkness of this moment it be healing soothing grounding full of potential you you you you now having rested for a while and this womb of awareness this container of awareness this offer two questions for contemplation for this you can just drop the question into the mind and watch how it resonates perhaps something is revealed or pops up perhaps not in the first in the spirit of Maha Kala dropping in the question is there any confusion or doubt that is being transformed right now what is being transformed in me you you and then the second question what or who am I willing to protect what or who am I willing to protect and as you contemplate this question perhaps feeling fierce protector energy of Maha Kala rising in you you and then letting that contemplation dissolve and taking a moment to just settle back into the felt sense of the body for these last precious moments of meditation formal meditation body breathing you resting on the earth you you thank you for your practice for your willingness to come enter that warm dark fertile space that concludes this week's practice if you'd like to attend in person please check out our website rubinmuseum.

Org slash meditation to learn more sessions are free to Ruben museum members just one of the many benefits of membership thank you for listening have a mindful day you