Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum with Kimberly Brown

Welcome to the mindfulness meditation podcast.

I'm your host,

Dawn Eshulman.

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.

We've been talking this month about this idea,

This concept of beginning again,

Whether that applies to the multitude of times we begin again in any of our meditation practices,

Or waking up in the morning,

Or beginning a new year,

Or simply renewing our commitment to the ideals that we want to uphold in the world around us.

And so today we,

I'm not going to say finish that discussion because I'm sure we'll begin again many more times throughout this process together,

But we're bringing that to a completion.

And doing that,

Inspired by this fabulous sculpture behind me,

This is Bhairava.

Bhairava is a wrathful emanation of Shiva,

The great creator and destroyer.

And as you may know,

In the lexicon of Himalayan Buddhist art,

There are often wrathful emanations and peaceful emanations of particular deities.

And the wrathful are considered to be equally as important and powerful as the peaceful emanations.

And they serve a kind of different purpose,

A kind of cult for the viewer to wake up.

And the wrathful deities are identified by these really fierce expressions on their faces.

They are often wearing or adorned with skulls.

You can see there's a skull necklace of skulls here around Bhairava's neck,

Kind of snake-like.

Bhairava has fangs.

Lots of fierceness going on.

And you can imagine the sort of importance of this fierceness as being similarly important as a parent whose child has run out into a busy street and the parent says,

Stop.

It's with that kind of intensity and force and love,

Really,

That this emanation is coming forth to wake us up.

Bhairava is known as,

And is representing here especially,

A deity who sees clearly,

Who can cut through the crap and see things for what they really are.

And you can,

This is illustrated in part by Bhairava's many heads,

Right?

So he has heads that see in every direction around him.

In fact,

He has five.

And he has a multitude of arms as well and implements in each of his hands so that he can take action and do whatever needs to be done to remove any obstacles that might be in the way of seeing clearly.

Kimberly Brown is back with us.

Great to have her back.

And she'll be talking to us a little bit more about this idea of beginning again with that clear insight.

She has degrees in physics and literature and trained as a psychodynamic psychotherapist and worked at a marketing consultancy for more than a decade before joining the Interdependence Project,

Which is where she is now.

She's a graduate of the first year long Interdependence Project Meditation Teacher Training Program and she studies Tibetan and American Buddhism with Lama Norla Rinpoche and Sharon Salzberg.

Her work and teachings emphasize the ways in which contemplation,

Wisdom,

And ethics are shared among all traditions of awakening.

Please welcome her back,

Kimberly Brown.

Okay.

Hi.

Well,

Happy New Year,

Everyone.

I'm glad you're back.

So beginning again,

As Dawn mentioned,

That's the theme here at the Rubin the last few weeks and it's a new year.

It's often a theme for many of us to start fresh,

To begin again,

To renew.

And you know,

My experience with starting again,

I had always thought and always been taught,

Let go of the past and begin again,

Start over,

What's ever done,

You can not cling to that and come back to the present and start again.

But since the election,

My practice has been let go of the future and start again.

So,

You know,

I say that only half jokingly because no matter where you are on the political spectrum,

It is a time of great uncertainty,

A lot of strife.

I have a sort of chicken little personality and throughout my life,

As a result of many causes and conditions,

I often feel catastrophe or disaster is imminent and I get very caught in that story.

I feel very afraid sometimes,

So afraid that I'm unable to act or unable to act clearly or reasonably.

So at that point,

It's important for me and anyone else struggling with this to be able to see their fear,

Anxiety,

Worry,

Delusion very clearly in order to come back to the present.

So why would we do this?

And you might say,

Well,

Kim,

It is a dangerous time.

You got to be scared.

It's one thing to be scared.

It's another to be caught up in a story that is not happening right now.

And living in that state of great disaster and anxiety,

Well,

For one,

You may get sick,

And that's not going to help you or anyone else.

If you are so anxious and so caught up and so in something that may or may not happen in the future,

Letting go of that and practicing coming back to the present with your body,

You will be of more benefit to yourself and others.

Another reason is,

In general,

If we are in a place of neediness,

Greediness,

Hatred,

Ignorance,

Denial,

Generally the decisions we make in those moments will not be the best decisions.

They won't be good decisions.

And good here in this tradition means a decision that leads to an action that will be beneficial for yourself and others that will prevent harm to yourself or others.

So that's the kind of action,

Skillful action that we are talking about.

Now,

Another thing you might miss is possibilities.

If you are very caught up in what is going to happen and that's the only thing you can see,

You might miss other possibilities that will arise from certain outcomes.

You might miss certain ways of working with difficulties that may arise.

So you want to be present.

I want to be present for what's really arising right now so I can very wisely act.

This image really sums it up.

Bhairava can see everywhere,

360 degrees,

Above,

Below,

All around,

And also can act so skillfully.

And Bhairava's feet are on the ground very,

Very solidly,

Ready to act.

So this is pointing out to our own ability to cut through our delusion,

Our own ability to do that.

Now,

That's how we can begin again.

We have this ability,

We can cut through our delusion,

We can start again.

And the reason we can start again is it's our nature.

In the Buddhist texts,

They describe mind as luminous,

As stainless.

And mind does not mean brain.

It means our human nature,

Our experience of being human.

And stainless means there's nothing you can do to damage this nature.

I mentioned I have these chicken little qualities of fear,

Of panic,

Of great anxiety.

However many moments I have of that throughout my lifetime will not stain my nature.

I can always work to develop this nature to see clearly and to have compassion and wisdom for myself and others.

It's a very important thing to remember.

It allows us to begin again.

And in Zen,

There's this teaching,

A story is a young woman who lives with her family.

She wakes up one morning,

Looks in the mirror,

And her head is gone.

And she freaks out.

She runs from the bathroom and she goes to her brother and she says,

Holy cow,

My head is gone.

And he says,

What are you talking about?

Your head is right there.

And she runs to her sister and she says,

My head is gone.

What am I going to do?

My head is gone.

And her sister says,

I don't know.

It's right there.

And she runs to her mother and she says,

My head is gone.

My head is gone.

What am I going to do?

And her mother smacks her in the face.

And the woman touches her own face,

The young woman,

And she says,

Oh,

It's always been here.

OK?

Your nature has always been there.

OK?

And sometimes you're going to smack yourself in the face to wake up to this.

OK?

You're going to use this wrathful nature to wake up to this.

It seems to me that we are going to need all our wits about us in the near future,

Each one of us.

And seeing clearly and sitting up straight is really going to be important.

And we can do this through our meditation practice.

And we can do this through mindfulness exercises.

OK?

Do we have anyone new to meditation today?

Welcome.

Welcome.

Great.

So today,

In this spirit of waking up,

Of acting wisely for ourselves and others,

Coming to the present and seeing what's to be done right now,

If you are able,

Please stand up.

OK?

If you are not able to stand,

Please be alert in your seat.

OK?

So you're standing here.

Keep your eyes still.

Find a spot maybe right in front of you.

You can look straight ahead or you can look down a little.

But keep your eyes still.

OK?

Not looking around.

And bring your attention to your feet.

OK?

Now,

This doesn't mean thinking about your feet.

Experiencing your feet.

OK?

Your feet are on the earth.

Earth is holding you up.

OK?

This is what it means to be grounded,

To come from a place of presence.

Right here.

OK?

So putting your attention on your feet.

Now bringing your attention to the center of your chest.

Some might call that your heart center.

OK?

Without moving your eyes.

Testing your attention and your heart center.

OK?

And so this is both metaphorically and literally where we want to come from.

We want to come from a place where we are grounded and where we are leading from our heart.

It's a very powerful position.

OK?

Every word you speak,

Every action you take has many,

Many outcomes.

Therefore,

Your life is incredibly valuable.

And you can bring about benefit to yourself and others.

Over and over again.

Resting your feet,

Resting your attention in the center of your heart.

So everyone go ahead and sit down.

You're not already sitting.

Sit down.

Keep that same sense of alertness.

Right?

The leading from your heart center.

If you ever have teachings with Tibetan teachers,

They will say,

Guard your mind,

Guard your mind.

And they're pointing at their heart.

OK?

Because heart and mind are the same.

Heart and mind are the same.

There's no separation.

Our wisdom and our compassion cannot be separated.

So I am going to instruct with an eyes open meditation today.

If you're unaccustomed to this,

Just give it a try.

OK?

Just give it a try.

You'll want to lower your gaze a little.

So likely you'll be looking at the person's back.

The person in front of you,

You'll be looking maybe at their back or their seat back.

OK?

OK.

So keeping your eyes open.

Right?

Lower your gaze down a little bit.

OK?

So your head is upright.

Your eyelids are half closed.

You're awake.

You're not looking around.

You're sitting up straight,

But not too stressed out.

OK?

Upright,

Not uptight,

My friend says.

If you're like me and you work on a computer a lot,

You might be jutting your chin out.

You can pull your chin back so your ears are parallel to your shoulders.

Taking a moment to allow whatever intention brought you here today.

OK?

Whatever led you to want to meditate here in this group.

You could be doing anything.

It's New York City,

But you're here.

Really appreciate that.

Really honor your intention.

Now bring your attention to your feet.

Showing yourself to have the experience of your feet on the floor.

Feeling your seat.

Relaxing your belly.

Bringing your attention to the center of your chest,

Your heart center.

Noticing your shoulder blades.

Really noticing your forehead,

Your cheeks,

Your jaw.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

Feeling your feet.

Noticing your seat.

Relaxing your belly.

Feeling your heart.

Noticing your shoulder blades.

Feeling the back of your head.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

Noticing where you are.

If you're planning,

Worrying,

Letting go of the future.

Feeling your feet.

Your attention to your seat.

Relaxing your belly.

Opening your heart.

Feeling your forehead,

Your cheeks,

Your jaw.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

Beginning again in the present moment.

Your body and your senses are always in the present moment,

Feeling your feet.

Noticing your seat,

Your belly,

Center of your chest.

Noticing your forehead,

Your cheeks,

And your jaw.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

Noticing what's arising.

Awareness is the same as letting go.

Noticing thoughts,

Plans,

Emotions.

Noticing to return your attention to your feet.

Feeling your seat.

Relaxing your belly.

Opening your heart.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

A Tibetan instruction is relax.

Never made sense to me.

And I read this Zen instruction.

Zen is like falling down a well with your eyes open.

That's the same as relax.

Feel your feet.

Bringing your attention to your seat.

Relaxing your belly.

Opening your heart.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

Relaxing into this moment.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

You don't have to fix or change anything right now.

Feeling your feet.

Noticing your seat.

Relaxing your belly.

Opening your heart.

Feeling your shoulder blades.

The back of your head.

Noticing your forehead,

Your cheeks,

And your jaw.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

Relaxing your belly.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

Relaxing into this moment.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

Noticing if your eyes are wandering around.

Keep them still.

If you're falling asleep,

Stand up.

Open your eyes.

Feeling your feet,

Relaxing your seat,

Your belly,

Your heart.

Noticing your shoulder blades.

Noticing thoughts that are arising.

Allowing sound to enter your ears.

Feeling your feet.

Noticing your seat.

Relaxing your belly.

Relaxing your heart.

Resting your attention on the center of your heart.

Center of your chest.

The leader doesn't train for the fight in the fight.

Feeling your feet.

Noticing your seat.

Relaxing your belly.

Noticing whatever thoughts or emotions are arising.

Noticing any judgments that are arising toward yourself,

Toward others.

Nothing has to be changed.

Noticing.

Feeling your feet.

Noticing your seat.

Bringing your awareness to your heart center.

Resting your attention on the physical sensation of the center of your chest.

In a moment you'll hear a bell ring.

Please stay still until you can no longer hear it.

At which time if you'd like,

You can join me in offering yourself a bow of gratitude for practicing here today.

Thank you.

Thank you all so much for your practice here.

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 Rubin Museum members,

Just one of the many benefits of membership.

Thank you for listening.

Have a mindful day.