Mindfulness Meditation With Kalu Rinpoche 05/04/2023

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.

Good afternoon again,

Tashi Delek,

And welcome.

Welcome to the Return of Mindfulness Meditation with Rubin Museum of Art.

I'm Tashi Chodron,

And Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador,

And I'm so happy to be your host today.

Those of you who are first time,

We are a museum of Himalayan art and ideas in New York City,

And we are so glad to have all of you join us for this weekly program where we combine art and meditation.

Inspired from our collection,

We will first take a look at work of art from our collection.

We will hear a brief talk from our teacher,

And we are so honored and so happy to have Kalu Rumpuche here.

It's Rumpuche's first time at the Rubin Museum,

And then we will hear about 15 to 20 minutes of the teaching for the meditation guided by him.

Let's look at the art connection for today.

The theme for this month is change and transformation,

And the art connection for today is this beautiful mala called chengwa in Tibetan word,

And this is a human cranium prayer beads,

Origin from Tibet,

About 18th or 19th century,

About nine and a half into one and a half into quarter inches.

So the connection to the theme is,

As you see here,

The impermanence change from one that leads to this object.

Buddhists consider skulls reminders of impermanence that help remove attachment to one's self and body,

And the malas are used as meditation tool with which to contemplate the meaning of life and death.

And in traditional Buddhism,

Malas made of skull-shaped beads are carved out of these cranium,

As you see here,

And this one is along with the stone,

And often you will find counter beads,

Those who accumulate hundreds of thousands of certain mantras,

Then the prayer beads comes with the counter.

Let's bring on our teacher for today.

Our teacher is Kalu Rumpuche.

His eminence,

Kalu Rumpuche,

Is the lineage holder of Shambhagaji tradition of Tibetan Buddhism.

He was born in 1990 and recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His Holiness the Chamgyun Sittai Situ Rumpuche as the reincarnate truku of the previous Kalu Rumpuche in 1905 to 1989.

Some of you,

I've heard you saying you've received teachings and empowerment from previous Kalu Rumpuche,

That's amazing,

And I've had the great honor of hosting when this present Kalu Rumpuche's enthronement in San Francisco when he was maybe four or five years old then.

And Kalu Rumpuche completed his traditional three years retreat back in the 2004 to 2008,

And Rumpuche now teaches Niguma Yoga around the world to cultivate awareness and to promote physical and mental well-being.

Rumpuche,

Thank you so much for being here.

Please help me in welcoming Rumpuche.

First of all,

Darsha Delek,

And thank you very much for being here,

And thank you very much for the beautiful introduction,

And thank you for the Rewen Museum for inviting me over here.

And with all the beautiful explanation that is given over here,

I will try all my best to live up to that expectation and enlighten you instantly.

So as the prayer,

You know,

The mala,

Chenwa,

In Tibetan we call it the prayer beads,

And of course it has like 21 beads,

108 beads,

And also made out of different material as well.

And of course here it represents the meaning of impermanence,

The skull.

It doesn't mean the Buddhist people are metalhead.

So the meaning of impermanence,

I think it's very important to understand and where you reflect in your mind.

Many of us when we enter the Buddhism,

Of course,

Maybe some kind of a tragic happen in our life,

Maybe some sort of a suffering that we had to endure.

And if we seek questions,

We have doubt,

We want to overcome our negative energy,

If you want to call it,

Or obstacle,

If you like to call it,

Or temporary barrier,

You know,

If you call that.

So of course we seek spirituality.

Some of us,

We become Hindu,

Some of us we become Christian,

Some of us we become Buddhist,

And then within the Buddhist branches,

Some of us we become Zen meditation practitioner,

Some of us we become a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner,

Some of us we become Theravada Buddhist practitioner.

Before I begin with the Buddhist explanation about the meaning of impermanence that relates to the skeleton beads behind me,

We have to understand that Theravada and Mahayana and Vajrayana,

All are the teachings of the Lord Buddha.

And of course,

Different branches of the Buddhism has their own interpretation,

But all lead to the 84,

000 teachings of the Lord Buddha.

And that is a common foundation that we need to understand to begin with.

That's number one.

Number two is that how you reflect to the meaning of impermanence is very important.

Some people when they reflect to the meaning of impermanence,

There's so much sadness,

So much some sort of despair,

Hopelessness,

But that should not be the perception of the meaning of impermanence.

When you understand,

And when you analyze the meaning of impermanence in a spiritual sense,

You have to be more joyful,

Right?

Because the meaning of impermanence,

The whole purpose of understanding the meaning of impermanence is to overcome our illusion of our own mind,

And is to overcome our fixation of our own mind.

That is the whole purpose.

Thinking so much about the meaning of impermanence doesn't lead you anywhere.

Every successful business people,

They think about impermanence all the time.

They have a lot of paranoia.

They have a lot of concern,

Who will betray them next,

Who will align with them next,

Where's the advantage,

Where's the disadvantage.

Every opportunistic individual thinks about impermanence,

Because the meaning of impermanence is about constant change,

Isn't it?

So if you have this kind of a very first layer of understanding of meaning of impermanence as if that everything is sad,

Everything is death,

And everything is miserable,

I think at a certain point,

It's good in the beginning.

But eventually you need to progress from it.

So where you reflect to the meaning of impermanence is that,

Oh,

Prior to this very moment,

Before,

I used to have a very much strong fixation,

Lack of understanding of the meaning of impermanence.

So now I discovered the meaning of impermanence,

Thanks to the ultimate truth,

Thanks to the teachings of the Buddha.

So the way you reflect like that is very,

Very important.

It gives you more sense of joy,

More optimistic point of view in your spiritual journey.

And that is very important,

Because if you go to be happy,

Whether you're looking for a worthy happiness,

Or whether you're looking for the ultimate happiness,

Either way,

You have to overcome the illusion of your own attachment.

If you cannot overcome the illusion of your attachment,

Then you cannot really bring the result of thinking of the meaning of impermanence.

So you have to overcome the illusion of the attachment.

The illusion of the attachment doesn't mean that you become delusional,

Either.

And many people,

They think,

Oh,

You're a Buddhist,

So now you're delusional.

You're so passive,

I can take advantage of you.

Absolutely not.

You have to be hard as a stone,

As a person.

You have to be realistic.

The world is not made out of bubble.

The world is not made out of angels and passive people all the time.

You always encounter so many different individual who will continuously take advantage of you,

No matter where you stand in life.

You have to be realistic.

You should not bring the idea,

Oh,

Now I'm a Buddhist practitioner,

I have to bring the Dharma into my life.

That is a very beautiful fantasy that you have built.

But that is not very beneficial,

Because you cannot bring a Dharma into your life.

Imagine you have a car problem.

You can't bring a Dharma text to fix your car,

Can you?

So you can't bring a Dharma into your life.

Imagine you have an argument with your partner.

She wins your argument.

She wins the argument,

Or he wins the argument,

And you bring the Dharma text in between.

That doesn't solve any problem.

You cannot bring the Dharma into your life unless you practice it.

If you practice it thoroughly,

And then the quality will influence your judgment,

Your perception of the reality,

How and what kind of influence that is appearing externally,

What kind of a conflict that is bringing inside your mind,

And then you can have a much more clear judgment.

Clear judgment brings the absence from the illusion.

Absence from the illusion creates more sense of solitude mindset and sense of mindfulness attitude as well.

You cannot grasp into the idea of mindfulness,

Oh,

I'm a Buddhist practitioner,

I have to be mindful.

It doesn't work like that.

You cannot be just mindful just because that somebody told you to be,

You know,

Without the solitude retreat.

Long story short,

That's the sad story.

The sad good story is that you need to do the solitude retreat.

Solitude doesn't mean that you have to do three years and pretend to be like somebody else,

You know,

Like going up in the mountain,

Disappearing from your family.

You don't have to do any of that.

Solitude means that you can stay with your family,

Close the door.

Nobody cares when you watch Netflix for hours,

Does it?

So nobody should care when you're doing practice for hours.

So you close the door and,

You know,

Find the 45 minutes or hour or two for yourself,

Starting from 15 minutes to 20 minutes to begin with.

Don't aim for,

I need to practice the big one,

The secret one,

The highest one.

That's all illusion.

Because so many people throughout the history have received the big one,

The secret one,

The great one from the great master and the great teaching,

The secret teaching,

Tantric teaching,

All of it.

But if you don't practice it,

It doesn't mean anything.

It is only boosting your ego to show that you are more unique and special than other people in the name of so-called Buddhist practitioner,

You know.

So receiving the secret and the highest and the best from this and that doesn't develop anything if you don't practice it.

And definition of the practice,

Practicing it comes down to the foundation.

And that foundation comes down to recognizing your distraction.

Recognizing your distraction,

It doesn't mean that every time you are distracted,

You have to feel guilty.

Buddhist practitioner,

Being guilty is not part of our spiritual journey.

Many people,

They call themselves spiritual religious practitioner and they love to feel guilty.

And they love,

I don't know,

They go to this kind of a weird trip in their mind.

Oh,

I have a guilt.

Oh,

I have to do the Vajrasattva practice.

I have so much guilt.

It's so much sadness,

My goodness,

As if the world is not sad enough for you.

And then you go to the path of Buddha and then you become more sad.

That is not the approach because like an example,

The path of the purification in the spiritual journey comes down to the mindfulness of our own body,

Speech and mind.

If you have awareness of the body,

Speech and mind,

That is the foundation of the purification.

If you don't have the awareness of the body,

Speech and mind,

Regardless of whichever the purification you may be doing,

You may be doing in the cultural aspect like your mother did,

Your father did.

So you're doing it on the sake of the culture,

But not in the sense of faith from the bottom of your heart.

So long as that you have a continuation of awareness of the body,

Speech and mind combined together,

Regardless of the length of the practice or the title of the practice,

That is the beginning of your spiritual journey.

And that is the beginning of your progress.

And now when it comes to the progress and the definition of the practice,

It comes down to recognizing the distraction.

Distraction doesn't mean that you should feel guilty every time you're listening to a podcast with the music,

With the science fiction,

Whatever the categories of the things that you're listening.

It doesn't mean that you have to feel guilty every time you find a distraction.

Like an example,

You have a whole day of work in your office.

Maybe you had a big argument with your colleague.

You're coming back with a terrible mood and all you want is just a glass of wine and listen to jazz music and chill.

And then the Buddhist idea in your mind kicks in,

Telling yourself,

You are distracted,

You are terrible,

You are lazy.

You don't have to be that.

If you want to explore and have a little bit of experience in your life,

Have it.

But when you are practicing,

Make sure that is 100% being able to detect the definition of the distraction.

So don't bring too much judgment into your life.

Live the life that you want.

Let the Dharma influence you by itself.

A little bit like a medicine.

Dharma is like a medicine.

People nowadays,

They want to eat medicine.

They want to get the result instantly.

You have to let the medicine work for you.

So that combines two different things.

Teaching is one thing as a medicine.

And your discipline from your mindset is another,

As a vase to receive the nectar,

To receive that purification,

Or like the water to overcome your thirst from your suffering.

So your body and your mind is like the vase,

The Dharma and the teachings of the Buddha and the ultimate truth is like a nectar,

Like a medicine.

To make it work,

Combine together,

It doesn't just require the beautiful teaching,

But also the foundation from your side.

And the foundation of your side as a practitioner,

You have to recognize the subtle distraction and the ordinary distraction.

Like an example,

The ordinary distraction is that when somebody is making a noise,

And then I said,

You know,

Okay,

Who's that making?

What kind of a noise they're making?

What kind of a topic they are discussing?

And I have this eager wanting to know.

That is the ordinary distraction.

Subtle distraction is that you are chanting,

You are meditating,

But you have the absence of the clarity in your mind.

That is the subtle distraction that you have to notice.

If you can maintain that recognition of awareness beyond this two,

Then whatever the practice that you may be doing,

There will be immense result.

And then if you can maintain like that,

You know,

By recognizing the subtle distraction and ordinary distraction,

That means you are very much aware of your own self fixation.

When you have a more awareness of your own self fixation,

Over the time again and again by creating the absence from the self fixation and then you can develop the compassion naturally.

You know,

Many Buddhist people,

They call themselves I am a Buddhist practitioner,

I have to be compassionate.

It doesn't work.

I tried that many times.

Yeah,

It doesn't work.

So the way to be compassionate is to break away from the cycle of self fixation.

If you can overcome your self fixation and the illusion of the state of mind first,

And then you can be truly compassionate to all the sentient being.

But prior to that,

Practicing upon yourself is very important.

And that is not made up by me trying to sound more American and modern to you.

It is in the traditional teaching,

It says first you need to develop your own quality,

Then you can benefit all the sentient being.

So the first to develop your own quality comes down to solitude,

Recognizing the ordinary distraction and the subtle distraction,

Not bringing too much judgment into your life.

Make the distinction between the practice time and your life in the beginning as the practice takes over because the practice is not just sitting down and reading.

When you gradually practice,

You will find the beauty of the solitude,

You will find the joy in it.

And then that sense of joy takes over the importance and the power and the strength of the ordinary distraction.

You just need time for that.

You know,

And you need to let the practice does its own effect by itself over the time and a little bit of element from your side as well.

Does it make sense?

You know,

So you should have and then also we are here right now at the you know,

Buddhist Museum,

Isn't it?

So all of us when we enter Buddhism,

We seek,

I need to find a teacher,

I need to find a guru,

As if that you need to find a partner.

Don't do that.

Don't do that.

You know,

Like an example,

His Holiness Dalai Lama,

You know,

He received the teachings from many different traditions,

Whether it's a Nyingma tradition,

Whether it's a Satchar tradition,

Whether it's a Giluk tradition,

Whether it's a Khaju tradition,

Whether it's Chonan or Shampa,

Doesn't matter.

He has the sense of openness,

Isn't it?

He doesn't have that fixation,

Or he is my guru,

You know,

So don't rush into this idea of the guru.

Just practice the Dharma if you can,

If you want,

You know,

If that is too complex for you,

Start with a calm abiding meditation and analytical meditation and have the received,

You know,

Receive the teachings of His Holiness Dalai Lama,

Which is so much there throughout the internet.

And then,

On the top of that,

When you have a sense of awareness over the time,

When you see the illusion of oneself,

Then you see the cause of suffering and the reality of the suffering and of the self fixation.

When you see that,

Then you see the,

You know,

The reality of the suffering of all the sentient beings.

When you see the reality of the suffering of all others,

Then the compassion arises by itself,

Even you don't want at that stage.

Yeah,

You understand,

Right?

So,

Compassion is not the idea that you should grab.

It's not an emotion that you can catch,

That you like to use.

It is a state of realization.

In the beginning,

You can start with a good faith,

Good heart,

Loving kindness,

As His Holiness Dalai Lama always says,

Loving kindness,

Loving kindness,

We are all one human.

You know,

There's many religion,

But the key essence is to be in harmony,

Right?

So,

Therefore,

We have to understand that that as in foundation,

And then eventually,

Yes,

One second.

Yeah,

So then,

And then eventually,

You know,

We need to understand that finding the Guru is not the priority.

The priority is,

You know,

Maintain your spiritual faith in the teachings of the Dharma,

You know,

Overcome your basic struggle and the challenges and appreciation to the great different teachers.

It will come eventually,

Don't rush it.

The moment you grasp into the idea of I need to find a Guru,

You're asking for a problem.

You look for that,

You will find just like that,

You know.

So,

Therefore,

Keep your mindset open,

Whether it's Mahayana,

Whether it's a Dharavada,

Whether it's a Vajrayana,

Keep the teaching,

You know,

To your heart.

Keep your practice simple.

Don't try to show that you're a Buddhist practitioner to other people,

Because it's not worth it.

You don't need to show it.

If you have it,

People will sense it.

If you don't have it,

You know,

Then you have to,

You know,

Start the game of pretending things,

You know.

And so,

So that's that.

So,

I have five minutes to give you the meditation teaching.

Yeah,

So let's make the five minutes use out of it.

Can you imagine like back in the days where you say,

Guru,

I have 45 minutes.

And then let's learn the meditation in five minutes.

But here at the Board of Directors,

They were saying that all of you have to go back to your engagement and your responsibility.

And it's due to that.

But some of us do,

Some of us don't.

So we have to understand to everybody,

You know,

And I'm not going to disappear after that also,

You know,

We're going to keep in touch anyway.

So this Mahamudra teaching,

Meditation teaching,

Mahamudra teaching is written by the Dakini called Sukhasiddhi.

Sukhasiddhi,

She's a,

She's a great angel,

A great enlightened realized being.

She is the one of the origin of our Shampa lineage.

Like an example in the Buddhist,

In the Buddhist,

Tibetan Buddhist history,

There's a four major branch,

Like the Nyingma,

Saja,

Khaju,

Gelug.

And then there's also other eight branches that has an origin link to the India,

You know,

So all of that has a link to India.

And then the Shampa lineage is one of the eight branches that also has a link to India.

So one of them is a Nyingma.

The Nyingma,

She's also another female,

Great highly realized being.

And then the second one is a Sukhasiddhi.

And nowadays,

People have a little bit of realization and they publish book every year.

Back in the days,

All the great master,

They practice whole life and they produce one page.

So out of one page in five minutes,

I'm going to read a few sentences.

All right.

So whether you're doing a Samatha meditation,

Whether you're doing a deity practice meditation,

At the end of that practice,

Right,

Whichever the practice you may be doing,

Or it can be like a Hatha yoga,

Right?

You're doing your health reason,

You're doing your own regular yoga practice,

You're doing a meditation practice,

Whichever the practice you may be doing.

I have no judgment towards it.

Don't worry.

At the end of that practice,

What you can do is that based on her teaching,

As you sit in the meditation posture,

Meditation posture,

It means keeping your body straight,

Leg doesn't matter whether you keep a cross leg or not.

Just keep it neutral.

The most important is keep your back straight,

Not too stiff.

If you keep back too stiff,

Then you're using your mind too much to concentrate on the physical aspect that is unnecessary.

So keeping your body straight,

That's number one.

Number two is to understand that when you keep your body straight,

The channel within you becomes straight.

When the channel within you becomes straight,

The air that you breathe within the body becomes more accessible.

As the air becomes more accessible,

The mind becomes more in the state of the clarity.

So that is the aspect of the physical principle.

So whether you're keeping your hand on your kneecap,

Or whether you're keeping your hands together like this,

That is your own preference.

Now physical aspect is explained.

Sukhasiddhi she said,

Namkara ringme tongpa la,

Rikjisim gyur tsawa chun,

Tsawa chun la tongpa sho.

So Sukhasiddhi she has mentioned,

Namkara ringme tongpa la.

The sky,

The mind is like a sky,

Like a blue sky,

But the sky does not have a consciousness.

We have a consciousness.

You look at your own consciousness without any sense of desire,

Not even the slightest subtle desire,

Wanting to add,

Wanting to remove,

Wanting to alter,

Wanting to add more,

None of it,

Absent from it,

But in a state of the clarity.

So that is her statement about the nature of the mind.

Now,

In order to bring that into a practical use,

Is that as you sit in the meditation posture at the end of the sequence of whichever the session that you may be doing with the different traditions,

As you're sitting in a meditation posture,

Visualize a central channel through your crown into your heart and visualize the A,

Empty letter,

You know,

The Tibetan letter or the English letter,

Doesn't matter,

A,

In the center of your heart.

As you focus into the A for a few moments,

And at the same time,

At the same time,

You do exhale,

Inhale,

Like an example,

Keeping your hand like this on the kneecap.

When you inhale,

You know,

As you inhale,

I will demonstrate,

You take a look.

And as you inhale like this,

And then keep your air into your diaphragm for a few seconds,

Like one or two seconds.

And then as you stretch your four fingers,

And then exhale your breath.

The most important is to keep the air going in and out through your nose,

Not from your mouth.

Okay,

So exhaling like this,

I will demonstrate to you just observe it.

Then you inhale,

Exhale,

Inhale,

And then by the third time,

And then come back to the normal pace of breathing.

Make sure that your mind is following the sensation of the breath from your nose,

From the strong sensation to the small sensation of the breath that is going to exhale.

And then as you inhale,

Keeping your mind on the sensation of the breath,

Avoid the idea of counting.

And then as you are in this very gentle state of mind,

And then you visualize the AH,

You know,

A H,

Or,

You know,

Or Tibetan letter AH,

Without the AH under,

Just simple AH,

With a crystal like AH,

Transmitting through the central channel through your crown,

And then entering into a space.

As it enter into a space,

Your focus,

Your focus your mind into the state of the AH,

And that AH itself,

From the very big size,

Exiting from your crown to very small size,

As it goes further and further,

As it goes further and further,

You keep your mind into that syllable on and on,

On and on,

On and on,

On,

And after a few seconds later,

Maybe 10 seconds later,

Don't count the second.

And as the AH goes into the space,

As it goes smaller and smaller,

With your mind maintaining your visualization and your awareness.

And then finally,

AH dissolving in into the state of emptiness,

As it dissolve into,

Dissolve into the state of non duality,

And simply meditate your mind in that state.

Don't think about where the AH went,

How the AH went,

Where it should go,

How it should go,

None of it,

Just simply dissolving the AH,

As it goes further and further,

Further and further,

Further and further,

As it dissolve into the space,

And then your mind being in the state of emptiness,

Being in a state of the clarity,

You know,

Then you can repeat again,

Exhale,

Inhale three times,

And then repeating the AH visualization,

And then transmitting to the state of the,

You know,

Into the space,

As it gets smaller and smaller,

Maintaining with your visualization,

That sort of okay.

And then at the end,

You say,

I dedicate all this positivity to all the sentient beings,

And let them find joy and happiness at the end.

And if that is difficult for you,

And then try to focus on the sound based meditation,

Or object based meditation.

Okay,

Don't feel disappointed in yourself.

Spiritual journey is never meant to be perfect.

It's always a bumpy road.

Be prepared for that.

All right,

Keep your practice simple,

Have an openness to all the different traditions.

And that is the most important and I wish you all the best for your spiritual journey,

And many Tashi Delek to Rubin Museum and all the Dharma Brothers and Sisters.

Yeah,

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for that wonderful session.

And thank you for the Sukha Siddhi transmission.

We are so fortunate.

Thank you.

That concludes this week's practice.

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I am Tashi Chodron.

Thank you so much for listening.

Have a mindful day.