Mindfulness Meditation With Michel Pascal 10/19/2023

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 and Tashi Delek.

Welcome to Mindfulness Meditation at the Rubin Museum of Art.

I am Tashi Chodron,

Himalayan Programs and Communities Ambassador,

And I'm so happy 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.

Guided by our collection,

We will first take a look at work of art.

We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher,

Michel Pascal,

And then we will have a short sit,

15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by him.

We will then take just a few questions.

Now let's take a look at today's theme and artwork.

We are exploring the theme of liberation this month,

And the art connection for today's session is this beautiful Amitayus,

Origin Tibet,

19th century,

23 into 18 mineral pigment on cloth.

The connection to the theme,

Amitayus embodies the potential for limitless life and wisdom,

Which are essential components of liberation.

The description of this beautiful artwork,

This is Amitayus,

Known as Tse-pa-me in Tibetan word,

The Buddha of limitless life,

A Sambhogakaya subtle body of Amitabha Buddha,

Which is Hu-pa-me,

The Buddha of limitless light.

The name Amitayus means the enlightened one of immeasurable life.

He's also known as the Lord of limitless life and pristine awareness.

Both Amitabha Buddha and Amitayus Buddha are portrayed with red bodies.

Amitabha Buddha holds a bowl,

Whereas Amitayus has the adornments of a Bodhisattva.

His gently smiling face gazes with compassion at all beings.

He is mostly depicted sitting in Vajra position and holding in his hands a vase filled with the nectar of immortality.

Amitayus is also one of the three deities of long life known as Tse-la-nam-tsum in Tibetan word.

Now let's bring on our teacher for today.

Our teacher today is Michelle Pascal.

Michelle Pascal,

A meditation teacher for 25 years,

Has led successful programs for prisoners which helped prevent suicides and reduce re-offending.

He's written 20 books on spirituality,

Including Meditation for Daily Stress,

10 Practices for Immediate Well-Being,

Known as the Medicine Voice.

He's performed at Carnegie Hall and he played at the Peace Day concert in Times Square this September.

On December 10th of this year,

He will present his methods at the United Nations.

Michelle,

Thank you so much for being here.

Please help me in welcoming Michelle Pascal.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

It means all I can say today,

All I can think,

All I can sing,

Be full of love.

Om Mani Padme Hum.

Good afternoon,

Tashi Delek,

To each of you.

We need to calm our mind more than ever.

And I am so grateful to be here.

Thank you,

Tim.

Thank you,

Tashi.

Thank you,

Jacqueline.

Thank you to each of you to organize this moment.

We need to calm our mind,

Especially in our world today.

But the question is,

How can we calm our mind when we are unable to calm our mind?

Microsoft make a research.

The duration of attention today,

It is seven seconds in person,

Three seconds online.

How can we be focused on our breath when we are unable to be focused seven seconds?

So I remember my Rinpoche,

Chepa Dorje Rinpoche.

This is a lineage of Shatral Rinpoche.

And when Tashi show you the release of the fishes,

This is what Shatral Rinpoche did.

So my Rinpoche say all the time,

Michelle,

Meditation,

It's more than a technique.

It's a transmission of energy,

A transmission of energy.

We tune the energy.

So when we sing,

When we guide,

This is what we will do today.

You can feel the magnetic fields are different.

Our energy is different.

So how to calm the mind today?

I want to share with you one practice that I practice every day.

It's a very efficient practice.

This is to dissolve our negative thought.

When the negative thought appear,

Everyone,

We feel negative thoughts.

So the key of this practice,

At the moment you feel the beginning of the negative thought,

Immediately you dissolve the negative thought.

What is a negative thought?

What is an emotion?

An emotion,

It's like a cloud in the sky of our mind.

When I say that,

It's not only poetic,

It's a reality.

We are made of sky.

We have the same particle that you can find anywhere in the sky.

So in the practice,

We visualize the beginning of our bad emotion or dark thought like a little cloud,

A dark cloud in the sky,

Like a little dark point in our mind,

Like a cyst,

A little point.

And immediately with the practice,

We dissolve this negative thought at the moment it starts.

And the key also of this practice,

It's to practice when we have no negative thought,

When we are OK.

Because we train by simulation to be ready when the negative thought will appear.

This is the same approach that we have when we train the pilot of a plane.

You know,

They have a simulator,

And they try to train in case of they can have a crash.

We can do the same with our mind.

We train our mind to dissolve when the negative thought appears.

And if you do that,

Naturally,

Day by day,

Your brain will remember.

I say that because this is one of the practices that we do with the prisoners of Los Angeles.

And we have zero suicide.

Zero suicide for 10 years with the population the most affected by mental health.

Because we train this practice at the moment it starts inside of you,

Fear,

Anxiety,

Violence.

We visualize it's a cloud.

And so let's practice together.

And just we close our eyes.

We are sitting down in a comfortable position.

And we see our mind.

Our mind is like a sky,

A pure blue sky.

And we visualize,

We picture that we start to feel a negative thought.

Like a little dark cloud in the sky of our mind.

A very little dark point,

Dark cloud.

We breathe in like a wind.

And we dissolve this dark.

We visualize our mind like a sky.

And we see the beginning of a negative thought that we can feel.

In our heart,

In our mind,

In our cells.

Because every cell of our body is connected to our cortex,

To our brain.

So any negative thought is in our cells.

So we see this dark point like a dark cloud.

We breathe in like a wind.

And we dissolve it.

No thoughts,

No cloud.

Our mind is a pure vacuity.

Let's go deeper in our meditation.

When we visualize the beginning of a negative thought like a dark point,

We can visualize this dark point in the left part of our brain.

We can see mentally a dark point in our brain,

On the left part of our brain.

Let's dissolve mentally this dark point,

This negative thought.

We breathe in like a wind.

And we dissolve the dark in a profound peace.

No negative thought,

No clouds.

Our mind is like a pure blue in silence.

One second.

Two.

Four.

Five seconds.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

Ten seconds in eternity.

Ten seconds in pure vacuity.

Peace inside of us and around us.

We are in New York City.

Millions of people around us.

But here at this moment,

At the Rubin Museum,

We are in the profound.

We go back home.

And we can sing.

Omani Padme Om.

And we can open our eyes.

Omani Padme Om.

Omani Padme Om.

Omani Padme Om.

Omani,

Omani Padme Om.

And we can sing all together.

Omani,

Omani Padme Om.

Omani Padme Om.

Omani,

Omani Padme Om.

And we send our prayer to everyone in New York City.

Omani,

Sing.

Sing.

Omani,

Omani,

Omani Padme Om.

And from the Rubin,

We send all our love to everyone in the world at this moment who suffer from the war,

From all what's happening in the world.

Omani Padme Om.

Sing more music.

Omani Padme Om.

Thank you so much to each of you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for that,

Michel.

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.