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The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art presents a weekly meditation for beginners and skilled meditators alike. Each episode is inspired by a different work of art from the Museum’s collection and is led by a prominent meditation teacher.
The episode begins with an opening talk followed by a 20-minute meditation. In this episode, the guided meditation begins at 16:11.
Teacher: Sharon Salzberg
Theme: Fluidity
Shiva Vishavarupa, Universal form with Consort; Nepal; mid 19th century; pigments on cotton; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2003.20.2
Learn more about the Rubin’s work around the world at rubinmuseum.org.
Creators and Guests
What is Mindfulness Meditation Podcast?
Practice the art of attention in this weekly meditation series presented by the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art—a global museum dedicated to promoting Himalayan art and its insights. Each episode is inspired by an artwork from the Museum’s collection, led by a prominent meditation teacher, and framed around a monthly theme. The sessions are for beginners and skilled meditators alike and include an opening talk and a 20-minute guided meditation. Join us as we learn to quiet the mind, open the heart, and engage with the world more consciously.
Tashi Codron 0:03
Welcome to the mindfulness meditation podcast presented by the Rubin Museum of Himalayan art, a global museum dedicated to bringing greater awareness and understanding of Himalayan art to people around the world. I'm your host. Tashi chaudhur, every Thursday, we offer a meditation session at New York inside meditation center that draws inspiration from an artwork from the Rubens collection, and is led by a prominent meditation teacher. This podcast is a recording of our weekly in person practice. The description of each episode includes information about the theme for that week's session and an image of the related artwork. Our mindfulness meditation podcast is presented in partnership with Sharon Salzberg and teachers from the New York inside 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, so welcome, welcome to The Rubin Museum of Himalayan arts mindfulness meditation program here at this beautiful space at New York inside Meditation Center. I'm Tashi choden Himalayan programs and communities ambassador, and I'm delighted to be a host today. So the Rubin is a global museum dedicated to Himalayan art and its insights, and we are so glad to have all of you join us for this weekly program where we combine art and meditation, inspired by our collection, we will first take a deep look at the work of art we have chosen today. We will then hear a brief talk from our teacher, Sharon Salzberg, who is joining us live. And then we will have a short sit 15 to 20 minutes for the meditation guided by her, we are celebrating 500th episode of the mindfulness meditation podcast. We are hoping, wishing, that many people benefited from each of these podcasts, not just coming in person, but listening to it all over the world. So we are very excited about that, and we are so grateful to you for joining us for this very important milestone. So let's take a look at today's theme and artwork. The artwork for today's session is this beautiful painting of Shiva Vishva Rupa and Shiva Vishva. Rupa is in the universal form with his concert. This is origin from Nepal, dated 19th century, mineral pigments on cloth. And this is about 63 and a half into 38 1/8 inches. Now, in terms of the esthetic, how you can identify that this is a Nepalese art is when you see that red on red. So this month, we are exploring on the theme of fluidity. And this painting depicts Shiva and his concert Shakti, also in many different names, but one of the most popular and common is Parvati as well. The interplay of creation of destruction serves as a reminder of the constant fluidity of the universe, looking at the shiva's form, the fluidity of dancing form in the center. And Shiva is one of the Hinduism's major deities. He takes many forms, including as an ascetic destroyer, conqueror of death, and then Cosmic Dancer. This painting presents him as Vishva Rupa, which means universal form or form of the world. There are a seemingly infinite number of Shivas on the canvas and multiple hands and many heads conveying the principle that the entire world is in motion in an eternal, cosmic dance. Shiva embraces his female concert, Parvati, also known as Shakti, who is in complete harmony at him both have a multitude of heads and arms indicating their infinite vision and reach. One connection I wanted to highlight is that Shiva is known in this very powerful form in Tibetan, he's known as La Chen or LA Wang chump. La Chen means Mahadev, and he's also known as Mahadev in the Hinduism and in Sanskrit name as well. And the most cosmologically. Significant protector deity in the entire Tibetan Buddhist pantheon. So I do recall in the prayers, especially in the eight noble auspicious prayers, shiva's name is recited for power and for protection. So with that, let's bring on our teacher for today. Our teacher is Sharon Salzberg, co founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Bury Massachusetts, has guided meditation retreats worldwide since 1974 her latest books are real life, the journey from isolation to openness and freedom and finding your way, meditations, thoughts and wisdom for living an authentic life. She is a weekly columnist for on being a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and the author of several other books, including The New York Times bestseller, real happiness, the power of meditation, real change, mindfulness to heal ourselves and the world faith, trusting your own deepest experience and loving kindness, the revolutionary art of happiness. And then I have a big news just found out that her new book for children, kind Carl a little crocodile with big feelings, it will be launched on December 9, so please help me in welcoming Sharon Salzberg, Sharon, thank you so much for being here.
Sharon Salzberg 6:35
Hey, thank you so much,
Sharon Salzberg 6:39
and it's a great delight to be helping celebrate the 500th session. It's just kind of amazing, isn't it, the passage of time, and I'm going to talk a little bit about fluidity, and often it's opposite. And then we're going to get a chance to sit together, which is just delightful. It's pouring rain. As you know, those of you who've been out in New York City in it, and there's something going on in my hallway that's very noisy, so we're just going to be fluid and see what, what evolves so often. You know, in my Buddhist training, you could say my education within Buddhism when we're trying to understand something that's positive, that's aspirational, that's a possibility for us, you actually start with Looking at the obstacle, and some people find that discouraging or depressing, but I always enjoyed it, because I thought that's what's real. You know, if we're talking about different states of insight or experience in meditation, and you're just falling asleep all the time, I preferred someone to be talking about sleepiness, because then I felt included, and it was it was important. And part of that understanding is that when we look at the obstacle honestly, and we relate to it differently than the thing we want, the thing we dream of, the thing we yearn for, will appear all by itself. So it's not a question of manufacturing something or forcing something, but let's look at the barriers help them dissolve, and then we're there. And so when I think of fluidity, the first thing I think of actually, is what holds me back. When do I feel stuck? When does the challenge that I'm facing feel most oppressive, most solid, most real and and that is often because of the kind of our old favorites of reactivity, grasping, aversion and delusion. When we grasp we hold on, we also, in a way, solidify the thing we're holding on to. Right? If I can, if I can stay in control, if I can seize it, it will be here forever. And yet, of course, nothing is forever. It has the very nature of dissolution, of change, of movement. But we're not kind of allowing ourselves to see that as as we grasp, as we hold on, when we're full of aversion, which is anger and fear. Anger or fear. You know, we're striking out against what's happening almost another kind of strange control thing, like, if I can push it away enough, it's not going to be here. It's going to disappear. It will never have been here. It will be. It will be gone. I will have annihilated it. And we push and we push, and as we push, whatever we're facing gets more solid, more intense, more of a kind of we would call it an enemy, you know, it's got it's got contours that we can't see the changing nature. We can't see the transparency and so on. And then there's delusion, which is one way of understanding. Delusion is disconnection. Something happens, something arises, an emotion, a thought, a situation, a conversation, and we just want to shut down, right? In effect, we want to take a nap. You know, it's like, let me just protect myself from facing, acknowledging what is actually going on. And in doing that, the challenge, the conversation, the situation actually starts to seem more and more solid, unchanging, impermeable, oppressive, right? More of a problem. And so one of my meditation teachers, named Sonny Rinpoche. He once said, The thoughts that arise are not the problem, it's the glue, right? They're very beautiful images within the Tibetan tradition, like the thoughts and feelings that come up in your mind are like clouds moving through the sky. Some are kind of light and fluffy, some are kind of ominous looking, but they're all just this sort of transitory movement. It's the flow of life, right? And we have different experiences at different times, but it's all in this kind of constantly changing panorama of experiences. But when we glue, we hold on, we grasp or aversion, which is its own kind of grasping, like I can't stand this. I have to push this away. That's not how we're perceiving our experience, right? That's why it becomes burdensome, and we don't need to judge our thoughts, our feelings, our reactions, even because if we can relate differently to them, then there's no glue. So rather than say, being appalled at yourself because something came up in your mind, I mean, you're sitting there, as we're about to do, minding your own business. You know nobody's bothering you about anything, and then this scenario comes up in your mind, and you're kind of haunted by it, and it's terrible. You didn't ask for it. You can't control it. You don't have to be ashamed of it. You don't have to freak out about it. Let's relate differently to what has come up, so that we can see that kind of changing nature, the flow, right? And once we see the changing nature of something, there's, of course, a poignancy to that. There's plenty we want to hold on to, but it's not going to last. But it's also in in tuning into change in a fluid way. We're also opening the door to creativity, to what these days people call responsiveness rather than reactivity,
Sharon Salzberg 13:35
to possibility,
Sharon Salzberg 13:38
because if everything is static and unyielding and fixed. We're sunk right once we can tune into change, we're actually tuning into life itself, and we feel the force of that in all the sense of doors opening and possibility that happens. So rather than feeling we have to kind of reach for something that we can't quite sense is happening. It's relating differently to what is happening. And Tashi mentioned kind Carl inspired me, which is the children's book coming out in December. Inspired me to read you a passage. It's, it's got really, really cute illustrations, but I can't, um,
Sharon Salzberg 14:30
explain them. So Carl is a crocodile, um,
Sharon Salzberg 14:35
and he's, he's kind of grumpy, as one might expect. And then he, he learns to deal with his thoughts differently, and also learns loving kindness. So he goes through some experience at school. It's kind of unpleasant, and then it says back home, Carl felt pretty deflated. Nobody likes me. He thought I'm stupid. He thought I. Crocodiles just can't be kind, he thought, but then he paused, where did those thoughts come from? Those ideas weren't true. I had three friends show up for my birthday party. I can do fractions standing on my head, and I help my mom brush her teeth every night. As Carl noticed this, he pictured the thoughts drifting away on clouds, and you see these, these clouds, I'm stupid. Nobody likes me. Crocodiles can't be kind drifting away. Just picturing this made Carl feel better. After that, Carl started to question more thoughts in his mind, and he decided to be a little kinder to himself. And then it just kind of goes on from there. So that's sort of the point, you know, everything will arise in our minds, just like in our lives. We can relate differently, and that is our entree into openness, fluidity, change, creativity, deciding. You know, that's an old pattern that's not that helpful. Let me let it float away and come back to what I really sense is is most important. Okay, let's practice together. You can sit comfortably, close your eyes or not. We're going to use the feeling, or the sensation of the breath
Sharon Salzberg 16:29
as a resting place.
Sharon Salzberg 16:33
You can find the place where your breath is clearest for you or strongest for you, maybe the nostrils, the chest or the abdomen.
Sharon Salzberg 16:43
Bring your attention there and just rest.
Sharon Salzberg 16:50
See if you can feel one breath
Sharon Salzberg 16:54
without concern for what's already gone by, without leaning forward for even the very next breath, just this one.
Speaker 3 17:00
If you like, you can use a quiet mental notation and like in out, arising falling, to help support the awareness of the breath, but very quiet,
Sharon Salzberg 17:30
so your attention is really Going to feeling the breath one breath at a time.
Sharon Salzberg 19:05
As thoughts come and go, Feelings come and go, sensations come and go. Remember you don't have to hold on to them. Build a whole self image around them, judge them,
Sharon Salzberg 19:24
allow them to rise and pass away.
Sharon Salzberg 19:43
If you find yourself lost in thought, all tangled up in a fantasy, or you fall asleep, truly, you don't have to worry about that. Can recognize that that's a moment where we have the opportunity to gently let go. And shepherd our attention back to the feeling of the breath. If you have to let go and begin again lots of times, it's perfectly fine.
Sharon Salzberg 27:25
And when you feel ready, you can open your eyes or lift your gaze, and we'll end the meditation.
Sharon Salzberg 27:49
Thank you.
Tashi Codron 27:56
Thank you so much for that beautiful session. Sharon, I had a smile on my face when you spoke about the different clouds and the fluffy ones and whatnot, because we have this rain with a very different sky here.
Sharon Salzberg 28:13
Thank you.
Tashi Codron 28:19
That concludes this week's practice. To support the Rubin and this meditation series, we invite you to become a friend of the Rubin at rubinmuseum.org/friends, if you are looking for more inspiring content, please check out our other podcast, awaken, which uses art to explore the dynamic paths to enlightenment and what it means to wake up available wherever you listen to podcasts and to learn more about the Rubin Museum's work around the world. Visit rubinmuseum.org, thank you for listening. Have a mindful day. You