Welcome to AWAKEN Season 4

Welcome to Season 4 of AWAKEN—a Webby Honoree podcast about the dynamic path to enlightenment and what it means to “wake up.” Hosted by actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini, this season delves into the complex Buddhist concept of attachment and explores how the practice of letting go of preconceived ideas, beliefs, and idenities can transform our experience of the world. 

Trailer voices in order of appearance: Founder and Director of the Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Founder and Chief Visionary for Healthy Minds Innovations, Inc. Dr. Richie Davidson; author and transformational thought leader Sonya Renee Taylor; contemplative social scientist Eve Ekman; teacher and meditation master in the Bon Buddhist tradition Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche; and scholar of Tibetan Buddhism Annabella Pitkin.

AWAKEN Season 4 will launch on November 12, 2024.

Creators & Guests

Host

Isabella Rossellini

Actress, Model & Filmmaker

What is Awaken?

AWAKEN is a Webby Honoree podcast about the dynamic path to enlightenment and what it means to “wake up.” Throughout the series we dive into the personal stories of guests who share how they’ve experienced a shift in their awareness, and as a result, their perspective on life.

Richie Davidson:
Attachment is operating from a place where your self-identity is somehow tied up with some object or person, and when you are therefore in the absence of this, you crave it.

Sonya Renee Taylor:
Unattachment is sort of synonymous with surrender for me. What am I being asked to let go of? And not even necessarily let go of, but be willing to let go of.

Eve Ekman:
There’s just such a beauty and eloquence of understanding why we want to have this non-attached or non-clinging state. It’s so we can be free.

Isabella Rosselini:
Welcome to season 4 of AWAKEN, a podcast from the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art about the dynamic path to enlightenment and what it means to “wake up.” I am Isabella Rossellini, an actress and filmmaker and your host for this season of AWAKEN, where we are exploring a fundamental concept in Buddhist thinking and philosophy: attachment.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche:
I think according to Buddhism once you are in this world, there’s no way to have no attachment. So just generally, it’s a question about what kind of attachment, what degree of attachment, what the purpose of the attachment is, how constructive and destructive the attachment is. These are I think more important questions.

Isabella Rosselini:
Himalayan art has long been a pathway to insights and awakening, and in this season, we look at objects from the Rubin’s collection as a way to better understand attachment and its counterpoint, non-attachment. With stories and wisdom from artists, writers, Buddhist teachers, psychologists, and others we will explore how letting go of attachments can create space for new ways of seeing, thinking, and being.

Annabella Pitkin:
The real core is this openness, this kind of generosity that can come when we allow ourselves to kind of surrender. And so another way to think about working with attachment is to ask how one could work with attachment more skillfully. How could one be aware of one's attachments and how they come up in our lives?

Isabella Rosselini:
Wake up to what is possible. Tune in to Season 4 of AWAKEN wherever you get your podcasts or at rubinmuseum.org.