Tracy Dennis:

Anxiety, sadness, anger, they’re a feature of being human. I think these conversations about difficult emotions are the single most important kind of conversation we can have right now to improve our lives.

Mark Epstein:

All emotional life is worth paying attention to, and if we can learn how to pay attention to it mindfully, it will liberate itself, and therefore enlighten us.

Raveena Aurora:

Welcome to season 2 of Awaken, a podcast from The Rubin Museum of Art that uses art to explore the dynamic paths to enlightenment and what it means to “wake up.” I’m singer and songwriter Raveena Aurora and I’ll be on this journey with you.

The Rubin is a museum of Himalayan Art, much of which was created specifically to offer pathways towards awakening.

In this second season of AWAKEN, we’ll explore the transformative power of emotions with the help of a Tibetan Buddhist mandala.

Ruth Ozeki:

The mandala really it’s a kind of distillation of…. of that notion of interbeing, interconnectivity.

Raveena Aurora:

With the guidance of scientists, Buddhist teachers, writers, artists, and activists, we’ll wrestle with five challenging emotions—anger, pride, attachment, envy, and ignorance to help us expand our perspective and explore what these emotions might teach us if we get curious.

Madame Gandhi:

I felt this beautiful mix of jealousy and inspiration.

Ruth Ozeki:

You’re holding the feeling, and turning it, and examining it, and transforming it

Mark Epstein:

Learn to hold anger like a baby. You hold it lightly. You hold it lightly.

Raveena Aurora:

When we better understand our emotions, we can then better understand how to make change in ourselves, our communities, and the world around us.

adrienne maree brown:

And I think once we recognize we all have those contradictions then we can begin to get curious with each other– well then, what is our way forward together?

Ponlop Rinpoche:

It can lead us to a sense of into the interconnected nature of the world, through which of course you can’t help but to have a genuine sense of love and compassion towards each other.

Raveena Aurora:

Tune in to season 2 wherever you listen to podcasts or at RubinMuseum.org.

Wake up to what is possible.