Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzbergis a New York Times Best selling author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in the West. In 1974, she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. Her emphasis is on vipassanāand mettāmethods, and has been leading meditation retreats around the world for over three decades. All of these methods have their origins in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Her books include Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, A Heart as Wide as...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
Once someone appears to us primarily as an object, kindness has no place to root.
In a single moment we can understand we are not just facing a knee pain, or our discouragement and our wishing the sitting would end, but that right in the moment of seeing that knee pain, we're able to explore the teachings of the Buddha. What does it mean to have a painful experience? What does it mean to hate it, and to fear it?
Things don't just happen in this world of arising and passing away. We don't live in some kind of crazy, accidental universe. Things happen according to certain laws, laws of nature. Laws such as the law of karma, which teaches us that as a certain seed gets planted, so will that fruit be.
Our path, our sense of spirituality demands great earnestness, dedication, sincerity & continuity.
As we work to reweave the strands of connection, we can be supported by the wisdom and lovingkindness of others.
Every single moment is expressive of the truth of our lives when we know how to look.
Distraction wastes our energy, concentration restores it.
The key to cultivating confidence in ourselves is understanding our right to make the truth our own.
Our practice rather than being about killing the ego is about simply discovering our true nature.
The meditation traditions I started and have continued practicing have all emphasized inclusivity: anyone can do this who is interested.
Meditation is a tool for helping us accept the profound fact that everything changes all the time.
Detachment is not about refusing to feel or not caring or turning away from those you love. Detachment is profoundly honest, grounded firmly in the truth of what is.
Meditation trains the mind the way physical exercise strengthens the body.
When we see the relatedness of ourselves to the universe, that we do not live as isolated entities, untouched by what is going on around us, not affecting what is going on around us, when we see through that, that we are interrelated, then we can see that to protect others is to protect ourselves, and to protect ourselves is to protect others.