To be truly happy in this world is a revolutionary act...It is a radical change of view that liberates us so that we know who we are most deeply and can acknowledge our enormous ability to love. Sharon Salzberg More Quotes by Sharon Salzberg More Quotes From Sharon Salzberg When you're wide open, the world is a good place. Sharon Salzberg good-place wide world Doing nothing means unplugging from the compulsion to always keep ourselves busy, the habit of shielding ourselves from certain feelings, the tension of trying to manipulate our experience before we even fully acknowledge what that experience is. Sharon Salzberg feelings trying mean In Buddhist teaching, ignorance is considered the fundamental cause of violence - ignorance... about the separation of self and other... about the consequences of our actions. Sharon Salzberg buddhist ignorance teaching 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 it to protect others. Sharon Salzberg isolated entity protect The Buddha said that no true spiritual life is possible without a generous heart. . . . Generosity allies itself with an inner feeling of abundance - the feeling that we have enough to share. Sharon Salzberg generosity spiritual heart You should never use the word Karma when talking about someone else, it's only a concept you should apply to yourself as a matter of investigation. Sharon Salzberg karma use talking I've spent quite a bit of my life as a meditation teacher and writer commending the strengths of love and compassion. Sharon Salzberg compassion meditation teacher My earliest experiences in meditation were in a context of intensive retreats. Sharon Salzberg retreat meditation The cultivation of generosity is the beginning of spiritual awakening. Generosity has tremendous force because it arises from an inner quality of letting go. Being able to let go, to give up, to renounce, and to give generously all spring from the same source, and when we practice generosity ... we open up these qualities within ourselves. Sharon Salzberg giving-up spiritual letting-go The meditation traditions I started and have continued practicing have all emphasized inclusivity: anyone can do this who is interested. Sharon Salzberg tradition meditation can-do We all want to be happy. We need to expand the notion of what that means, to make it bigger and wiser. Sharon Salzberg want mean needs What you learn about pain in formal meditation can help you relate to it in your daily life. Sharon Salzberg pain meditation helping The key to cultivating confidence in ourselves is understanding our right to make the truth our own. Sharon Salzberg cultivating understanding keys One of the primary conditions for suffering is denial. Shutting our mind to pain, whether in ourselves or others, only ensures that it will continue. We must have the strength to face it without turning away. By opening to the pain we see around us with wisdom and compassion, we start to experience the intimate connection of our relationship with all beings. Sharon Salzberg pain compassion mind Meditation is not the construction of something foreign, it is not an effort to attain and then hold on to a particular experience. We may have a secret desire that through meditation we will accumulate a stockpile of magical experiences, or at least a mystical trophy or two, and then we will be able to proudly display them for others to see. Sharon Salzberg effort meditation two My ideal registration system would be an opt-out one, where every single person is registered once they turn 18. In Australia, I’m told, everyone is registered to vote and you pay a fine if you don’t vote. Sharon Salzberg australia would-be pay I prefer to think of faith, as Coleridge says of poetry, not as the taking up of belief but as "the willing suspension of disbelief". . . a willingness to be open, to explore, to investigate. Sharon Salzberg belief faith thinking When we practice metta, we open continuously to the truth of our actual experience, changing our relationship to life. Sharon Salzberg metta our-relationship practice Once someone appears to us primarily as an object, kindness has no place to root. Sharon Salzberg objects roots kindness Metta sees truly that our integrity is inviolate, no matter what our life situation may be. We do not need to fear anything. We are whole: our deepest happiness is intrinsic to the nature of our minds, and it is not damaged through uncertainty and change. Sharon Salzberg meditation mind integrity
