Sharon Salzberg Quotes - Page 3

The simple act of being completely attentive & present to another person is an act of love, and it fosters unshakeable well-being.

Though it may seem counter intuitive to our inner perfectionist, recognizing our mistakes as valuable lessons (not failures) helps us lay the groundwork for later success.

The costs of keeping secrets include our growing isolation due to fear of detection and the ways we shut down inside to avoid feeling the effects of our behavior. We can never afford to be truly seen and known—even by ourselves.

Respecting differences while gaining insight into our essential connected-ness, we can free ourselves from the impulse to rigidly categorize the world in terms of narrow boundaries and labels.

Mindfulness isn't difficult, we just need to remember to do it.

The breath is the first tool for opening the space between the story you tell yourself about love.

These are times when sympathetic joy comes naturally, but in a complex relationship the heart may not leap up so easily.

When we do our best to treat others with kindness, it’s often a struggle to determine which actions best express our love and care for ourselves.

Through meditation we come to know that we are dying & being reborn in every moment.

Intellectually, we may appreciate that loving ourselves would give us a firm foundation but for most of us this is a leap of logic, not a leap of the heart.

Setting the intention to practice kindness toward one’s partner or family members or friends does not preclude getting angry or upset.

The good news is that opportunities for love enter our lives unpredictably, whether or not we’ve perfected self-compassion or befriended our inner critic.

Learning to treat ourselves lovingly may at first feel like a dangerous experiment.

It takes a special courage to challenge the rigid confines of our accustomed story. It’s not easy to radically alter our views about where happiness comes from but it’s eminently possible.

We live in a network of inter connectivity.

The mind thinks thoughts that we don't plan. It's not as if we say, 'At 9:10 I'm going to be filled with self-hatred.

Real love allows for failure and suffering.

Love seems to open and expand us right down to the cellular level, while fear causes us to contract and withdraw into ourselves.

Taking in another’s criticism, even when it’s offered out of love, requires courage.

Whatever language we use use to describe healthy relationships, when we’re in them, we feel nourished by them, in body as well as mind.

With our close friends, family members, and lovers, we hope to create a special world, one in which we can expect to be treated fairly, with care, tenderness, and compassion.

In reality, love is fluid; it’s a verb, not a noun.

With mindfulness, loving kindness, and self-compassion, we can begin to let go of our expectations about how life and those we love should be.

It is a state of peace to be able to accept things as they are. This is to be at home in our own lives. We see that this universe is much too big to hold on to, but it is the perfect size for letting go. Our hearts and minds become that big, and we can actually let go. This is the gift of equanimity.

Not everyone wants to take up meditation, but most people can feel an alignment with values like mutual respect, insightful investigation, listening to one another.Meditation is a way to help those values become real in day-to-day life, helping people to understand themselves more and more and have a way to not get lost in old patterns.

We exercise kindness in any moment when we recognize our shared humanity—with all the hopes, dreams, joys, disappointments, vulnerability, and suffering that implies.

Self-love is an unfolding process that gains strength over time, not a goal with a fixed end point.

You can see your thoughts and emotions arise & create space for them even if they are uncomfortable.

If you’re reading these words, perhaps it’s because something has kicked open the door for you, and you’re ready to embrace change. It isn’t enough to appreciate change from afar, or only in the abstract, or as something that can happen to other people but not to you. We need to create change for ourselves, in a workable way, as part of our everyday lives.

Buddha first taught metta meditation as an antidote: as a way of surmounting terrible fear when it arises.

If we truly loved ourselves, we’d never harm another. That is a truly revolutionary, celebratory mode of self-care.

Many strong emotions are actually intricate tapestries woven of various strands.

Meditation trains the mind the way physical exercise strengthens the body.

The causes of familial discord and distance are countless, but the results are often the same: secrecy, blame, sadness, hurt, confusion, and feelings of loss and grief.

Whether we fear the existence of boundaries with others or crave more of them, there’s no denying that individuation and separation are inevitable parts of loving relationships that become the site of tension.

Awareness levels the playing field. We are all humans doing the best we can.

Every single moment is expressive of the truth of our lives when we know how to look.

A relationship is the union of two psychological systems.

Being happy at work is possible for all of us, anytime & anywhere, with open eyes and a caring heart

Effort is the unconstrained willingness to persevere through difficulty.

With a clear intention and a willing spirit, sooner or later we experience the joy and freedom that arises when we recognize our common humanity with others and see that real love excludes no one.

If we stretch ourselves to open our minds, to see our shared humanity with others, we allow ourselves to see the existence of community and generosity in unexpected places.

Letting go is actually a healthy foundation upon which we can open up to real love—to giving, receiving, and experiencing it authentically and organically.

Sometimes kindness is stepping aside, letting go of our need to be right & just being happy for someone.

Even when we do our very best to treat those close to us with utmost respect and understanding, conflict happens. That’s life. That’s human nature.

All of our actions can signify self-love or self-sabotage

No matter what we think we should do, I don’t think you can coerce yourself into loving your neighbor—or your boss—when you can’t stand him. But if you try to understand your feelings of dislike with mindfulness and compassion, being sure not to forget self-compassion, you create the possibility for change.

You are a person worthy of love. You don’t have to do anything to prove that.

When we can step back even briefly from our hurt, sorrow, and anger, when we put our faith in the possibility of change, we create the possibility for non-judgmental inquiry that aims for healing rather than victory.

All beings want to be happy, yet so very few know how. It is out of ignorance that any of us cause suffering, for ourselves or for others

By practicing meditation we establish love, compassion, sympathetic joy & equanimity as our home.

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

If we turn away from our own pain, we may find ourselves projecting this aversion onto others, seeing them as somehow inadequate for being in a troubled situation.

When we forgive someone, we don’t pretend that the harm didn’t happen or cause us pain. We see it clearly for what it was, but we also come to see that fixating on the memory of harm generates anger and sadness.

Cultivation of positive emotions, including self-love and self-respect, strengthens our inner resources and opens us to a broader range of thoughts and actions.

Compassion grows in us when we know how the energy of love is available all around us.

Wherever the responsibility lies, shame creates a solid and terrible feeling of unworthiness that resides in our bodies: the storehouse of the memories of our acts, real or imagined, and the secrets we keep about them.

Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; you can use it anywhere, anytime, unobtrusively.

Metta is the ability to embrace all parts of ourselves, as well as all parts of the world. Practicing metta illuminates our inner integrity because it relieves us of the need to deny different aspects of ourselves. We can open to everything with the healing force of love. When we feel love, our mind is expansive and open enough to include the entirety of life in full awareness, both its pleasures and its pains, we feel neither betrayed by pain or overcome by it, and thus we can contact that which is undamaged within us regardless of the situation. Metta sees truly that our integrity is inviolate, no matter what our life situation may be.

Healing comes in many ways, and no one formula fits all.