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It is so powerful when we can leave behind our ordinary identities, no longer think of ourselves primarily as a conductor, or writer, or salesclerk, and go to a supportive environment to deeply immerse in meditation practice.

Sharon Salzberg

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Sharon Salzberg
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: August 5
Author
Writer
New York City
New York
Thinking
Behind
Conductor
Writer
Primarily
Longer
Supportive
Leave
Deeply
Environment
Identity
Practice
Meditation
Powerful
Ordinary
Immerse
Think
Behinds
Identities

More quotes by Sharon Salzberg

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Some people have a mistaken idea that all thoughts disappear through meditation and we enter a state of blankness. There certainly are times of great tranquility when concentration is strong and we have few, if any, thoughts. But other times, we can be flooded with memories, plans or random thinking. It's important not to blame yourself.
Sharon Salzberg
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Some things hurt, you know, and there's pain. But we magnify the suffering of it often, I think, by our reactions.
Sharon Salzberg
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An ordinary favor we do for someone or any compassionate reaching out may seem to be going nowhere at first, but may be planting a seed we can't see right now. Sometimes we need to just do the best we can and then trust in an unfolding we can't design or ordain.
Sharon Salzberg
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From the Buddhist point of view, it is true that emptiness is a characteristic of all of life - if we look carefully at any experience we will find transparency, insubstantiality, with no solid, unchanging core to our experience. But that does not mean that nothing matters.
Sharon Salzberg
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Because the development of inner calm and energy happens completely within and isn't dependent on another person or a particular situation, we begin to feel a resourcefulness and independence that is quite beautiful - and a huge relief.
Sharon Salzberg
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Everyone's mind wanders, without doubt, and we always have to start over. Everyone resists or dislikes the thought of or is too tired to meditate at times, and we have to be able to begin again.
Sharon Salzberg
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My experience working with lots of creative people is that they don't lose their artistic edge when they lose a fierce level of anguish. They just create from a different place.
Sharon Salzberg
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Meditation may be done in silence & stillness, by using voice & sound, or by engaging the body in movement. All forms emphasize the training of attention.
Sharon Salzberg
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The meditation traditions I started and have continued practicing have all emphasized inclusivity: anyone can do this who is interested.
Sharon Salzberg
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We can learn the art of fierce compassion - redefining strength, deconstructing isolation and renewing a sense of community, practicing letting go of rigid us-vs.-them thinking - while cultivating power and clarity in response to difficult situations.
Sharon Salzberg
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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
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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
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Mindfulness needs to not be judgmental to really be mindfulness, which means it needs a basis of loving kindness.
Sharon Salzberg
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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
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We need the compassion and the courage to change the conditions that support our suffering. Those conditions are things like ignorance, bitterness, negligence, clinging, and holding on.
Sharon Salzberg
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Meditation is a cyclical process that defies analysis, but demands acceptance.
Sharon Salzberg
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Restore your attention or bring it to a new level by dramatically slowing down whatever you're doing.
Sharon Salzberg
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Our practice rather than being about killing the ego is about simply discovering our true nature.
Sharon Salzberg
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Someone who has experienced trauma also has gifts to offer all of us - in their depth, their knowledge of our universal vulnerability, and their experience of the power of compassion.
Sharon Salzberg
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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.
Sharon Salzberg