Sharon Salzberg > Quotes

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
― Sharon Salzberg

“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.”
― Sharon Salzberg

“It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn't depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn't depend on how long you've held on to the old view.

When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn't matter whether its been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades.

The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn't see before.

Its never too late to take a moment to look.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“Sometimes we think that to develop an open heart, to be truly loving and compassionate, means that we need to be passive, to allow others to abuse us, to smile and let anyone do what they want with us. Yet this is not what is meant by compassion. Quite the contrary. Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, and to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal. To develop this mind state of compassion...is to learn to live, as the Buddha put it, with sympathy for all living beings, without exception.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

“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.”
― Sharon Salzberg

“Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“We need the courage to learn from our past and not live in it.”
― Sharon Salzberg, The Force of Kindness: Change Your Life with Love & Compassion

“Restore your attention or bring it to a new level by dramatically slowing down whatever you're doing.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“The difference between misery and happiness depends on what we do with our attention.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

“Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; you can use it anywhere, anytime, unobtrusively.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“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.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

“Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.”
― Sharon Salzberg

“Mindfulness isn't difficult, we just need to remember to do it.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“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.”
― Sharon Salzberg, The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Programme for Real Happiness

“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”
― Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

“We often get caught up in our own reactions and forget the vulnerability of the person in front of us.”
― Sharon Salzberg, The Force of Kindness: Change Your Life with Love & Compassion

“By engaging in a delusive quest for happiness, we bring only suffering upon ourselves. In our frantic search for something to quench our thirst, we overlook the water all around us and drive ourselves into exile from our own lives. ”
― Sharon Salzberg

“You are capable of so much more than we usually dare to imagine”
― Sharon Salzberg

“If we fall, we don't need self-recrimination or blame or anger - we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to re-commit, to be whole-hearted once again.”
― Sharon Salzberg

“Forgiveness is a personal process that doesn’t depend on us having direct contact with the people who have hurt us.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

“We don’t need any sort of religious orientation to lead a life that is ethical, compassionate & kind.”
― Sharon Salzberg, The Force of Kindness: Change Your Life with Love & Compassion

“Mindfulness, also called wise attention, helps us see what we’re adding to our experiences, not only during meditation sessions but also elsewhere.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“For all of us, love can be the natural state of our own being; naturally at peace, naturally connected, because this becomes the reflection of who we simply are.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

“To reteach a thing its loveliness is the nature of metta. Through lovingkindness, everyone & everything can flower again from within.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

“Loving kindness is a form of love that truly is an ability, and, as research scientists have show, it can be learned. It is the ability to take some risks with our awareness-to look at ourselves and others with kindness instead of reflexive criticism; to include in our concern those to whom we normally pay no attention; to care for ourselves unconditionally instead of thinking, "I will love myself as long as I never make a mistake." It is the ability to gather our attention and really listen to others, even those we've written off as not worth our time. It is the ability to see the humanity in people we don't know and the pain in people we find difficult.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“We long for permanence but everything in the known universe is transient. That’s a fact but one we fight.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“The key in letting go is practice. Each time we let go, we disentangle ourselves from our expectations and begin to experience things as they are.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

“To offer our hearts in faith means recognizing that our hearts are worth something, that we ourselves, in our deepest and truest nature, are of value.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

“We’re capable of much more than mediocrity, much more than merely getting by in this world.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

“We use mindfulness to observe the way we cling to pleasant experiences & push away unpleasant ones.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation