Quotes from Sharon Salzberg

Cultivate the good. One can cultivate the good. If it were not possible, I would not ask you to do it. If this cultivation were to bring harm and suffering, I would not ask you to do it. But as this cultivation brings benefit and happiness, I say, cultivate the good.

in this world is a revolutionary act because true happiness depends upon a revolution in ourselves. 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. We are liberated by the truth that every single one of us can take the time and pay attention; we

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It is a great happiness to be able to give.

The simple act of being completely present to another person is truly an act of love

The unconscious mind is a vast repository of experiences and associations that sorts things out much faster than the slow-moving conscious mind.

May you live with ease, May you be happy, May you be free from pain.

The personal power of being confident and clear about our actions and saying what we know without holding back is described in the texts as 'the lions roar.

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Maybe what we really need is to change our relationship to what is, to see who we are with the strength of a generous spirit & a wise heart.

a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust

Assumptions block direct experience and prevent us from gathering information that could bring us comfort and relief, or information that, though saddening and painful, will allow us to make better decisions.

Great fullness of being, which we experience as happiness, can also be described as love. To be undivided and unfragmented, to be completely present, is to love. To pay attention is to love.

When your attention is diffuse, it's like a broad, weak beam of light that doesn't reveal much. Concentration brings the weak beam down to a single, sharply focused, supremely bright, exponentially more illuminating point.

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

We are bombarded with media images of weddings, engagement rings, parties, and flowers, but this is not love. Love is defined by difficult acts of human compassion and generosity.

Oh, Marty"—as in Martin Luther King, Jr.—"used to say to me, 'You have to love everybody.' And I would say, 'No, I don't. I'm only going to love the people that deserve to be loved.' And Marty would laugh and say, 'No, no, no. You have to love everybody.

Loving yourself is holding yourself accountable to be the best you can be in your life.

Real Love for ourselves by definition includes every aspect of our lives—the good, the bad, the difficult, the challenging past, the uncertain future, as well as all the shameful, upsetting experiences and encounters we'd just as soon forget.

I'm sponsoring you to have the best life you can, and you're sponsoring me. We are co-sponsors. We regard our time together as a collaborative effort to make life better for each of us.

The simple act of being completely attentive and present to another person is an act of love, and it fosters unshakeable well-being. It is happiness that isn't bound to a particular situation, happiness that can withstand change.

Instead of walking around with the feeling that we do not have enough, that there is never enough, that we are not enough, we can recognize that the world is in fact magically providing, with just what it is providing.

I believe that there is only one kind of love—real love—trying to come alive in us despite our limiting assumptions, the distortions of our culture, and the habits of fear, self-condemnation, and isolation that we tend to acquire just by living a life.

Beginning again and again is the actual practice, not a problem to be overcome so that one day we can come to the real meditation.