Quotes from Sharon Salzberg

Sometimes people in abusive situations think they're responsible for the other person's happiness or that they're going to fix them and make them feel better. The practice of equanimity teaches that it's not all up to you to make someone else happy.

In order to free ourselves from our assumptions about love, we must ask ourselves what long-held, often buried assumptions are and then face them, which takes courage, humility, and kindness.

Letting go of the belief that we're powerless to help relieve our own suffering enhances our ability not only to heal but also to genuinely love and receive the love of others.

Until we begin to question our basic assumptions about ourselves and view them as fluid, not fixed, it's easy to repeat established patterns and, out of habit, reenact old stories that limit our ability to live and love ourselves with an open heart.

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

Meditation is not about what's happening, it is about how we're relating to what's happening.

The notion of loving oneself has gotten an undeservedly bad rap, which goes something like this: self-love is narcissistic, selfish, self-indulgent, the supreme delusion of a runaway ego looking out for "number one." In fact, just the opposite is true.

We live in a network of inter connectivity.

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

When we are willing to explore our own experiences, we open the doorway to deeper connection and intimacy.

Although much of the work we do in committed relationships we do with our partners, sometimes it's necessary to start with ourselves.

Every time we forget to breathe or our minds wander or we're hijacked by feelings or sensations, we gently bring ourselves back to the breath, again and again.

So often, fear keeps us from being able to say yes to love—perhaps our greatest challenge as human beings.

In more ways than any of us can name, love is wrapped up with the idea of expectation.

We are born ready to love and be loved. It is our birthright.

Each opportunity to interrupt the onslaught of thoughts and return to the object of meditation is, in fact, a moment of enlightenment

There is a sentiment common among most of us when it comes to love—letting go can feel scary.

Living in a story of a limited self—to any degree—is not love.

When we don't allow setbacks to defeat us, they become opportunities for learning, acceptance, flexibility, and patience.

Keeping secrets is a consequential act for all involved.

The more we practice mindfulness, the more alert we become to the cost of keeping secrets.

As we explore new ways of loving and being loved by others, we need to equip ourselves with open, pliant minds; we need to be willing to investigate, experiment, and evaluate as we approach a topic we thought we knew so much about.

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.

Love simply, perpetually exists and that it's a matter of psychic housekeeping to make room for it.