Quotes from Sharon Salzberg

over time, offering loving kindness to all beings everywhere, including ourselves, unites us to one another so that we know that we can not go forward forgetting those left behind." Page 62

What is important is not getting intoxicated with a good feeling or getting intoxicated even with an insight. These take many forms in our practice. We go through times of great release, where there has been physical holding for what feels like forever, and something opens up and releases.

Any 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.

By prizing heartfulness above faultlessness, we may reap more from our effort because we're more likely to be changed by it.

Each decision we make, each action we take, is born out of an intention.

Life is like and ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.

Often we can achieve an even better result when we stumble yet are willing to start over, when we don't give up after a mistake, when something doesn't come easily but we throw ourselves into trying, when we're not afraid to appear less than perfectly polished.

We learn and grow and are transformed not so much by what we do but by why and how we do it.

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

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.

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.

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.

We need the courage to learn from our past and not live in it.

Restore your attention or bring it to a new level by dramatically slowing down whatever you're doing.

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

The difference between misery and happiness depends on what we do with our attention.

Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.

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

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.

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

We often get caught up in our own reactions and forget the vulnerability of the person in front of us.

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.

You are capable of so much more than we usually dare to imagine

Forgiveness is a personal process that doesn't depend on us having direct contact with the people who have hurt us.