Episode description

Today it’s great to have Sharon Salzberg on the podcast. Sharon is a meditation pioneer and industry leader, a world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. As one of the first to bring meditation and mindfulness into mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, her relatable, demystifying approach has inspired generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of eleven books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, her seminal work, Lovingkindness, and her newest book, Real Change: Mindfulness To Heal Ourselves and the World, released in September of 2020 from Flatiron Books. Sharon’s secular, modern approach to Buddhist teachings is sought after at schools, conferences, and retreat centers worldwide. Her podcast, The Metta Hour, has amassed over 3 million downloads and features interviews with the top leaders and thinkers of the mindfulness movement and beyond. Sharon’s writing can be found on Medium, On Being, the Maria Shriver blog, and Huffington Post.

Time Stamps

[01:46] Sharon’s book Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World

[05:31] The dialectical between thinking and doing

[08:06] Sharon Salzberg’s activism

[09:26] Art as a form of social action

[10:38] Love and kindness meditation and the perception in the west

[15:16] The importance of boundaries in love and kindness

[16:25] Learning about agency and love in the pandemic

[21:00] A false sense of agency and the culture of contempt

[22:31] Sharon’s inner state of consciousness

[23:41] Being mindful of your anger and acknowledging your suffering

[30:10] Being realistic and avoiding activist burnout

[32:37] “Benevolent contagion” and Sharon’s vision of interconnection

[35:37] Mindfulness Meditation and dissolving the grip of habits like attribution bias and stereotyping

[42:48] How do you cultivate equanimity?

[46:28] Pairing compassion with equanimity

[47:20] The legacy Sharon wants to leave behind

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