01c. 1952 ADWhen we forgive someone, we don’t pretend that the harm didn’t happen or cause us pain. We see it clearly for what it was, but we also come to see that fixating on the memory of harm generates anger and sadness.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
02c. 1952 ADWhen we truly allow ourselves to feel our own pain, over time it comes to seem less personal. We start to recognize that what we’ve perceived as our pain is, at a deeper level, the pain inherent in human existence.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
03c. 1952 ADForgiveness is the way we break the grip that long-held resentments have on our hearts.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
05c. 1952 ADLetting go is an inside job, something only we can do for ourselves.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
06c. 1952 ADTaking responsibility for oneself is by definition an act of kindness.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
08c. 1952 ADOur can-do culture has made many of us believe that we should always be self-sufficient. Somewhere along the way, we also got the message that asking for help is a sign of weakness. We often forget that we’re interdependent creatures whose very existence depends on the kindness of others, including—with a bow to Tennessee Williams—strangers.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
09c. 1952 ADWhen we are willing to explore our own experiences, we open the doorway to deeper connection and intimacy.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
10c. 1952 ADIn more ways than any of us can name, love is wrapped up with the idea of expectation.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
11c. 1952 ADLetting go is actually a healthy foundation upon which we can open up to real love—to giving, receiving, and experiencing it authentically and organically.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
12c. 1952 ADMindfulness may help you gain insight into your role in conflicts with others, it won’t single-highhandedly help you resolve them.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
14c. 1952 ADThese are times when sympathetic joy comes naturally, but in a complex relationship the heart may not leap up so easily.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
15c. 1952 ADLaughing at your pettiness probably works better than scolding yourself for it.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
16c. 1952 ADSympathetic joy is a practice. It takes time and effort to free ourselves of the scarcity story that most of us have learned along the way, the idea that happiness is a competition, and that someone else is grabbing all the joy.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
17c. 1952 ADBy experimenting with sympathetic joy, we break from the constricted world of individual struggle and see that joy exists in more places than we have yet imagined.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
18c. 1952 ADTo celebrate someone else’s life, we need to find a way to look at it straight on, not from above with judgment or from below with envy.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
19c. 1952 ADThere is no conflict between loving others deeply and living mindfully.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
20c. 1952 ADEven when we do our very best to treat those close to us with utmost respect and understanding, conflict happens. That’s life. That’s human nature.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
21c. 1952 ADNo connection is always easy or free of strife, no matter how many minutes a day we meditate. It’s how we relate to conflict, as well as to our differing needs and expectations, that makes our relationships sustainable.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
22c. 1952 ADLove is defined by difficult acts of human compassion & generosity.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
23c. 1952 ADAs 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.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
24c. 1952 ADLove simply, perpetually exists and that it’s a matter of psychic housekeeping to make room for it.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
