01c. 1952 ADMetta is the ability to embrace all parts of ourselves, as well as all parts of the world. Practicing metta illuminates our inner integrity because it relieves us of the need to deny different aspects of ourselves. We can open to everything with the healing force of love. When we feel love, our mind is expansive and open enough to include the entirety of life in full awareness, both its pleasures and its pains, we feel neither betrayed by pain or overcome by it, and thus we can contact that which is undamaged within us regardless of the situation. Metta sees truly that our integrity is inviolate, no matter what our life situation may be.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
02c. 1952 ADBuddha first taught metta meditation as an antidote: as a way of surmounting terrible fear when it arises.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
03c. 1952 ADTo relinquish the futile effort to control change is one of the strengthening forces of true detachment & thus true love.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
04c. 1952 ADWith attachment all that seems to exist is just me & that object I desire.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
05c. 1952 ADThere’s no denying that it takes effort to set the intention to see our fundamental connected-ness with others.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
06c. 1952 ADIf we have nothing material to give, we can offer our attention, our energy, our appreciation. The world needs us. It doesn’t deplete us to give.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
07c. 1952 ADWe’re in charge of our own forgiveness, and the process takes time, patience, and intention.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
08c. 1952 ADKindness is really at the core of what it means to be and feel alive.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
09c. 1952 ADAny time we find ourselves relying on the ideas of an absolute, frozen state of right and wrong—or fairness versus unfairness—that we are used to, we can compare the habit to distraction during meditation.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
10c. 1952 ADIf we truly loved ourselves, we’d never harm another. That is a truly revolutionary, celebratory mode of self-care.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
11c. 1952 ADThe more we practice mindfulness, the more alert we become to the cost of keeping secrets.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
12c. 1952 ADWe’re capable of much more than mediocrity, much more than merely getting by in this world.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
13c. 1952 ADAs human beings, we’re capable of greatness of spirit, an ability to go beyond the circumstances we find ourselves in, to experience a vast sense of connection to all of life.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
14c. 1952 ADOur minds tend to race ahead into the future or replay the past, but our bodies are always in the present moment.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
15c. 1952 ADThe skills available to us through mindfulness make it possible to bring love to our connections with others.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
16c. 1952 ADWhat we learn in meditation, we can apply to all other realms of our lives.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
18c. 1952 ADThe environment we create can help heal us or fracture us. This is true not just for buildings and landscapes but also for interactions and relationships.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
19c. 1952 ADSo often, fear keeps us from being able to say yes to love—perhaps our greatest challenge as human beings.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
20c. 1952 ADLearning to treat ourselves lovingly may at first feel like a dangerous experiment.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
21c. 1952 ADBy accepting and learning to embrace the inevitable sorrows of life, we realize that we can experience a more enduring sense of happiness.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
22c. 1952 ADThe journey to loving ourselves doesn’t mean we like everything.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
23c. 1952 ADWhen we direct a lot of hostile energy toward the inner critic, we enter into a losing battle.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
24c. 1952 ADWhen we approach the journey acknowledging what we do not know and what we can’t control, we maintain our energy for the quest.Sharon Salzberg / quote ↗
