“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.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“That is life, starting over one breath at a time.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“We like things to manifest right away, and they may not. Many times, we’re just planting a seed and we don’t know exactly how it is going to come to fruition. It’s hard for us to realize that what we see in front of us might not be the end of the story.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Sometimes we need to just do the best we can, and then trust in the unfolding.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Mindfulness allows us to watch our thoughts, see how one thought leads to the next, decide if we’re heading down an unhealthy path, and, if so, let go and change directions.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation has made me happy, loving, and peaceful – but not every single moment of the day. I still have good times and bad, joy and sorrow. Now I can accept setbacks more easily, with less sense of disappointment and personal failure, because meditation has taught me how to cope with the profound truth that everything changes all the time.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“In those moments when we realize how much we cannot control, we can learn to let go.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation teaches us to focus and to pay clear attention to our experiences and responses as they arise, and to observe them without judging them.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation is not a matter of trying to stop thinking or make your mind go blank but rather to realize when your attention is wandering and to simply let go of the thoughts and begin again. It is a way of changing our relationship to our thoughts, so we’re not so consumed by them, with no sense of space. Having a newly spacious relationship to our thoughts brings both peace and freedom.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“The critical element in meditation practice is beginning again. Everyone loses focus at times, everyone loses interest at times, and everyone gets distracted over and over again. What is essential, and also incredibly transforming, is realizing that we have the ability to begin again, without blaming or judging ourselves, without thinking we have failed, without losing heart, we can, and need to, constantly be beginning again.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“While you are meditating, if your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the present moment. Meditation trains the mind the way physical exercise strengthens the body.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Training our mind through meditation does not mean forcibly subjugating it or beating it into shape.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“You cannot fail at meditation.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“We spend our lives searching for something we think we don’t have, something that will make us happy. But the key to our deepest happiness lies in changing our vision of where to seek it.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“We can travel a long way in life and do many things, but our deepest happiness is not born from accumulating new experiences, it is born from letting go of what is unnecessary, and knowing ourselves to be always at home.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“By practicing meditation we establish love, compassion, sympathetic joy & equanimity as our home.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“To be truly happy in this world is a revolutionary act… It is a radical change of view that liberates us so that we know who we are most deeply and can acknowledge our enormous ability to love.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“It doesn’t matter how long we may have been stuck in a sense of our limitations. If we go into a darkened room and turn on the light, it doesn’t matter if the room has been dark for a day, a week, or ten thousand years – when we turn on the light, the whole room becomes illuminated. Once we access our capacity for love and happiness, the light has been turned on.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“With the practice of meditation we can develop this ability to more fully love ourselves and to more consistently love others.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation isn’t about what’s happening; it’s about how you relate to what’s happening.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“We can’t control what thoughts and emotions arise within us, nor can we control the universal truth that everything around us changes. But we can learn to step back and rest in the awareness of what’s happening. That awareness can be our refuge.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation is essentially training our attention so that we can be more aware — not only of our own inner workings but also of what’s happening around us in the here & now.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“As we practice meditation, we get used to stillness and eventually are able to make friends with the quietness of our sensations.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“You don’t have to believe anything, or adopt a dogma in order to learn how to meditate.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“There are many different ways to practice meditation; it’s good to experiment until you find one that seems to suit you.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation may be done in silence & stillness, by using voice & sound, or by engaging the body in movement. All forms emphasize the training of attention.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Some people have a mistaken idea that all thoughts disappear through meditation and we enter a state of blankness. There certainly are times of great tranquility when concentration is strong and we have few, if any, thoughts. But other times, we can be flooded with memories, plans or random thinking. It’s important not to blame yourself.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation is not the construction of something foreign, it is not an effort to attain and then hold-on to a particular experience. We may have a secret desire that through meditation we will accumulate a stockpile of magical experiences, or at least a mystical trophy or two, and then we will be able to proudly display them for others to see.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation is a tool for helping us accept the profound fact that everything changes all the time.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“I’ve always said that lovingkindness and compassion (which are specific forms of meditation) are inevitably woven throughout meditation practice even if the words are never used or implied, no matter what technique or method we are using.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“As we practice meditation we are bringing forth ease, presence, compassion, wisdom & trust.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“People turn to meditation because they want to make good decisions, break bad habits & bounce back better from disappointments.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation is a microcosm, a model, a mirror. The skills we practice when we sit are transferable to the rest of our lives.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Dedicating some time to meditation is a meaningful expression of caring for yourself that can help you move through the mire of feeling unworthy of recovery. As your mind grows quieter and more spacious, you can begin to see self-defeating thought patterns for what they are, and open up to other, more positive options.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Mindfulness, also called wise attention, helps us see what we’re adding to our experiences, not only during meditation sessions but also elsewhere.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Each of us has a genuine capacity for love, forgiveness, wisdom and compassion. Meditation awakens these qualities so that we can discover for ourselves the unique happiness that is our birthright.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation clarifies our minds and opens our hearts, and brings us to unusual depth and stability of happiness, whatever life brings.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“You can see your thoughts and emotions arise & create space for them even if they are uncomfortable.” – Sharon Salzberg
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“Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; you can use it anywhere, anytime, unobtrusively. And the batteries never die.” – Sharon Salzberg
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