Sharon Salzberg Quotes

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

~ Sharon Salzberg

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.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Mindfulness can play a big role in transforming our experience with pain & other difficulties, it allows us to recognize the authenticity of the distress & yet not be overwhelmed by it.

~ Sharon Salzberg

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.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Smiling at someone can have significant health consequences.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Seeking happiness is not the problem. The problem is that we often do not know where and how to find genuine happiness and so make the mistakes that cause suffering for ourselves & others.

~ Sharon Salzberg

When you recognize and reflect on even one good thing about yourself, you are building a bridge to a place of kindness and caring.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Never feel ashamed of your longing for happiness.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Perfection is fragile, interacting with something that seems perfect puts it in peril.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Clinging to our ideas of perfection isolates us from life and is a barrier.

~ Sharon Salzberg

For any marginalized group to change the story that society tells about them takes courage and perseverance.

~ Sharon Salzberg

The idea that traumatic residues—or unresolved stories—can be inherited is groundbreaking.

~ Sharon Salzberg

The unconscious mind is a vast repository of experiences and associations that sorts things out much faster than the slow-moving conscious mind.

~ Sharon Salzberg

The practice of sympathetic joy is rooted in inner development. It’s not a matter of learning techniques to “make friends and influence people.” Instead, we build the foundations of our own happiness. When our own cup is full, we more easily share it with others.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Sometimes people in abusive situations think they’re responsible for the other person’s happiness or that they’re going to fix them and make them feel better. The practice of equanimity teaches that it’s not all up to you to make someone else happy.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Buddhism has a term for the happiness we feel at someone else’s success or good fortune. Sympathetic joy, as it is known, invites us to celebrate for others.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Even as we recognize our resentment, bitterness, or jealousy, we can also honor our own wish to be happy, to feel free.

~ Sharon Salzberg

The more we identify and acknowledge moments when we’re unable to share in someone else’s pleasure and ask ourselves whether another person’s happiness truly jeopardizes our own, the more we pave the way for experiencing sympathetic joy

~ Sharon Salzberg

The more we practice sympathetic joy, the more we come to realize that the happiness we share with others is inseparable from our own happiness.

~ Sharon Salzberg

It is awareness of both our shared pain and our longing for happiness that links us to other people and helps us to turn toward them with compassion.

~ Sharon Salzberg

The difference between a life laced through with frustration and one sustained by happiness depends on whether it is motivated by self-hatred or by real love for oneself.

~ Sharon Salzberg

When we can step back even briefly from our hurt, sorrow, and anger, when we put our faith in the possibility of change, we create the possibility for non-judgmental inquiry that aims for healing rather than victory.

~ Sharon Salzberg

It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn't depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn't depend on how long you've held on to the old view. When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn't matter whether its been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades. The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn't see before.Its never too late to take a moment to look.

~ Sharon Salzberg

We are all too often told by someone that we are too old, too young, too different, too much the same, and those comments can be devastating.

~ Sharon Salzberg

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.

~ Sharon Salzberg

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

People turn to meditation because they want to make good decisions, break bad habits & bounce back better from disappointments.

~ Sharon Salzberg

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

Because the development of inner calm & energy happens completely within & isn’t dependent on another person or a particular situation, we begin to feel a resourcefulness and independence that is quite beautiful—and a huge relief.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Cultivation of positive emotions, including self-love and self-respect, strengthens our inner resources and opens us to a broader range of thoughts and actions.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Genuine awe connects us with the world in a new way.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Real love allows for failure and suffering.

~ Sharon Salzberg

The starting place for radical re-imagining of love is mindfulness.

~ Sharon Salzberg

The costs of keeping secrets include our growing isolation due to fear of detection and the ways we shut down inside to avoid feeling the effects of our behavior. We can never afford to be truly seen and known—even by ourselves.

~ Sharon Salzberg

A key barometer to help us weigh the rightness of our actions is self-respect.

~ Sharon Salzberg

The wholesome pursuit of excellence feels quite different from perfectionism.

~ Sharon Salzberg

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

~ Sharon Salzberg

As we explore new ways of thinking, we need to be willing to investigate, experiment, take some risks with our attention, and stretch.

~ Sharon Salzberg

Forgiveness can be bittersweet. It contains the sweetness of the release of a story that has caused us pain, but also the poignant reminder that even our dearest relationships change over the course of a lifetime.

~ Sharon Salzberg

When we respond to our pain and suffering with love, understanding, and acceptance—for ourselves, as well as others— over time, we can let go of our anger, even when we’ve been hurt to the core. But that doesn’t mean we ever forget.

~ Sharon Salzberg