What a gift that conversation and meditation with Sharon Salzberg was today. Thank you, Susan. I have meditated for many years, with and without mantras, and learning this soul-stirring one – centering lovingkindness for self and others – came at a challenging pivotal moment for me. This and Tara Brach's tonglen practice are, I feel, particularly relevant and needed at this point in history, I feel. So thanks and love <3 <3 <3
I practice the loving kindness meditation almost daily. I learned it when I took a yoga class for cancer survivors. At first it was difficult to say to people I didn’t like but there was something peaceful about saying it after a while. When I teach yoga I sometimes incorporate as part of the meditation at the end of the practice.
I have a wonderful opportunity to listen to a Holocaust survivor speak Sunday evening so I will miss the live candlelight. I look forward to the recording!
Thank you for sharing this with us, Susan! I was bullied a lot as a child for being “quiet”, “snobby”, or “weird”. My mom was the biggest bully of them all. I’ve done a lot of inner work to try and sever these generational curses. I work hard to be a present and supportive mom to my daughter by seeking out older and wiser mom friends that nurture their children the way I wish my mom had done with me. I am very excited to attend on Sunday because I believe sending love in a meditative way can be very healing for me and my mom. I do love her. I always will. It’s just…complicated. ❤️🙏
Hi Folks--I'm a new member, and I'd like to attend the conversation with Sharon Salzberg this Sunday, but I'm not clear how this works. It doesn't seem I need to rsvp anywhere. Will a link automatically be sent to eveyrone who's a member? Or...what am I missing? thank you!
Loving kindness, soul longing, lets feed our souls love and kindness it desires, needs. May, seeds of love blow as far as the wind travels creating fields of love blossoms within, humanity heart, healing worldly cries...
I feel if we taught empathy and love in schools, just like we have to learn reading, math and science the world would be for it. Because some of us didn't get the love or kindness we needed or shown what it look like...
Love Warrior
Wish you all the best in life and may everyday be a love story, a dream of your soulful hearts calling!
Thank you, so much for inviting Sharon - I’m looking forward to the next candlelight conversation!
Also, I’m grateful for you sharing your experience and ‘sceptical moments / thoughts’!
I’ve done quite a bit of yoga when I was younger and also followed meditation classes - including sessions based on loving kindness / metta.
I liked it but as you described found embracing really everybody hard and/or impossible - but as everyone else seemed capable, I didn’t want to ask further and thought it had something to do with me!
I’m really looking forward to this! Thanks, Susan ❤️ I love Sharon and her meditations taught me about bringing the wandering mind back to the breath and mindfulness, bringing it back is part of the process.
Qs
* Is there a type of mediation that is best for people with chronic pain?
* When we build our practice of loving kindness, how do we protect it in a culture that’s not so loving or kind many times?
* We’re not supposed to label emotions as good or bad, so where do you think anger fits in? I’m furious that gun violence is the #1 killer of children in the US now. I engage, volunteer and vote, but the crisis is too large and painful. Maybe subconsciously I don’t want to feel peaceful loving kindness in a country that lets that happen.
This is the best explanation of loving kindness meditation I have heard. Maybe it is the language change, I prefer the Burma version also. The other, which I have used, feels saccharine. And maybe my own boundary issues are tied up with my mother as well, hmm. But once I found boundaries (only recently!) I 'deployed" them. Maybe this language change of the meditation will be more meaningful to me and transform my newly-formed boundaries.
Hi Susan, I’ve missed the candlelight chats and hope you/you’re staff enjoyed their holidays. I’m looking forward to Sunday. Thank you for this fab introduction and the invite to ask questions. I have one, and perhaps it’s both for you and Sharon.
I’m intrigued by the experience of - ‘accepting these ideas intellectually and want ing to practice’. I regularly procrastinate in my head with more reading, ideas, connections, questions and research. I’m currently interpreting this as a fear of connecting with my body, perhaps even a fear of love. I’m curious about this as I’m not sure what I’m fearful of, of what I think might happen if I do connect with my body and love. I’m not even sure if ‘happen’ is the right word, but maybe I’m fearful of what come after the connection.
Either way, my question is less about why might I be experiencing this resistance and more about what I could do to settle it so practising is in reach more often?
There is something about trust, fear and love in this for me, but I’m not entirely sure how they’re bound together. Thank you for your time 🌺
I practiced these meditations as a part of Bittersweet course offered by you on whatsapp. I really loved them :) I do have a question for Sharon and you !!
Question for Sharon: when I'm praying to God, I always conclude with a request for Them to wrap their arms around my friends and loved ones in Unconditional Love. That they know that they are wholly acceptable and worthy of Love because they exist. Then, I say each person's name aloud and picture them in my mind's eye. Am I letting myself off the hook so to speak asking God to deliver this message of Love and comfort to them? Or is this my version of a Loving Kindness meditation?
I think also when we hold lovingkindness and also hold boundaries for the same person - they MAY learn and improve. Sometimes when we say the phrase "actions have consequences," it hints at punishment, but I don't mean that - I mean, like, what does it take for a person with addiction to make a change? I had to fire someone I liked and I realized 'we both need to learn from this.' And for her growth and mine, the consequence needed to happen.
I'm here on Sunday morning to rewatch this chat, because I don't see a link for the next one yet ...
I missed the Sunday talk but will tune into the recording, read this post and it connected to this I wrote today.
'Aviator'
-
the luminous spectrum of a rainbow
opens portals to wonder,
to glimpse Eternity
-
translates cloudy skies to cursive,
burning suns to rise
over trenched thought.
-
aerial, we are dressed in fresh perspective,
reconnect experience to Truth
in conversation we awaken,
stretch ourselves to Touch
unknowable, unfathomable otherness
-
Aviator flies sky high
to see someone else's life
in worlds we create with Attention
in shelter, and in trust
-
calling us with Beauty,
falling from the sky
-
https://open.substack.com/pub/theseainme/p/aviator?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=46rss
What a gift that conversation and meditation with Sharon Salzberg was today. Thank you, Susan. I have meditated for many years, with and without mantras, and learning this soul-stirring one – centering lovingkindness for self and others – came at a challenging pivotal moment for me. This and Tara Brach's tonglen practice are, I feel, particularly relevant and needed at this point in history, I feel. So thanks and love <3 <3 <3
I practice the loving kindness meditation almost daily. I learned it when I took a yoga class for cancer survivors. At first it was difficult to say to people I didn’t like but there was something peaceful about saying it after a while. When I teach yoga I sometimes incorporate as part of the meditation at the end of the practice.
I have a wonderful opportunity to listen to a Holocaust survivor speak Sunday evening so I will miss the live candlelight. I look forward to the recording!
Thank you for sharing this with us, Susan! I was bullied a lot as a child for being “quiet”, “snobby”, or “weird”. My mom was the biggest bully of them all. I’ve done a lot of inner work to try and sever these generational curses. I work hard to be a present and supportive mom to my daughter by seeking out older and wiser mom friends that nurture their children the way I wish my mom had done with me. I am very excited to attend on Sunday because I believe sending love in a meditative way can be very healing for me and my mom. I do love her. I always will. It’s just…complicated. ❤️🙏
Hi Folks--I'm a new member, and I'd like to attend the conversation with Sharon Salzberg this Sunday, but I'm not clear how this works. It doesn't seem I need to rsvp anywhere. Will a link automatically be sent to eveyrone who's a member? Or...what am I missing? thank you!
Loving kindness, soul longing, lets feed our souls love and kindness it desires, needs. May, seeds of love blow as far as the wind travels creating fields of love blossoms within, humanity heart, healing worldly cries...
I feel if we taught empathy and love in schools, just like we have to learn reading, math and science the world would be for it. Because some of us didn't get the love or kindness we needed or shown what it look like...
Love Warrior
Wish you all the best in life and may everyday be a love story, a dream of your soulful hearts calling!
I am extremely interested in this chat, but I won't be able to attend. Where will I find a recording of the event?
Thank you, so much for inviting Sharon - I’m looking forward to the next candlelight conversation!
Also, I’m grateful for you sharing your experience and ‘sceptical moments / thoughts’!
I’ve done quite a bit of yoga when I was younger and also followed meditation classes - including sessions based on loving kindness / metta.
I liked it but as you described found embracing really everybody hard and/or impossible - but as everyone else seemed capable, I didn’t want to ask further and thought it had something to do with me!
Thank you again and see you on Sunday (evening)!
I’m really looking forward to this! Thanks, Susan ❤️ I love Sharon and her meditations taught me about bringing the wandering mind back to the breath and mindfulness, bringing it back is part of the process.
Qs
* Is there a type of mediation that is best for people with chronic pain?
* When we build our practice of loving kindness, how do we protect it in a culture that’s not so loving or kind many times?
* We’re not supposed to label emotions as good or bad, so where do you think anger fits in? I’m furious that gun violence is the #1 killer of children in the US now. I engage, volunteer and vote, but the crisis is too large and painful. Maybe subconsciously I don’t want to feel peaceful loving kindness in a country that lets that happen.
This is the best explanation of loving kindness meditation I have heard. Maybe it is the language change, I prefer the Burma version also. The other, which I have used, feels saccharine. And maybe my own boundary issues are tied up with my mother as well, hmm. But once I found boundaries (only recently!) I 'deployed" them. Maybe this language change of the meditation will be more meaningful to me and transform my newly-formed boundaries.
Hi Susan, I’ve missed the candlelight chats and hope you/you’re staff enjoyed their holidays. I’m looking forward to Sunday. Thank you for this fab introduction and the invite to ask questions. I have one, and perhaps it’s both for you and Sharon.
I’m intrigued by the experience of - ‘accepting these ideas intellectually and want ing to practice’. I regularly procrastinate in my head with more reading, ideas, connections, questions and research. I’m currently interpreting this as a fear of connecting with my body, perhaps even a fear of love. I’m curious about this as I’m not sure what I’m fearful of, of what I think might happen if I do connect with my body and love. I’m not even sure if ‘happen’ is the right word, but maybe I’m fearful of what come after the connection.
Either way, my question is less about why might I be experiencing this resistance and more about what I could do to settle it so practising is in reach more often?
There is something about trust, fear and love in this for me, but I’m not entirely sure how they’re bound together. Thank you for your time 🌺
I practiced these meditations as a part of Bittersweet course offered by you on whatsapp. I really loved them :) I do have a question for Sharon and you !!
Looking forward to this chat.
Ooo ... very excited for the recording, Susan. A loving kindness meditation would be such a delight.
Thank you again for continually blessing this Quite tribe with such beautiful guests.
Big love xx
Question for Sharon: when I'm praying to God, I always conclude with a request for Them to wrap their arms around my friends and loved ones in Unconditional Love. That they know that they are wholly acceptable and worthy of Love because they exist. Then, I say each person's name aloud and picture them in my mind's eye. Am I letting myself off the hook so to speak asking God to deliver this message of Love and comfort to them? Or is this my version of a Loving Kindness meditation?
Thank you and Blessings.
I think also when we hold lovingkindness and also hold boundaries for the same person - they MAY learn and improve. Sometimes when we say the phrase "actions have consequences," it hints at punishment, but I don't mean that - I mean, like, what does it take for a person with addiction to make a change? I had to fire someone I liked and I realized 'we both need to learn from this.' And for her growth and mine, the consequence needed to happen.