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Breathe.

susaw February 2, 2020

Just. Breathe. Inhaling peace, exhaling love. And again. with gratitude to Sharon Salzberg, and her team. Take care, sSs

#breathe, exhale, gratitude, inhale, love, peace, Sharon Salzberg

The Width of The World

Day 2: A Symphony I Can’t Conduct

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Even in horrible circumstances, we find that ...

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Aug 10

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Even in horrible circumstances, we find that challenge and that prospect for meaningful change. I saw that after the Underground bombing in London in July 2005, when my initial response echoed most of those around me: sorrow for lives lost, distress at all those unheralded lives lost each day across the globe, some anxiety about getting on a subway in New York City.

Willa, my then seven-year-old goddaughter, had another perspective. Upon being told what had happened, Willa’s eyes filled with tears and she said, “Mom, we should say a prayer.” As she and her mother held hands, Willa asked to go first. Her mother was stunned to hear Willa begin with, “May the bad guys remember the love in their hearts.”

Returning belligerence for belligerence, focusing on revenge, is familiar and easy but it tires us out. If we are willing to go to a new level of thinking, we discover that we are capable of so much more than we usually envision. No matter what our past, we can begin to be different; we can step out of cycles of reactivity, abuse or despair. Risking a new level of seeing enables us to try out new behaviors, like not shouting back or reflexively seeking revenge. Instead, we might use ways of communicating that convey our strength without damaging ourselves or those around us.

Imagine if we dropped our need to be right, our easy perpetuation of what we are used to, our need to be like other people, and actually tried to practice what the Buddha taught: “Hatred will never cease by hatred, it will only cease by love.”

That would mean an enormous adventure of consciousness: a readiness to step into new terrain, redefine power, see patience as strength rather than as resignation. This is a process of relaxing the heart and untangling it from fear and corrosive resentment. It is a process of recapturing our energy that may be held by a situation in the past and stagnating. It is a process of expanding our capacity to care, and to trust that caring will not deplete us or weaken us. It is a profound, challenging, and liberating process.

[Image Description: White background with black text reading, "we are capable of more that we usually dare to imagine."]

For episode 188 of the Metta Hour podcast, Jason ...

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Aug 9

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For episode 188 of the Metta Hour podcast, Jason Garner @thejasongarner joins Sharon to talk about life, practice, finding meaning and refuge. Jason is a spiritual seeker, author, and previously a Fortune 500 company executive. He spent the first 37 years of his life working his way up from flea market parking attendant to CEO of Global Music at Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter. After several significant losses in his life, Jason turned to yoga, meditation, martial arts, and eastern philosophy to learn a different way of being in the world. In 2014 he wrote the book “And then I Breathed,” chronicling his unique journey. In this conversation, Sharon and Jason speak about:

• Jason’s path making his way in the world
• What led to Jason becoming a spiritual seeker
• Bringing spiritual practice of the music business
• Finding meaning in life to help navigate challenging times
• Sharon’s experience in isolation during the pandemic
• The inner resource of meditation in COVID
• Jason and Sharon’s shared Tibetan teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche
• Everyone’s inherent “inner okay-ness”
• How self-compassion changed the course of Jason’s practice and life
• The courage to show up as a human
• Re-writing the myth of winning so “everyone gets to win”
• Collaboration versus competition
• Creating Love4Live to offer meditation resources for the music industry in COVID

This podcast is brought to you by the @beherenownetwork