VividLife Radio’s Ed and Deb Shapiro welcome Sharon Salzberg one of America’s leading spiritual teachers, to discuss Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation
Sharon Salzberg is one of America’s leading spiritual teachers and authors, Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. She has played a crucial role in bringing Asian meditation practices to the West. The ancient Buddhist practices of vipassana(mindfulness) and metta (lovingkindness) are the foundations of her work. http://www.sharonsalzberg.com
Sharon Salzberg’s newest book, Real Happiness, shows us that meditation practice is far simpler, more fun, less esoteric and much more relevant to the wide-ranging situations we encounter in everyday life than we might imagine. Rather than an ornate, arcane set of instructions, meditation consists of practical, accessible tools to help deepen concentration, mindfulness, lovingkindness and compassion. We rely on these qualities when things change though we would much prefer stability, when we feel out of control of events, and above all when we want a quality of happiness that is not so fragile, so dependent on shifting conditions.
Real Happiness guides us through the basics of posture, breathing, and a daily schedule as well as the finer points of calming the mind, distraction, dealing with specific problem areas (pain in the legs? falling asleep?) and the larger issues of compassion and awareness. It explains how meditation works; why a daily meditation practice results in more resiliency, creativity, peace, clarity, and balance; and offers twelve meditation practices, including mindfulness meditation, lovingkindness meditation and walking meditation.
As the great Zen master Alan Watts said: “We all need to go out of our minds at least once a day!” Going Out Of Your Mind with Ed and Deb Shapiro is a chance for you to drop your analyzing and intellectual mind and come into the immediate experience of present awakening. We are irreverent spiritual teachers and don’t take ourselves too seriously so our discussion show has a great sense of humor while also exploring in depth what it means to live with integrity, awareness, kindness, compassion, and humility. We will be talking with some of the most luminous women and men about how their lives reflect that luminosity, how they relate to the trials and tribulations of ordinary life, and how this can be of benefit to you. They are people from all walks of life: scientists, actors, activists, musicians, comedians, and business leaders – people whose lives you would never have guessed were rooted in meditation and freedom.