Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

Description

In this inspiring book, Sharon Salzberg, one of America's leading spiritual teachers, shows us how the Buddhist path of lovingkindness can help us discover the radiant, joyful heart within each of us. In this inspiring book, Sharon Salzberg, one of America's leading spiritual teachers, shows us how the Buddhist path of lovingkindness can help us discover the radiant, joyful heart within each of us. Throughout our lives we long to love ourselves more deeply and find a greater sense of connection with others. Our fear of intimacy-both with others and with ourselves-creates feelings of pain and longing, but those feelings can awaken in us the desire for freedom and the willingness to take up a spiritual path. Longtime meditation practitioner and teacher Sharon Salzberg draws on Buddhist teachings, wisdom stories from various traditions, her own experiences, and guided meditation exercises to unearth the radiant heart within each one of us. Discover how the practice of lovingkindness illuminates a path to cultivating love, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, helping us realize our own capacity for goodness and a new connection with all beings. This book is part of the Shambhala Pocket Library series. The Shambhala Pocket Library is a collection of short, portable teachings from notable figures across religious traditions and classic texts.The covers in this series are rendered by Colorado artist Robert Spellman.The books in this collection distill the wisdom and heart of the work Shambhala Publications has published over 50 years into a compactformat that is collectible, reader-friendly, andapplicable to everyday life.

Sharon Salzberg is one of America's leading spiritual teachers and authors. A practitioner of Buddhist meditation for over thirty years, she is a co-founder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the Insight Meditation Society, and she directs meditation retreats throughout the United States and abroad.

"The important Buddhist practice of lovingkindness is given a rounded and revealing treatment in this book. The author, who is a founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, uses 25 years of teaching experience to shed light on this "incandescent power of love" that is present in all of us. Salzberg talks about the significance of intimacy with ourselves as a prelude to reaching out to others. Some of the hindrances to lovingkindness are enslavement to desire and attachment as well as addiction to anger and aversion. Salzberg affirms equanimity and generosity as keys to developing a compassionate heart. This is the right book on the right subject for our troubled times."-Frederic A Brussat, Body Mind Spirit