"When I fall down, I don’t have to call it a failure. I can see what has to be done to reconnect to my sense of purpose and begin again." — Sharon Salzberg
Note from Rohan:
Sharon Salzberg is a total hero of mine, so it's a great joy to me that we're revisiting her Meditative Story episode this week.
Sharon was one of the original generation of young people who went out to Asia to learn meditation and, importantly, developed high skills, and then, even more importantly, came back to the West to teach.
The fact that meditation and mindfulness is part of our current culture is in no small part thanks to Sharon and her colleagues — and so I can but bow to her. In her episode she shares about those early years in India — the hardships, and the community that she finds there.
Featured episode:
Sharon Salzberg: How I found kindness as my compass
When Sharon Salzberg is 17, she makes a life-changing decision to travel alone to India to study meditation. It doesn’t all go as expected. Through the journey’s disappointments, discomforts, and surprise lessons, she finds an unexpected friend: herself. In today’s Meditative Story, Sharon, now a legendary teacher of Buddhism in America, talks about how being kind, especially to herself, became her biggest mountain to climb.
"I travel first to Daramshala, because I hear the Dalai Lama lives there, and I know he’s a Buddhist. But I don’t find an actual meditation class happening regularly there.
In a Tibetan restaurant, I overhear a conversation about a yoga conference in New Delhi. So I think: ‘Oh, I'll go there. And I'll find my teacher.’ The conference is terrible. But one of the speakers is an American named Dan Goleman. Years later, he’ll popularize the term 'Emotional Intelligence.'
But right now, he’s a grad student in psychology, learning what he can in India. Dan mentions that he’s headed to a place called Bodh Gaya for an intensive 10-day meditation retreat. Bodh Gaya is the very site where the Buddha reached enlightenment under the Bodi tree. Maybe this is the 'pretense of accident' I’m looking for. I take Dan’s advice, and buy the train ticket to Gaya."
More episodes we think you’d like:
Sharon Salzberg: Soul Curriculum
In this special episode, Rohan and Sharon Salzberg wind their way back through Sharon’s story, exploring the key theme: Being kind, loving, & patient with yourself.
Join our host Rohan Gunatillake on his first meditation retreat where he locks in to his practice for the first time — and on the same night, almost gives it up altogether.
A meditation in memory of Thich Nhat Hanh, by Rohan Gunatillake
Rohan Gunatillake recounts his 2005 trip to Plum Village, the monastic community founded by Thich Nhat Hanh — who inspired generations of people to explore mindfulness.
