Sharon Salzberg and Jared Levy join Raghu Markus for a discussion about the current spiritual landscape, and some of the more encouraging contrasts from their earlier days in practice. The group also comments on the power of purpose in creating our intentions, and the different approaches we can take in aligning our aspirations with our actions. The episode concludes with a fantastic meditation led by Sharon.

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Sharon details her origin story in relation to mindfulness practice and describes the different approaches we can take in integrating meditation into our lives. The core teaching begins with the recognition that we have the potential to change our relationships with ourselves, and the world around us. Questions from the audience revolve around the confusion and difficulty that often arise in experimenting with mindfulness techniques.

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‘Develop a mind so filled with love that it resembles space’. Sharon uses this quote, from the Buddha, to emphasize the value in creating a vast and loving space from which we can operate. This cultivation can come in the form of expanded awareness, or from the clearing and cleansing of the present environment. When we unclutter the heart, we are reminded to stay true to our deepest intentions

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What is it that we are really looking for from our lives, and do we have the ability to approach these aspirations with genuine confidence? In meditation, we get to redefine happiness, and look critically at our perceived fears and short comings. We use our sharpened awareness to cut through the layers of constriction that often surround our perception, and uncover a profoundly different sense of who we truly are. We have the power in changing our relationship to ourselves and our environment

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Through Loving Kindness we sense our deep connection to the world around us. From that awareness arises compassion, which recognizes suffering, on all levels, and responds accordingly. Loving kindness doesn't seek to label or define the qualities or emotions that it addresses. It simply comes as an offering, in the form of forgiveness.

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Sharon is joined by her longtime friend, and fellow MindPod patron, Raghu Markus, for a thoughtful and thorough discussion of the principles involved in the Buddhist teaching of the Eightfold Path, as well as how we can apply its core sentiments to our modern landscape. The Path begins with the basic recognition of our seamless connection to the world around us, and an evolving determination to avoid actions that we know will result in suffering. We discover our affinity toward intuitive action, and learn to incorporate that connection in all aspects of our lives.   Episode Outline: - Right Understanding - The cause/effect relationship - Right Thought (Right Intention) - Right Speech - What are we saying, and how are we saying it? - Right Livelihood - Kindness is key - Right Action - Actively promoting harmony - Right Concentration - Stabilizing our intentions - Right Effort - Doing the necessary work (without strain or judgment) - Right Mindfulness - Unbiased perception

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In this talk, from the 2010 Open Your Heart in Paradise retreat, Sharon discusses the four virtues, known within the Buddhist tradition as the Brahma Viharas, as well as the meditation practices designed to cultivate them. These qualities, of loving-kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity, are said to form our, ‘best home’, and serve as a simple but powerful guideline with which we can practice. The qualities are outlined in detail, with a particular emphasis on loving-kindness. Sharon leads a guided meditation to close the talk.

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Within Buddhism, Faith is not held as a commodity, but is actually experienced as a journey that we embark upon. It becomes necessary to explore and investigate the insight surrounding this extraordinary sense of presence and connectedness. There is a natural evolution that occurs which involves a personal validation of, and eventual merging with, the process itself. We learn to abide in and flow with Faith, no longer seeing it as separate from ourselves. The practice of loving kindness is a powerful method for cultivating this environment of discovery. When we train our attention to be inclusive toward all of life’s happenings, we quickly see the interconnected nature of our lives, and our limited perspective shifts to encompass the greater whole.

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Taken from the 2010 Open Your Heart in Paradise retreat, Sharon relates the act of meditation to an alchemical process in which we convert the conceptual into the felt presence of direct experience. The array of what we might encounter in meditation is broad, but we welcome it all. Meditation is a skills training in learning to gather energy. Our attention is brought into focus and we begin to connect the fragments of our lives. When we tap into our ‘inner abundance’, our experience changes and we naturally settle into a more compassionate state of awareness.

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In this talk, Sharon touches on the concept of the Buddha as a human being, who had real questions, much like our own. What he discovered was found through the power of his own awareness, and through his teachings we too can uncover our own innate compassion. Retreat provides a rare opportunity to break from the fragmented nature of day-to-day, and allows us to settle back into the truths of our own lives. Through the process of concentration we begin to piece together the energy required for self-actualizing our own capacity toward freedom.

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