Sharon Salzberg

Letting go is an inside job, something only we can do for ourselves.

By practicing meditation we establish love, compassion, sympathetic joy & equanimity as our home.

The intentions or motives that underlie all of our words and actions plant seeds. Certain kinds of intentions will inevitably bear fruits of the same type. This also is an infallible law of nature. Wholesome intentions- like lovingkindness, compassion, honesty, and respect for the lives and property of others- if they manifest in action will sooner or later bear us the fruits of happiness. Unwholesome intentions - like hatred, cruelty, duplicity - will bear us the fruits of suffering if we express them in words or deeds. No action is without consequences.

All forms of meditation strengthen & direct our attention through the cultivation of three key skills: concentration, mindfulness & compassion or lovingkindness.

We can understand the inherent radiance & purity of our minds by understanding metta. Like the mind, metta is not distorted by what it encounters.

The foundation of metta practice is to know how to be our own friend. According to the Buddha, “You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

In order to do anything about the suffering of the world we must have the strength to face it without turning away.

Generosity has such power because it is characterized by the inner quality of letting go or relinquishing.

When you recognize and reflect on even one good thing about yourself, you are building a bridge to a place of kindness and caring.

Having' something makes us think we can control it.

With the practice of meditation we can develop this ability to more fully love
ourselves and to more consistently love others.

People turn to meditation because they want to make good decisions, break bad habits & bounce back better from disappointments.

Meditation is essentially training our attention so that we can be more aware — not only of our own inner workings but also of what’s happening around us in the here & now.

The key in letting go is practice. Each time we let go, we disentangle ourselves from our expectations and begin to experience things as they are.

Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter.