In this heartfelt conversation, Sharon Salzberg and Mirabai Bush explore how mindfulness, forgiveness, and loving-kindness can transform the way we relate to ourselves and others.
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Live from the 2015 Open Your Heart in Paradise Retreat, Mirabai and Sharon discuss:
- The relationship between loving everyone and personal practice
- Mirabai’s work with SEVA foundation in Guatemala
- Loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity
- The interconnectedness of all life
- An audience Q&A with Sharon and Mirabai
- Forgiveness and breaking down defensive behavior
- Mindfulness in how we relate to thoughts of ourselves and others
Join us for the 2026 Open Your Heart in Paradise Retreat in Maui or virtually!
About Mirabai Bush:
Mirabai is an author, social entrepreneur, teacher, and spiritual leader. She is recognized for her pioneering role in integrating mindfulness and contemplative practices into secular sectors of American life, including business, higher education, law, and social activism. Mirabai’s contributions include co-founding influential organizations such as the Center for Contemplative Mind in Societyand the Seva Foundation and co-developing Google’s Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. She is also a longtime board member of the Love Serve Remember Foundation. Her latest book, Almost Home, is a memoir published in 2025.
“One of the most important things we need to do in order to love each other is to really listen to each other, to come to know each other so we can be present in a loving way. The Dalai Lama when he listens to someone he sits way on the edge of his chair, listening with his whole body. When you share something with Ram Dass, you never think he’s thinking about something else. That’s what we need to be for each other. We need to be here now.” –Mirabai Bush
About Sharon Salzberg:
Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is one of the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, and her seminal work, Lovingkindness. Her podcast, The Metta Hour, has amassed five million downloads and features interviews with thought leaders from the mindfulness movement and beyond. Learn more about Sharon and her books at www.sharonsalzberg.com and check out Insight Meditation Society.
“We don’t deny the hurt or regret we may feel if it is our own action, but we don’t need to build on that and solidify it. Sometimes we do that so much that our whole sense of who we are and all that we’ll ever be collapses around some comment. That’s what I meant when I said loving-kindness is like a stretch, it’s like asking yourself, ‘anything else happen today? What’s the good within me?’”–Sharon Salzberg
More Be Here Now Network Podcasts:
Lama Rod Owens covers the dharma of freedom, loving ourselves, ancestral work, and the power of meditation: Dedication to Liberation
JoAnna Hardy shares a guided meditation all around the first foundation of mindfulness – mindfulness of the body: First Foundation Guided Meditation
Through bearing witness, love & service, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee shares how we can collectively heal the crisis of disconnection & ecological devastation: Love & Service
Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh explores how we can joyfully bring mindfulness into everyday activities like phone calls, driving, and walking: The Ojai Foundation Presents: Under the Teaching Tree with Thich Nhat Hanh