Sharon Salzberg – Metta Hour Podcast

Sharon first encountered Buddhism in 1969, in an Asian philosophy course at the State University of New York, Buffalo. The course sparked an interest that, in 1970, took her to India, for an independent study program. Sharon traveled motivated by “an intuition that the methods of meditation would bring me some clarity and peace.” In 1971, in Bodh Gaya, India, Sharon attended her first intensive meditation course. She spent the next years engaged in intensive study with highly respected meditation teachers. She returned to America in 1974 and began teaching vipassana (insight) meditation.
Sharon Salzberg in 1976 established, together with Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, which now ranks as one of the most prominent and active meditation centers in the Western world. Sharon and Joseph Goldstein expanded their vision in 1989 by co-founding the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS). In 1998, they initiated the Forest Refuge, a long-term retreat center secluded in a wooded area on IMS property. Today she leads teaches a variety of offerings such as metta meditation and loving kindness meditation around the globe. Sharon resides in Barre, Massachusetts, and New York City.

Sharon Salzberg Metta Hour is an official Sharon Salzberg podcast on the Be Here Now Network. On this podcast, you can learn from Sharon Salzberg metta meditation practices and insight into loving kindness as well.

The written word is central to Sharon Salzberg’s teaching and studies. In her early Buddhist studies at the University of Buffalo, Sharon Salzberg discovered Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s book, Meditation in Action. Salzberg later heard him speak at a nearby school: he was the first practicing Buddhist she encountered. While studying in India, Shunryu Suzuki’s book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind profoundly influenced the direction of her meditation practice. She is a weekly columnist for On Being, a regular contributor the the Huffington Post, and was a contributing editor of Oprah’s O Magazine for several years. Sharon has appeared in Time Magazine, Yoga Journal, msnbc.com, Tricycle, Real Simple, Body & Soul, Mirabella, Good Housekeeping, Self, Buddhadharma, More and Shambhala Sun, as well as on a variety of radio programs. Various anthologies on spirituality have featured Sharon Salzberg and her work, including Meetings with Remarkable Women, Gifts of the Spirit, A Complete Guide to Buddhist America, Handbook of the Heart, The Best Guide to Meditation, From the Ashes—A Spiritual Response to the Attack on America, and How to Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism. Sharon is also the author of nine books including Real Love, Lovingkindness, the NY Times best seller Real Happiness, and Real Happiness at Work.

For more information on Sharon Salzberg, please visit SharonSalzberg.com.