Sharon Salzberg

Sharon Salzberg
Born 1952 (age 59–60)
New York City
Occupation author, meditation teacher

Sharon Salzberg (born 1952) is a New York Times Best selling author[1] and influential teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in West.[2][3] She co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein, in 1974. Her emphasis is on vipassanā (insight) and mettā (loving-kindness) methods [4] and has been leading meditation retreats around the world for over three decades.[5][6] All of these methods have their origins in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. Her book include Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (1995), A Heart as Wide as the World (1999) and Real Happiness - The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program (2010), which was on the The New York Times Best Seller list in 2011.[7]

Contents

Early life

Part of a series on
Buddhism

Outline · Portal

History
Timeline · Councils
Gautama Buddha
Later Buddhists
Dharma or concepts

Four Noble Truths
Five Aggregates
Impermanence
Suffering · Non-self
Dependent Origination
Middle Way · Emptiness
Karma · Rebirth
Samsara · Cosmology
Practices

Three Jewels
Noble Eightfold Path
Morality · Perfections
Meditation · Mindfulness
Wisdom · Compassion
Aids to Enlightenment
Monasticism · Laity

Nirvāṇa
Four Stages · Arahant
Buddha · Bodhisattva

Traditions · Canons
Theravāda · Pali
Mahāyāna · Chinese
Vajrayāna · Tibetan

Born in New York City to a Jewish family, Salzberg had a troubled early life after her parents divorced when she was four, and her father abandoned the family. At nine, her mother died and she went to live with her father's parents. Though her father returned when she was eleven, but he soon overdosed, and was subsequently put in the hospital and soon moved into the mental health system for the rest of his life. By 16 Sharon had lived with five different families.[8]

Salzberg encountered Buddhism in 1969, while taking a course in Asian philosophy in her sophomore year at the State University of New York, Buffalo. This led to her taking an independent study trip to India in 1970, where in January 1971, she attended her first intensive meditation course at Bodh Gaya. She spent the next years in intensive study with various Buddhist teachers. Returning to US in 1974, she began teaching vipassana (insight) meditation.[9][8]

Career

A student of Dipa Ma, Anagarika Munindra and other asian masters,[10] Salzberg together with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein, founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts in 1974.[11][12] She also co-founded (with Goldstein) the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in 1989. In 1998 they co-founded The Forest Refuge as a long-term meditation retreat center and is today a notable teacher of the Vipassana movement.

An in-depth interview with Salzberg appears in the book Meetings with Remarkable Women: Buddhist Teachers in America, by Lenore Friedman. (Boston:Shambhala, Revised and Updated edition, 2000. ISBN 1570624747)

Honors

Sharon Salzberg was honored by the New York Open Center in 1999 for her "Outstanding Contribution to the Mindfulness of the West"

Appointments

Books

Audio Publications

Articles

Interviews

References

  1. ^ New York Times Best Seller List 3/13/10
  2. ^ "Meditation made easy". Well & Good NYC. http://wellandgoodnyc.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/meditation-made-easy-with-tibet-house-superstar-sharon-salzberg/. 
  3. ^ Ricci, Claudia (August 24, 2011). "How One Book Changed My Life". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claudia-ricci/sharon-salzberg-lovingkindness_b_935301.html. 
  4. ^ a b Downing, Renée (15 September 2005). "Sharon Salzberg believes in the power of kindness". Tucson Weekly. http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/meditation-teacher/Content?oid=1081534. Retrieved 28 September 2010. 
  5. ^ "Sharon Salzberg (interview)". CBC Radio. November 29, 2009. http://www.cbc.ca/tapestry/episode/2009/11/29/sharon-salzbergwendy-leaver/. 
  6. ^ "Insight LA". University of the West. April 06, 2011. http://www.uwest.edu/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=308:insight-la&catid=34:news-and-events&Itemid=346. 
  7. ^ "Best Sellers, March 13, 2011". New York Times. March 13, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-03-13/paperback-advice/list.html?date=2011-03-13&category=paperback-advice&pagewanted=print. 
  8. ^ a b Morris, Nomi (February 19, 2011). "Through meditation, she makes happiness an inside job". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/19/local/la-me-beliefs-meditate-20110219. 
  9. ^ About
  10. ^ Amy Schmidt, Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master. ISBN 0-9742405-5-9 (USA); ISBN 1-899579-73-7 (Europe), p. 9.
  11. ^ Miller, Andrea (March 2011). Shambhala Sun (B000302EG0): 52. 
  12. ^ Leslie Kaufman (May 25, 2008). "A Superhighway to Bliss". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/fashion/25brain.html. 

External links

Articles
Lists
Buddhism portal
Modern Dharma / Dhamma writers (1875 to date)
Buddhist
Hindu
Jain
Sikh
Syncretic, etc.