You are a person worthy of love. You don’t have to do anything to prove that…You do not have to earn love. You simply have to exist. When we see ourselves and see life more clearly, we come to rely on that. We remember that we do deserve the blessing of love. A lack of real love for ourselves is one of the most constricting, painful conditions we can know. It cuts us off from our deepest potential for connecting and caring; it is enslavement to powerful – but surmountable – conditioning. — Sharon Salzberg (from Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection #BK576)
Sharon Salzberg filled Real Love with mindfulness techniques and other practices to cultivate lovingkindness and compassion. This inspired us at DharmaCrafts to create a Real Love Meditation Cushion Kit which includes a handcrafted zafu and zabuton set, a copy of Sharon’s book Real Love, and a stretchy cedar mala. On the guru bead of the mala are Korean characters which translate to “Where You Place Your Will, There You Will Achieve.”
Sharon Salzberg is a central figure in the field of meditation, a world-renowned teacher and NY Times bestselling author. She has played a crucial role in bringing meditation and mindfulness practices to the West and into mainstream culture since 1974, when she first began teaching. She is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and the author of ten books . A six-week class based on Real Love is being offered by our friends at Tricycle.org. Learn more about Real Love and other favorite online learning programs here.