The Peace of Metta-Sharon Salzburg

One of the dharma mailings I enjoy receiving is Tricycle’s Daily Dharma. These short snippets from Tricycle’s huge archive always give me something useful for my practice. I mention their Daily Dharma because today’s mailing include an excerpt from one of my favorite teachers of metta, Sharon Salzberg. If you haven’t made her acquaintance, I highly recommend her books.

My personal favorite is her wonderful A Heart as Wide as the World, which focuses on metta, but she also has many helpful books and CDs on practicing vipassana, or insight meditation.

Here’s the excerpt from today’s Tricycle e-mail:

The Peace of Metta

The peace of metta (loving-kindness) offers us the kind of happiness that gives us the ability to concentrate. Serenity is the most important ingredient in being able to be present or being able to concentrate the mind. Concentration is an act of cherishing a chosen object. If we have no serenity, the mind will be scattered, and we will not be able to gather in the energy that is being lost to distraction. When we can concentrate, all of this energy is returned to us. This is the potency that heals us.

– Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness

By the way, Tricycle offers online training with Sharon Salzberg in a course called “Kindness,” and there is a free trial teaching:

http://www.tricycle.com/online-retreats/sharon-salzberg-kindness/

♡♡♡