Sharon Salzberg Quotes About Suffering

Quotes about: Suffering

• By engaging in a delusive quest for happiness, we bring only suffering upon ourselves. In our frantic search for something to quench our thirst, we overlook the water all around us and drive ourselves into exile from our own lives.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Water, Suffering, Quests

  Sharon Salzberg (2008). “Lovingkindness”, p.14, Shambhala Publications

• All beings want to be happy, yet so very few know how. It is out of ignorance that any of us cause suffering, for ourselves or for others

  Sharon Salzberg

  Ignorance, Suffering, Mindfulness

  Sharon Salzberg (2008). “Lovingkindness”, p.99, Shambhala Publications

• We need the compassion and the courage to change the conditions that support our suffering. Those conditions are things like ignorance, bitterness, negligence, clinging, and holding on.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Ignorance, Compassion, Support

  "One Who Protects The Truth Will Be Protected By It" by Sharon Salzberg, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 10, 2010.

• To remember non-attachment is to remember what freedom is all about. If we get attached, even to a beautiful state of being, we are caught, and ultimately we will suffer. We work to observe anything that comes our way, experience it while it is here, and be able to let go of it.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Beautiful, Letting Go, Attachment

  "The Buddha’s Five Protections - Part 2" by Sharon Salzberg, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 19, 2010.

• Compassion allows us to use our own pain and the pain of others as a vehicle for connection. This is a delicate and profound path. We may be adverse to seeing our own suffering because it tends to ignite a blaze of self-blame and regret. And we may be adverse to seeing suffering in others because we find it unbearable or distasteful, or we find it threatening to our own happiness. All of these possible reactions to the suffering in the word make us want to turn away from life.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Pain, Regret, Compassion

  Sharon Salzberg (2008). “The Kindness Handbook: A Practical Companion”, p.24, Sounds True

• In contrast, compassion manifests in us as the offering of kindness rather than withdrawal. Because compassion is a state of mind that is itself open, abundant and inclusive, it allows us to meet pain more directly. With direct seeing, we know that we are not alone in our suffering and that no one need feel alone when in pain. Seeing our oneness is the beginning of compassion, and it allows us to reach beyond aversion and separation.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Pain, Kindness, Compassion

  Sharon Salzberg (2008). “The Kindness Handbook: A Practical Companion”, p.24, Sounds True

• Compassion allows us to bear witness to suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear; it allows us to name injustice without hesitation, to act strongly, with all the skill at our disposal.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Compassion, Skills, Names

  FaceBook post by Sharon Salzberg from Jun 19, 2016

• Throughout our lives we long to love ourselves more deeply and to feel connected with others. Instead, we often contract, fear intimacy, and suffer a bewildering sense of separation. We crave love, and yet we are lonely. Our delusion of being separate from one another, of being apart from all that is around us, gives rise to all of this pain.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Lonely, Emo, Pain

  "Lovingkindness". Book by Sharon Salzberg, July 14, 2014.

• As we look around, it's very clear that in this world people do outrageous things to one another all of the time. It's not that these qualities or actions make us bad people, but they bring tremendous suffering if we don't know how to work with them.

  Sharon Salzberg

  People, Suffering, Quality

  "The Buddha’s Five Protections - Part 1" by Sharon Salzberg, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 29, 2010.

• It's a rare and precious thing to be close to suffering because our society - in many ways - tells us that suffering is wrong. If it's our own suffering, we try to hide it or isolate ourselves. If others are suffering, we're taught to put them away somewhere so we don't have to see it.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Suffering, Trying, Our Society

• One of the primary conditions for suffering is denial. Shutting our mind to pain, whether in ourselves or others, only ensures that it will continue. We must have the strength to face it without turning away. By opening to the pain we see around us with wisdom and compassion, we start to experience the intimate connection of our relationship with all beings.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Pain, Compassion, Mind

• In our own lives and in our communities, we need to find a way to include others rather than exclude them. We need to find a way to allow our pain and suffering, individually and collectively.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Pain, Community, Suffering

  "Taking a Shot at Peace" by Suna Senman, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 9, 2013.

• In order to do anything about the suffering of the world we must have the strength to face it without turning away.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Order, Suffering, World

  FaceBook post by Sharon Salzberg from May 07, 2013

• Some things hurt, you know, and there's pain. But we magnify the suffering of it often, I think, by our reactions.

  Sharon Salzberg

  Hurt, Pain, Thinking

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