Karaniya Metta Sutta: Exploring India’s Bodh Gaya and Buddhist Meditation with Sharon Salzberg Force For Good 2016 at Tibet House US in New York City
In this short video Sharon Salzberg discusses her personal meditation experience and history since her first trip to Bodh Gaya in 1971 and the Bodhi Tree under which the historical Buddha is said to have achieved enlightenment.
An excerpt from the archive video of the January 2016 teaching on the “The Karaniya Metta Sutta: Vipassana, Loving Kindness + Real Love ” teaching by Sharon Salzberg from the Force For Good Class Series, recorded at Tibet House US in New York City.
Full video includes a sitting meditation + guided loving kindess practice from the Metta Sutta led by Sharon Salzberg.
I co-taught a retreat with old friends Ram Dass, Krishna Das, and Mirabai Bush. I’ve known each of them since I first learned meditation in January 1971 in Bodhgaya, India. In other words, I’ve known each of them a lifetime, or the several lifetimes each of us have lived in the past 44 years.
At my first meditation retreat, Ram Dass was considered the patriarch, the elder. He’d been to India before, he’d been a Harvard professor (albeit fired for psychedelic experimentation), and while we were in that little town in India we received a copy of his seminal book Be Here Now for the first time, in its original box. Much later, I was shocked to realize he was only 38 at the time! Of course, I was only 18 but still — now 38 seems awfully young to be an elder!
Some years later, in 1974, Ram Dass was invited to teach a large class of about 1,000 people at the opening summer of Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. He invited my friend Joseph Goldstein, whom I had also met at my first retreat, to lead the meditation subgroup of the mega-class. I arrived back in the U.S. from my second trip studying meditation in India about halfway through the first summer session of Naropa.
Sharon Salzberg via On Being
This talk was recorded during the 2016 Force For Good Class Series at Tibet House US in New York City.
“Karaniya Metta Sutta: Exploring India’s Bodh Gaya and Buddhist Meditation with Sharon Salzberg Force For Good 2016” at Tibet House US in New York City by Zipporah via Flickr.com.
‘A Force For Good’ is a Tibet House US course to further the Dalai Lama’s contemporary world initiatives, from His Holiness’ American Institute of Buddhist Studies and Mind & Life Institute science dialogues (Universe in a Single Atom) and His creation of Abhidharma 2.0 through the “Science for Monks” programs, his “secular ethics” (Ethics for the New Millennium and Beyond Religion), His nonviolent approach to conflict resolution, including His Nobel Peace Laureate activities to seek dialogue and a win-win reconciliation with China in the face of the ongoing ethnicidal policies in Tibet (Freedom in Exile and Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of Tibet’s Dalai Lama) & along with his emphasis on positive activism (A New Reality: Charter of Universal Responsibility).
To join the on-going #ForceForGood series please visit: www.tibethouse.us.
To watch more videos from past ‘Force for Good’ programs please visit the Tibet House US Member Archive, available to monthly supporters.
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? Music by Tenzin Choegyal, Used with Permission www.tenzinchoegyal.com.
Sharon Salzberg is a central figure in the field of meditation, a world-renowned teacher and New York 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 including NY Times bestseller, Real Happiness, her seminal work, Loving Kindness and her most release by Flatiron Books, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection.
Suggested Books + Audio by Sharon Salzberg
Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection (Book), Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation (Book), Real Happiness at Work (Book), Voices of Insight (Book), Loving Kindness (Book), Faith (Book), Love Your Enemies (Book), Heart as Wide as the World (Book), Insight Meditation : A Step by Step Course on How To Meditate (Audio + Book), Room to Breathe: An At-Home Meditation Retreat (Audio), Loving Kindness Meditation (Audio) & Guided Meditations for Love & Wisdom (Audio).
To learn more about Sharon Salzberg please visit:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
To learn about the Annual Dharma + Meditation retreat with Sharon Salzberg & Robert AF Thurman at Menla please visit: www.menla.us.
To watch more recordings from this & other past THUS Programs please consider becoming a monthly supporter. To learn about the benefits of Tibet House US Membership please visit: www.tibethouse.us.
