Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 596: Is It Really Possible (Or Wise) to Send Good Vibes to Literally Everyone? | Bonus Meditation with Sharon Salzberg

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Tame your inner curmudgeon and turn up the good vibes by wishing everyone well. And we mean e v e r y o n e.About Sharon Salzberg:A towering figure in the meditation world, Sharon Salzberg is a prominent teacher & New York Times best-selling author. She has played a crucial role bringing mindfulness and lovingkindness practices to the West.Sharon co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield and is the author of nine books, including Lovingkindness, Real Happiness, and the most recent Real Life. Sharon lives in New York City and teaches around the world.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Loving-Kindness for Everyone,” or click here: https://10percenthappier.app.link/content?meditation=f076298b-88ca-4fb7-a723-941f5e61913dSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it even mean to live a good life? Is it about happiness, purpose, love, health, or wealth? What really matters in the pursuit of a life well lived? These are the questions award-winning author, founder, and interviewer Jonathan Fields asks his guests on the Top Ranked Good Life Project podcast. Every week, Jonathan sits down with world renowned thinkers and doers, people like Glenn and Doyle, Adam Grant,

Young Pueblo, Jonathan Height, and hundreds more. Start listening right now. Look for the Good Life Project on your favorite podcast app. This is the 10% happier podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hello, happy Friday. It's bonus meditation time. Every Wednesday this month, we've been doing a deep dive on a classic Buddhist list called the Eightfold Path.

Earlier this week, we talked with the Buddhist teacher, Eugene Cash, about how living an ethical life can actually be quite self-interested. Accordingly, today's bonus meditation with Sharon Salisberg is going to nudge you to send good vibes to other people, even people you do not like. This can be hard, counterintuitive, but it can also make you a lot happier. Just a little bit about Sharon. She's a New York Times bestselling author, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society alongside Joseph Goldstein and Jack Cornfield. And she was most recently a guest here on the show back on April 10th when we talked about her new

book Real Life. So go back and check that out if you missed it. In the meantime, here we go now with Sharon Salisberg. Hi, this is Sharon. In this meditation, we'll explore loving kindness. Loving kindness doesn't mean we necessarily like someone who approve of them, but we can develop a bone-deep sense of the interconnectedness of us all. Loving kindness is a force, one that counters our habits of fear and counters the kind of incestant judgment that keeps us feeling cut off and alone. To begin, you can close your eyes if you feel comfortable.

The practice of loving kindness meditation is done by silently repeating certain phrases that express kind wishes for whomever we choose as a recipient, culminating in loving-kindness for all. Let's offer loving-kindness to a friend. You can start with a friend who's doing well right now. They're enjoying success or good fortune in some aspect of life. You can get an image of them, say their name to yourself, and offer phrases of loving kindness to them. Maybe safe, maybe happy, maybe healthy, maybe live with ease,

gently repeat the phrases, focusing all of your attention on one phrase at a time. Find a rhythm that's pleasing to you with enough space and enough silence. May you be safe. Be happy. Be healthy. Live with ease. And now, offering these phrases to the many who are trying to serve, to make a difference in this world, to ease others' pain or suffering. Maybe happy. Maybe healthy. Maybe live with ease. We then move on to offer the phrases of loving-kindness to all beings everywhere, without distinction,

without exception, without separation. This is an expression of our capacity to connect to and care for all of life. So begin with the phrase, may all beings be safe, may all beings be happy, May all beings be happy. May all beings be healthy. May all beings live with ease. And when you feel ready, you can open your eyes or lift your gaze and will end the meditation. Notice of the qualities you cultivated during this meditation affect you throughout the day. Thank you for your practice. Thanks again to Sharon.

You can find more meditations from her and many other great teachers over on the 10% happier meditation app. Just download the app wherever you get your apps to get started. And we'll see you right back here on Monday for a brand new episode with Mike D from Beasty Boys. Hey, hey, prime members. You can listen to 10% happier early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery

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