A Heart As Wide As The World

Book Summary

In A Heart as Wide as the World, one of America's most popular Buddhist teachers offers a book of encouragement and inspiration for anyone on the spiritual path. In short sections that include many stories and anecdotes culled from her twenty-five years as a student and teacher of Buddhist meditation, Sharon Salzberg reveals how our own happiness is found in the capacity to open our hearts to others. And that this capacity is far more vast than we ever thought possible. Through meditation and the practice of lovingkindness, we can discover our intimate connection to those around us and to the world as a whole. This realization acts like a hidden storehouse of strength, allowing us to face whatever the world offers us with wisdom and compassion. In these pages, Sharon Salzberg shows us that our heart can be truly as wide as the world. The Buddhist teachings have the power to transform our lives for the better, says Sharon Salzberg, and all we need to bring about this transformation can be found in the ordinary events of our everyday experiences. Salzberg distills more than twenty-five years of teaching and practicing meditation into a series of short essays, rich with anecdotes and personal revelations, that offer genuine aid and comfort for anyone on the spiritual path. Many chance moments, both small and profound, serve as the basis for Salzberg's teachings: hearing a market stall hawker calling "I have what you need "; noting hotel guests' reactions to a midnight fire alarm; watching her teacher, Dipa Ma, bless a belligerent dog; seeing the Dalai Lama laughing uproariously at his own mistake. Each passing moment, Salzberg shows, can help us down the path toward "a seamlessness of connection and an unbounded heart."

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