A Heart As Wide As The World (The Book)

"The world of silence and intuitive understanding that we enter in meditation is perhaps unlike any place we have known before." - Sharon Salzberg, "A Heart As Wide As The World"

I recently read Sharon Salzberg's book, subtitled "Stories on the Path of Lovingkindness." This is a book review, but not in the sense that I'm gonna feed you my opinions about what was good or bad about the book. In the other sense of the word "review," I'm actually just reviewing what I got out of the book so that I might retain a bit more of what I learned. I put some bookmarks in where I got some good stuff, so I'll share those with you here.

In the book, each chapter is a small story illustrating an important point about meditation. Each chapter is a bite size chunk complete in itself, and that makes it fun to read. Here are some of the bites I really savored...

When she talks about concentration on an object (such as the breath), I was particularly moved by this passage, "there is almost a sense of cherishing the concentration object; sometimes, it's as if we are protecting it. But we never need to clutch it tightly or grimly; we simply practice with a quality of devotion." I like those words: cherishing, and devotion. Yes. What mind wouldn't want to be cherished and to experience devotion?

When she discusses remorse, I found myself moved again by the wisdom of her meditation teacher, Sayadaw U Pandita. He was talking with a student who was experiencing tremendous guilt and remorse over an incident in his past. This was the Sayadaw's advice, "'The honest knowledge that you have done wrong is painful. You are your own best witness; you can't hide from yourself. Now it is time to move on; watch the painful feeling peacefully, without aversion, and your mind will feel ease.'" Just reading those words, my mind begins to feel ease. Before meditation, I had no idea how many painful memories I was holding on to. But, "now it is time to move on." ahhhh...

The chapter called "Seeing Pain," was also quite useful for direct application in my meditation practice. "Explore the texture of pain rather than feeling crushed by it," she writes.

She also sprinkles in some great quotes from other wise beings, many of which I'd never heard before. I love great quotes, so here are just a few:

"The dancer Isadora Duncan once said: 'If I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing it.'"

"Our lives are made up, as Emerson put it, of 'the vanishing volatile froth of the present which any shadow will alter, any thought blow away, any event annihilate.'"

"Ghandi described his life mission in just three words: 'Renounce and enjoy.'"

If I were to distill the whole book down in my mind to one core message, I think it was really an inspiration to be kind to ourselves, to give ourselves to each moment, and to live fully with a heart wide open.