The Insight Meditation Society is one of North America's oldest institutions dedicated to bringing the life-changing gifts of mindfulness training to the West. On Lovingkindness Meditation, IMS cofounder and senior instructor Sharon Salzberg guides you through a six-step meditation designed to access the human heart's own limitless source of supreme energy-the energy of love. Known traditionally as metta (an ancient Buddhist term meaning "lovingkindness"), this timeless practice is an easy-tolearn method for unlocking your greatest internal resource for healing others and yourself. Here is a universal meditation to help you: Melt away feelings of isolation Awaken true compassion, even for those who have hurt you Find freedom from needless, self-created suffering Learn to trust your own loving, intelligent heart, and much more. Among the world's contemplative traditions, the meditation about how to love is perhaps the most basic-and most powerful. Lovingkindness Meditation is the perfect introduction to this enriching practice.
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About the Author
Sharon Salzberg has studied and practiced meditation with Burmese, Indian, and Tibetan teachers for the past 25 years. She is a cofounder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where she lives and teaches. She is the author of Lovingkindness, A Heart As Wide As the World, and, on audio, Lovingkindness Meditation and A Heart As Wide As the World.
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80 of 80 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring but not sentimentalized, makes the practice seem doable!
October 27, 2005
By Melusine62
Format:Audio CD
Highly recommended! I really enjoyed Sharon Salzburg's introduction to the Buddhist metta practice, Lovingkindness Meditation. This is more of an education/explanation of metta than guided meditation sessions (i.e., she does not have long, substantive, discrete meditation sessions, but works brief examples into her explanation), but I found the explanation so good that it gave me an excellent intro to metta, which I subsequently felt like I could practice on my own. In fact, I had an interesting and symbolic dream about a mentor/benefactor figure the same night I had tried out the metta practice and included him, so it seemed the meditation reached my subconscious too!
Ms. Salzburg's presentation is detailed, conversational in style, and easily accessible to Westerners without seeming like a simplification, sentimentalization, or co-opting of the original practice. Her examples and stories given along the way make metta seem doable and practical and not like some overly idealized level of compassion that is impossible for many of us to reach. The Sounds True website has sound samples of this work (and many of their other authors' CDs and cassettes), something Amazon should be doing as well. If you like this tape, you might also enjoy the meditation CD (also available on Amazon) by Bodhipaksa titled "Guided Meditations: For Developing Calmness, Awareness, and Love," which includes a complete metta practice, along with two other meditations. I found Salzberg and Bodhipaksa's works very complementary--the Bodhipaksa CD gives a complete 27-minute meditation session of metta in an incredibly soothing voice, while this tape provides the in-depth explanation that gives the practice sense and purpose.
Ms. Salzburg's presentation is detailed, conversational in style, and easily accessible to Westerners without seeming like a simplification, sentimentalization, or co-opting of the original practice. Her examples and stories given along the way make metta seem doable and practical and not like some overly idealized level of compassion that is impossible for many of us to reach. The Sounds True website has sound samples of this work (and many of their other authors' CDs and cassettes), something Amazon should be doing as well. If you like this tape, you might also enjoy the meditation CD (also available on Amazon) by Bodhipaksa titled "Guided Meditations: For Developing Calmness, Awareness, and Love," which includes a complete metta practice, along with two other meditations. I found Salzberg and Bodhipaksa's works very complementary--the Bodhipaksa CD gives a complete 27-minute meditation session of metta in an incredibly soothing voice, while this tape provides the in-depth explanation that gives the practice sense and purpose.
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Inspirational Sharon Salzberg does a beautiful gentle talk and meditation all about love and living. I noticed a difference in the way I felt about life after listening to it only one time. It is an important tool for meditation and an awakened happy life. You won't be sorry to own this one.
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful
By Frank Baird
Format:Audio CD
I was disappointed in this CD. I really like the author's ideas and have read her books. The title of this CD suggested to me that these were guided Lovingkindness meditations, not a spoken word description of her work and ideas.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Edie L.
Format:Audio CD
This is an excellent audiobook that provides a comprehensive overview of metta (lovingkindness) practice. I actually bought it thinking it was a companion audiobook of guided meditations to her book Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, but it turns out that this is essentially an audiobook version of that book!
She has a very pleasant, calming voice, and is easy to listen to. However, it's not so soothing that she makes me fall asleep - I've listened to it in my car. I will certainly be buying more of her books and audiobooks. Highly recommended!
She has a very pleasant, calming voice, and is easy to listen to. However, it's not so soothing that she makes me fall asleep - I've listened to it in my car. I will certainly be buying more of her books and audiobooks. Highly recommended!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This cd exceeded my expectations. Her calm soothing voice makes listening to the cd easy but her message makes a lot of sense as well. I higly recommend this to anyone who would like to have love for themselves or others.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By CB
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Worth listening and listening one time after another. I always pick something new or different that I probably missed or skipped before. Very well balanced, the speach, the silence!!!
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