Speaker Series: Real Happiness at Work with Sharon Salzberg

Pre-registration is closed.  There are still seats available.  See you at (or before) Noon today in Nau Hall 101.

Real Happiness At Work:
 
In this talk we will explore a path to finding real happiness at work. Despite the many hours we tend to spend working, that arena of our lives may not be the source of great fulfillment or meaning. We will look at the qualities that can turn that around, including mindfulness, compassion, resiliency, integrity, and open awareness, and learn practices that help cultivate each of these. Suitable for both new and experienced meditators, the talk will consist of a guided meditation, and time for questions and answers.

Sharon Salzberg Biography:

Sharon Salzberg has been a student of Buddhism since 1971, and leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Her latest book is Real Happiness At Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement, and Peace (published by Workman Publishing).  She is also the author of the NY Times best seller Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28-Day Program (published by Workman Publishing, 2011), Love Your Enemies: How to Break the Anger Habit & Be a Whole Lot Happier with Robert Thurman (published by Hay House, 2013), The Kindness Handbook (published by Sounds True, 2008); The Force of Kindness (published by Sounds True, 2005); Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience (published by Riverhead Books, August, 2002); Lovingkindess: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom, and Compassion (both published by Shambhala Publications); co-author with Joseph Goldstein of Insight Meditation: A Step-by-Step Course on How to Meditate (Sounds True) and editor of Voices of Insight (Shambhala).

Sharon's work is non sectarian, though based on the ancient Buddhist practices of vipassana (mindfulness or insight) and metta (lovingkindness), the aim of which is to deepen awareness and compassion, giving rise to greater peace and happiness.

In 1971, in Bodh Gaya, India, Sharon attended her first meditation course. She spent the next three-and-a-half years engaged in intensive practice and study with highly respected teachers from India, Burma and Tibet. Sharon returned to America in 1974 and began teaching insight meditation and leading retreats. In 1976, she established, together with Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, which is now one of the most renowned and active meditation centers in the Western world. Retreats of varying lengths, offering intensive training in meditative skills and contemplative practices, are presented throughout the year and are attended by people of many diverse religious backgrounds and interests.

Participation in the meditation courses at IMS has grown dramatically over the last 30 years. Insight meditation centers and practice groups are now established in dozens of cities across the country and IMS's publication, Insight Newsletter, has a circulation of around 20,000. IMS has been featured in mainstream journals and periodicals, including The Boston Globe, The New York Times Sunday Magazine and Time magazine's cover articles on Buddhism in America and The Science of Meditation.

Sharon continues to teach internationally, and her books have been translated into Spanish, German, Italian, Vietnamese, Dutch and Chinese. Past retreat venues have included England, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Australia, Poland, Israel and Sweden, as well as across the United States. She also created, together with Joseph Goldstein, a correspondence course on insight meditation (published by Sounds True audio) for anyone unable to attend retreats --a program that has made the in-depth study of meditation more within reach.  Many of Sharon's talks on meditation, as well as guided meditations are available through Sounds True, Dharma Seed  www.dharmaseed.org, and the IMS website www.dharma.org. 

In addition, Sharon has emerged as a featured speaker, panelist and meditation teacher at cutting edge events, such as the Mind and Life Institute’s conferences with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, discussing scientific research into the effects of meditation on the mind; the State of the World Forum; the Peacemakers Conference (sharing a plenary panel with Nobel Laureates the Dalai Lama and Jose Ramos Horta) and Jerry Brown's inauguration as mayor of Oakland. She has delivered keynotes at Tricycle’s Buddhism in America event, Yoga Journal, Kripalu and Omega conferences, the Gethsemani encounter (a Buddhist-Christian dialogue including the Dalai Lama and various Christian dignitaries), and at Washington National Cathedral’s Sacred Circles women’s interfaith conference in DC.

She has conducted in-house training for mainstream organizations interested in utilizing meditation, including Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, the Fetzer Foundation, the Yale law school (for the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society), and the Garrison Institute’s initiative for transforming trauma (working with domestic violence shelter workers and supervisors). She has also offered meditation training to families of 9/11 victims and war veterans.

Sharon has been included in various compilations of the spiritual landscape of our times, including Meetings with Remarkable Women, Gifts of the Spirit, A Complete Guide to Buddhist America, Handbook of the Heart, The Best Guide to Meditation and From the Ashes - A Spiritual Response to the Attack on America. She is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, and was a contributing editor of Oprah’s O Magazine for many years. Over the last ten years she has appeared in Time Magazine, Yoga Journal, msnbc.com, Tricycle, Real Simple, Body & Soul, Mirabella, Good Housekeeping, Self, Buddhadharma, More and Shambhala Sun, as well as on a variety of radio programs. Her meditations can be heard online at www.sharonsalzberg.com and www.dharmaseed.org.

Sharon resides in Barre, Massachusetts and New York City.