Ep. 269 – Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances Part 1
Metta Hour with Sharon Salzberg
Be Here Now Network
4.6 • 682 Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For episode 269, we bring you the first of a two-part episode from the archives.Recorded in the early 2010s in a visit to Asheville, North Carolina, Sharon is teaching on Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances.
In this teaching, Sharon speaks about:
• Her travel adventure to North Carolina
• Her first impressions of Asian philosophy
• Changing our relationship to joy & delight
• Transforming our relationship to suffering
• Awakening to the realm of neutral experiences
• Sharon’s first time meditating
• The three skills of meditation
• Sharon’s mantra of “something will happen”
• The deepening of concentration
• Our tendency to project into the future
• Mindfulness is not passive
• The magic moment in meditation
The episode closes with Sharon leading a guided meditation practice. Stay tuned for the second half of this teaching, which will be released in two weeks' time in Part 2 of Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.co. |
| 0:05.5 | That's audible.co.uk slash wondery. |
| 0:10.8 | Hello and welcome to the Meta Hour podcast with Sharon Salzberg. |
| 0:27.7 | I'm Lily Kushman. I produce this podcast. And we're back today with episode 269,ult Circumstances. This is part one of a two-part episode from the archives. |
| 0:45.1 | This was recorded in the early 2010s when Sharon traveled to Asheville, North Carolina to give a weekend teaching on loving |
| 0:56.6 | kindness and difficult circumstances, which feels more and more relevant as time goes on. |
| 1:04.8 | In this teaching, Sharon starts the program talking about her rather arduous two-day travel adventure reaching North |
| 1:13.6 | Carolina and the hilariousness of how she had to apply love and kindness in her difficult |
| 1:21.7 | travel circumstances. |
| 1:24.3 | She then goes on to share what her first impressions of Asian philosophy were back in college as a young woman, |
| 1:31.3 | and goes on to discuss how we can change our relationship to joy, to delight, |
| 1:37.3 | how we can transform our relationship to suffering, and also awaken to the realm of the often ignored neutral experiences. |
| 1:47.0 | Sharon shares about her first time meditating and then goes on to introduce the three skills of meditation. |
| 1:56.0 | She shares about her lifelong mantra, something will happen, which I can personally attest |
| 2:02.8 | is very active in her life today as a mantra. |
| 2:07.0 | She goes on to talk about how we can deepen the force of concentration in our lives |
| 2:13.1 | and some of the natural pitfalls and add-ons that we can work with, like our tendency to project into the future. |
| 2:23.0 | She also speaks about how mindfulness is not a passive submission in life, but a very positive, engaged way of being. |
| 2:32.5 | And to close out this first part of a two-part series, she leads a guided meditation. |
| 2:40.9 | Okay, and there are no announcements today, so let's just dive right in. |
| 2:46.5 | Loving kindness in difficult circumstances, part one. |
| 3:04.6 | Okay. loving kindness in difficult circumstances, part one. So, thank you. How is, am I being amplified at all? Yeah, there I guess. Is this sound okay? |
... |
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