Ep. 274 – Kid's Series: Meena Srinivasan
Metta Hour with Sharon Salzberg
Be Here Now Network
4.6 • 682 Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2025
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For episode 274, we are continuing a new series on the Metta Hour, centered on kids, in honor of Sharon’s first children’s book, Kind Karl, coming out on December 9th!
Co-authored by Jason Gruhl, this illustrated picture book is for 4-8 year-olds and is a new children’s adaptation of Sharon’s beloved book Lovingkindness.
To learn more about Sharon’s forthcoming children’s book, Kind Karl, and pre-order a copy with a special pre-order gift, you can visit Sharon’s website, right here.
For this podcast series, Sharon speaks with educators, caregivers, and researchers about the ways meditation, mindfulness, and lovingkindness can impact children of all ages and the family systems that support them. For the third episode of the series, Sharon speaks with Meena Srinivasan.
Meena Srinivasan is an educational leader, speaker, author, and visionary edupreneur. With over two decades of dedicated service, she has consistently championing the fusion of Mindfulness and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). In 2022, she was featured as one of Mindful Magazine's "Ten Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement," while also gaining recognition in Educational Leadership Magazine for her insights into Mindful Leadership and Wellbeing. Her recent TEDx Talk on Tenderness is one of the most popular talks of 2024 with more than 2 million views. A dedicated practitioner for more than 25 years, Meena is a newly ordained lay Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition, in the lineage of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, who calls her a “precious ambassador of mindfulness.”
In this conversation, Meena and Sharon speak about:
- Aligning inner life with outer work
- Meena’s early spiritual foundation in Hindu culture
- Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
- SEL practices for different ages & environments
- Smell the Flower and Blow Out the Candle meditations
- Supporting kids in crisis
- Thích Nhất Hạnh’s School of Interbeing
- The importance of parents'’ and educators’ well-being
- Community practice as a necessity
- Transformative Educational Leadership
- Meena’s research on tenderness with Yale
- Tenderness versus compassion, vulnerability & empathy
- The Three Breath Hug Meditation
- The Non-Toothache Meditation
The episode closes with Meena leading guided practice. You can learn more about Meena’s work on her website, right here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Compounding global conflicts, an intensifying climate crisis, and a rise in authoritarianism, |
| 0:07.7 | has many of us feeling a mix of fear, anxiety, and a real need for support. |
| 0:13.6 | On Wednesday, December 10th, join 10% Happier podcast host Dan Harris and Buddhist teacher Ethan |
| 0:20.2 | Ethan Nicktern for a free online conversation |
| 0:23.1 | about how Buddhist teachings can help us stay grounded, available, and engaged, even when the |
| 0:29.3 | world feels like it's on fire. They'll also discuss the upcoming Dharma Moon year-long Buddhist |
| 0:35.7 | studies program and how studying Buddhism can help us show up more fully for ourselves and others during difficult times. |
| 0:43.3 | Visit www.darmamoon.com backslash stability for more info and to reserve your spot for the free online event on December 10th. |
| 1:05.7 | Hello, and welcome to the Meta Hour podcast with Sharon Salzberg. |
| 1:11.9 | I'm Lily Cushman. I produce this podcast. |
| 1:15.7 | And today we are returning with another episode of our kids series, episode 274. |
| 1:24.4 | And this kid's series is in honor of Sharon's very first children's book, Kind Carl, |
| 1:32.1 | which is coming out on December 9th. |
| 1:35.3 | So for this podcast series, Sharon is speaking with different educators, caregivers, researchers, |
| 1:43.3 | all about the many ways that mindfulness, meditation, and |
| 1:48.8 | loving kindness can impact children, as well as the family systems that support those children. |
| 1:55.9 | So this is a way to just amplify the work of these amazing folks whose work centers in this area. |
| 2:03.7 | And we're so pleased for this third episode in the series, Sharon is joined by |
| 2:10.4 | Mina Srinivassan. |
| 2:13.5 | Mina is an educational leader. |
| 2:16.4 | She's a speaker, an author. She calls herself an eduproeneur. |
| 2:22.0 | She has over two decades of dedicated service working to champion the fusion of mindfulness |
... |
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