Ep. 287 – Engaged Compassion: Mirabai Bush
Metta Hour with Sharon Salzberg
Be Here Now Network
4.6 • 682 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Buddha taught a path of awakened living, but how does that manifest in today’s world of constant connectivity and widespread suffering?
How do we keep our hearts open without being defined or hardened by the pain that surrounds us, whether personal, collective, or historical? How do we navigate the paradox of holding both pain and joy, without mistaking suffering for punishment or personal failure? Can we infuse our compassion with wisdom and perspective to find the agency to take meaningful action in our communities? In her new series, Engaged Compassion, Sharon delves into these questions and more, engaging in candid conversations with a diverse group of teachers, activists, and changemakers.
For the fifth episode in the series, Sharon speaks with Mirabai Bush, marking her third appearance on the Metta Hour. Mirabai is an author, social entrepreneur, teacher, and spiritual leader. She is recognized for her pioneering role in integrating mindfulness and contemplative practices into secular sectors of American life, including business, higher education, law, and social activism. Mirabai’s contributions include co-founding influential organizations such as the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and the Seva Foundation and co-developing Google's Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. She is also a longtime board member of the Love Serve Remember Foundation. Her latest book, Almost Home, is a memoir published in 2025.
Please note this conversation contains discussion of gun violence during and civil unrest at Kent State University in 1970.
In this conversation, Mirabai and Sharon speak about:
- The process of writing a memoir
- Why Mirabai went to the East
- What drew Mirabai to activism
- Meeting Ram Dass and Neem Karoli Baba
- Mirabai in the civil rights movement
- Sustaining engagement over time
- Non-attachment alongside passion
- Loving Awareness as taught by Ram Dass
- How acceptance leads to change-making
- The role of hope in activism
- Revolution is bread and roses
- Seva Foundation’s roots
- Mirabai’s advice for social engagement
- Staying informed in a balanced way
- How communities respond to compassion action
- The Lovingkindness Nun in Burma
Additional Resources
To close out the episode, Mirabai leads a “Just Like Me” meditation. Learn more about Mirabai’s work right here. Her most recent book, Almost Home, is available right here. You can listen to Mirabai’s previous episodes on the Metta Hour here and here.
Related Metta Hour Episodes
Episode 94 Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush on the Metta Hour, released in 2019.
Episode 114 Remembering Ram Dass with Mirabai Bush and Raghu Markus on the Metta Hour, released in 2020.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Meta Hour podcast with Sharon Salzberg. |
| 0:15.2 | I'm Lily Cushman. I produce this podcast and today we are returning with our fourth episode of the |
| 0:24.6 | Engaged Compassion series. This is the fourth episode in this series and our guest today is the |
| 0:34.0 | wonderful, the one, the only nearby bush. |
| 0:38.3 | For those of you in the Ram Dass world, you know her as a longtime member of the Love Serve Remember Foundation. |
| 0:47.3 | She's part of the Maui retreats that have been going on for many years with Ram Dass, |
| 0:53.3 | and we're delighted today to have her as part of this series. |
| 0:58.3 | So this series is something Sharon's been wanting to do as a way to kind of address the different ways we can apply the teachings of Buddhist practice, of meditation practice, towards engagement in our lives, |
| 1:15.6 | and the nuance of being open-hearted in the world of widespread suffering. |
| 1:22.7 | So how do we keep our hearts open without being hardened by the pain around us or defined by it? |
| 1:30.5 | How do we navigate paradox of holding both pain and joy without spiritual bypass |
| 1:37.4 | or mistaking suffering as some kind of punishment or personal failure? |
| 1:44.9 | So Sharon's been talking to a lot of different teachers, activists, change makers, |
| 1:50.7 | and we're adding Mirabai to that conversation today. |
| 1:55.5 | For those who don't know Mirabai, This is her third appearance on the podcast. |
| 2:01.7 | She is an author, a social entrepreneur, teacher, a spiritual leader. |
| 2:07.4 | She's had a pioneering role in the integration of mindfulness and contemplative practice |
| 2:12.4 | in secular sectors of American life, including the business world, the higher education realm, law, |
| 2:19.6 | and social activism. And she's also celebrating a recent publication. Her memoir, Almost Home, |
| 2:29.3 | which was published in 2025. I do want to mention a content warning for this conversation. There is some |
| 2:36.5 | discussion of gun violence and civil unrest that happened in Kent State University in 1970. |
| 2:43.8 | So you have a heads up on that before listening further. And one of the fun things about |
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