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Mindrolling with Raghu Markus

Ep. 603 – Wise Fear and Aging Mindfully with Sharon Salzberg and Noah Markus

Mindrolling with Raghu Markus

Be Here Now Network

Religion, News, Mindrolling, Mindpodnetwork, Mindpod, Meditation, Society & Culture, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Consciousness, Mindrollingpodcast, Psychedelics

4.7543 Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Joined by his son, Noah, Raghu invites Sharon Salzberg onto Mindrolling for an expansive conversation on embracing change, understanding the roots of our fear, and aging mindfully. 

Mindrolling is brought to you by Reunion. Reunion is offering $250 off any stay to the Love, Serve, Remember community. Simply use the code “BeHere250” when booking. Disconnect from the world so you can reconnect with yourself at Reunion.  Hotel | www.reunionhotelandwellness.com Retreats | www.reunionexperience.org

In this episode, Raghu, Sharon, and Noah explore:

  • The illusion of invulnerability in youth and how our relationship to mortality evolves with age
  • The dreamlike and fleeting nature of time and memory
  • The societal messages that falsely promise permanence and control
  • Sharon’s concept of ‘misplaced faith’ and the belief that clinging tightly can stop change
  • Offering compassion to ourselves when we notice resistance to impermanence
  • Keeping our sense of adventure and curiosity alive, even as it shifts with age
  • Letting go of rigid expectations and finding new paths to meaning and fulfillment
  • Holding space for the hard work of aging while recognizing what truly sustains us
  • Post-stroke wisdom from Ram Dass and the important distinction between pain and suffering
  • Giving yourself a break: the value of not layering blame, shame, or permanence on top of already difficult life experiences
  • The three jewels of Buddhism and how practice can help us navigate change and aging 
  • Asking ourselves what we can count on and what is still true as we grow older 
  • Maintaining the Sangha and social connection as one of our life forces
  • Understanding a bhikkhu, or monk, as someone who "fears wisely" or "sees danger"
  • Being able to look at the roots of our fear 
  • Ram Dass’ phrase ‘Walking Each Other Home” and what it means to Sharon

Check out the book Still Here by Ram Dass to look deeper into changing, aging, and dying

About Sharon Salzberg:

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is one of the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of twelve books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, and her seminal work, Lovingkindness. Her podcast, The Metta Hour, has amassed five million downloads and features interviews with thought leaders from the mindfulness movement and beyond. Learn more about Sharon and her books at www.sharonsalzberg.com and check out Insight Meditation Society.

Dive into Vipassana practice with Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein on Sounds True. 

​​“Most of us have a habit of adding on to that original pain. A sense of isolation, a sense of permanence, a sense of the future, a sense of blame. We pile on and consolidate and what was originally a painful experience becomes this mass of condensed suffering and it hurts so much more. That's why the impetus to let go of those add-ons really comes from a sense of compassion for ourselves. Give yourself a break, it already hurts.” – Sharon Salzberg

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, everyone, it's Ragu, back with Mind Rolling, and I'm really happy to have two individuals that I love dearly Sharon Salzberg

0:23.0

and Noah Marcus and we're hi hi every welcome and hi and we have a very specific agenda here

0:34.4

and it might as well speak to it We are doing a course through Love Server

0:40.9

Member Foundation in the fall, and this is 2025, the end of September, early October,

0:48.5

that is around walking each other home, is the name of the course,

0:55.1

which speaks to aging and all of the, and death and grief,

1:03.2

you know, all of the difficulties that we all engage with one time or another

1:08.0

in our lives and certainly towards the end of them.

1:11.1

So Noah thought,

1:14.9

we need an expert here.

1:18.9

Of course, I said to Sharon,

1:20.3

do you want to do a podcast around aging?

1:22.2

She said, well, okay, I qualify.

1:24.4

And so that's where we are.

1:27.3

And so do I. But before Noah starts and takes this over,

1:33.3

I was with Ram Dass. I don't know. I mean, it's a long time. And this book came out after his stroke.

1:43.3

And he was in the middle of, he was just finishing it when he had his stroke.

1:47.7

And this book is called Still Here.

1:50.6

And it's a really great book.

1:53.0

But so I read it, and I don't know, it was probably in the early 2000s or something.

1:58.5

I was with him, and I said, you know, I read your new book. It's just

2:03.2

awful, Romdots. Everything that you say in it that is about people who are absolutely denying

...

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