The Must-Read Book Club
Amy DeFilippi: I had just learned about metta meditation and was attending a Yoga Journal conference in Colorado about 12 years ago and walked by it in the marketplace. I didn't know anything about Sharon Salzberg and I fell in love immediately.
YCNYC: Favorite quote?
AD: Currently, my favorite quote is on page 85:
"We would then see that our bodies are joined with the planet in a continual, rhythmic exchange as matter and energy flow back and forth between ourselves and the environment. This is breathing. With each breath we exchange carbon dioxide from within us for oxygen outside us. Normally we take this process for granted, but this exchange, this connection that is going on in every moment, is actually the experience of being alive. We do not live in isolated fragments, completely separate, but as parts of a great, dynamic, mutable whole."
YCNYC: What one person would you recommend this book to?
AD: I think it is especially useful for people who are looking to live in a more loving way. I have given it to several people as a gift because I think the best way to show love is to give someone the tools to love themselves more purely, which is the heart of the practice of metta.
YCNYC: What moment or part resonates with you the most?
AD: Chapter 6 is titled "Breaking Open the Loving Heart." I am a yoga teacher and a psychotherapist and speak with people every day who are experiencing painful loneliness. In this chapter, Sharon explains how we are all connected and supports this idea with practical ways to begin shaping your attention. She asks, "In any given moment, do I strengthen the delusion of separation or the truth of connection?"
You can purchase Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness here.
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