Taking Right Action

www.sharonsalzberg.com

Taking Action

“One of the primary conditions for suffering is denial. Shutting our mind to pain, whether in ourselves or others, only ensures that it will continue. We must have the strength to face it without turning away. By opening to the pain we see around us with wisdom and compassion, we start to experience the intimate connection of our relationship with all beings.”

 

Coming Home

www.deepstreams.org

The Coming Home project of Deep Streams is an innovative series of programs that address the mental, emotional, and spiritual problems of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families. Community Meetings bring together veterans and families and the general public. The purpose is to raise awareness and appreciation for the impact of having served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Group Support Workshops invite vets and families to join one another to share experiences and stories, struggles and breakthroughs; to learn new tools, like finding an inner place of calm and focus, for reducing stress and anxiety and enhancing well-being;  to express what cannot be spoken, through expressive means such as writing and drawing; to address a continuum of problems, and to tend to the wounds of heart, mind, identity, spirit, and relationships that can go to the foundation and meaning of our lives.

 

 

Engaged Spirituality

Sharon Salzberg has made a personal commitment to support social activism for positive change. She undertakes outreach to social change groups and teaches meditation practices for activists. At the Garrison Institute, her work includes meditation training for domestic violence social workers to alleviate vicarious trauma. “Collaborating with dedicated people who care for those in great suffering allows me to penetrate further into the reality of life rather than staying on the surface.”   

Her goal is to integrate social activism and an understanding of interconnectedness. “Social justice work can create a sense of being the adversary. When this degenerates into a dualistic sense of self and other, bitterness and anger often arise. Activists experience burnout and despair. I aspire to offer practices for transcending this dualistic world view.”

Her efforts widen the definition of social activism. “We express dharma in a form suitable to our understanding and needs. Being a fully committed artist is no less significant to making a better world than someone counseling trauma victims or walking picket lines. Caring about others can manifest in many different ways.”