Sharon Salzberg - Real happiness : a 28-day program to realize the power of meditation

advance praise for
Real Happiness

Wonderfully clear, remarkably accessible, warmhearted and wise. All you need to transform your life!

Jack Kornfield , author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry

I have been waiting for this book! People ask me all the time to recommend a book that will introduce them to the practice of meditation. And while there are many books written on the subject, none have brought together the purpose, technique, inspiration, and science in such an integrated, intelligent, and personal way. I will be suggesting and giving this jewel of a book to everyone I know who wants to bring steadiness, grace, peace, and happiness into their life through the practice of meditation.

Elizabeth Lesser , Cofounder of Omega Institute and author of Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

Simply put, this is an awesome book from a truly excellent teacher. Students constantly ask for recommendations on good books to start and maintain a regular practice, and its startling how few really complete nuts and bolts practice manuals there are. This bookcomplete with the whys, hows, and FAQs of practiceis perfect for really accessing the power of meditation. Ill be telling many students about it.

Ethan Nichtern , author of One City: A Declaration of Interdependence

In Real Happiness Sharon Salzberg introduces us with a gentle but firm hand to the meditation experience. To those who have taken her courses (like me) this book contains all of the jewels of Sharons teachings plus more.

Ram Dass , author of Be Here Now

Based upon ancient, timeless contemplative tradition as well as modern neuroscientific research and experiential neuroDharma experiments, Salzbergs four-week program for developing insight meditation, mindfulness, and her specialty of loving-kindness clearly instructs and awakens us, leading step by step to the discovery of who we are, why we are here, and how to realize a more fulfilling life and more harmonious world. I heartily recommend this to anyone seeking self-realization and inner peace, well being and enlightenment.

Lama Surya Das

Drawing on more than 30 years of experience teaching meditation, and as a participant in many dialogues with scientists on meditation research, Sharon Salzberg covers all the basics of meditation in a simple, compelling, and highly readable way. People frequently ask me where they should begin if they are interested in learning more about meditation. Now I know where to send them: Real Happiness is the perfect beginning.

Dr. Richard J. Davidson, William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry Director, Center for Investigating Healthy Minds University of WisconsinMadison

Reading Real Happiness, I feel as if I have made a new friend, or been reunited with an old one. Sharon Salzberg brings meditation to life and, through her grace, shows us how we can come alive, as well. This is a masterful work: deep, warm and engaging. I want to give it to everyone I know.

Mark Epstein, M.D. author of Thoughts Without a Thinker and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart

In a voice that is wise and witty, personal, contemporary, and engagingly friendly, Sharon Salzberg has written this wonderful book that will be accessible and encouraging to novice meditators as well as inspiring to committed practitioners.

Sylvia Boorstein , author of Happiness Is an Inside Job

This book is a veritable treasure box of meditations. Lucid and wise, Real Happiness is rich with Sharon Salzbergs lifetime of teaching meditation to thousands of people. Her voice is filled with humor, kindness, and wisdom, and her meditation instructions are practical and accessible. This is one of the great books on why and how to meditate.

Roshi Joan Halifax , Founding Abbot, Upaya Zen Center

Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation is a highly accessible primer for anyone interested in exploring and undertaking the practice of meditation. Sharon Salzberg writes with love and clarity to give readers a week by week approach to living with mindfulness and compassion, both important to navigating busy lives in a world in need of healing from the inside out.

Jacqueline Novogratz , Founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, author of The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World, speaker at TED conferences

In Real Happiness, Sharon Salzberg brings her astounding grace, humor, and glitteringly prose to the very basics of insight meditation. Friendly, comprehensive, and deadly serious, Salzberg grounds this 28-day beginner course in the gifts that meditation has given her in tough life situations. Since every mind is a beginners mind, Salzberg outlines a path wide enough for everyone from todays wounded veterans; to ADD school kids; to distractable (and irritable) stay-at-home parents and CEOs. Meditation, she writes, unveils the bright vein of goodness available to all of us, all the time.

Eliza Griswold , author of The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam

I often suggest to my stressed-out patients that they meditate, but most dont know where to begin. Real Happiness is the perfect meditation prescription, with everything a first-timer could need.

Frank Lipman, M.D., author of Revive

In these pages, Sharon Salzberg lays out a step-by-step program for developing mindfulness, insight, and lovingkindness in just 28 daysand for taking these practices into the rest of your life. A simple, straightforward way to learn the most essential practices of Buddhist meditation, from one of the most renowned meditation teachers in the West today.

Dzogchen Ponlop , author of Rebel Buddha: On the Road to Freedom

Very few books will actually make you a better person. This is one of them.

Chelsea Cain , author of New York Times bestsellers Heartsick and Sweetheart

10th anniversary edition

Real Happiness

A 28-Day Program to Realize the Power of Meditation

Sharon Salzberg

Workman Publishing New York

Contents