Sharon Salzberg, A Meditation Master Stares Down Death
World-renowned meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg recounts her recent serious health crisis, including sepsis and gout, and how her decades of mindfulness training helped her navigate fear, pain, and uncertainty. She shares profound lessons learned about life, death, and the importance of consistent practice.
Deep Dive Analysis
15 Topic Outline
The 10% Happier Podcast's 200-Episode Milestone
Introduction to Sharon Salzberg's Health Crisis
The Onset of Sepsis: An Altered State of Consciousness
Hospitalization, Diagnosis, and Search for Infection Source
The Role of Meditation Practice During Illness
Navigating Mental Fogginess and Fear of Disability
Dealing with Physical Pain and Unexpected Complications
Contemplating Death and Overcoming Past Conditioning
The Lesson of 'It's Not a Race' and Recovery
Reflecting on Love, Gratitude, and Societal Impact
Balancing Ambition, Livelihood, and Self-Care
Dan Harris's Experience with Hospice Volunteering
Societal Disconnect from Suffering and the Human Story
Q&A: Frequency and Visualization in Metta Meditation
Q&A: The Value of Structure in Metta Practice
5 Key Concepts
Septicemia/Sepsis
A severe bodily infection where bacteria from a localized source (like a leg infection) burst into the bloodstream, potentially leading to septic shock and organ failure. Sharon experienced this when bacteria from her leg entered her bloodstream.
Jhana Practice
A meditation practice involving deep focus that can lead to altered states of consciousness, described as 'interconnected rooms in the mind.' Dan mentioned this to provide context for Sharon's initial 'tripping' experience, though she didn't explicitly use the term.
Propuncia (Mental Proliferation)
The mind's tendency to project thoughts and fears into the future, often creating catastrophic scenarios. Sharon recognized this as a source of suffering and actively worked to interrupt these projections during her illness.
Pain vs. Suffering
A distinction in meditation where pain is the raw physical sensation, while suffering is the additional mental anguish created by resistance, aversion, or negative projections about that pain. Sharon noted that pain happens, but extra suffering is avoidable.
Dāna (Generosity)
A Buddhist principle referring to generosity or giving, often used to describe the financial support model for meditation teachers where people pay what they can, sometimes nothing. This impacts teachers' livelihoods and choices.
8 Questions Answered
Sharon experienced an altered state of consciousness, shivering and shaking, which she initially thought was a fascinating meditative experience. She later collapsed and was taken to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with septicemia from a previously unknown leg infection.
Her decades of practice supported her by allowing her to observe her experience without panic, providing a strong perspective, and enabling her to catch and redirect mental proliferation (future projections of catastrophe). This led to doctors noting she seemed better than her critical numbers suggested.
Pain is the raw physical sensation, which Sharon believes simply 'happens' and is not necessarily a result of a bad attitude. Suffering, in this context, is the 'extra' mental anguish added by resistance, aversion, or negative projections about the pain, which can be reduced through mindfulness.
Her biggest lesson was the mantra 'It's not a race,' taught to her by a physical therapist. This shifted her perspective from constantly striving and doing more, to embracing a slower pace, resting, and valuing quality of effort over quantity.
Sharon believes it's about focusing on the 'quality of effort' rather than just the 'quantity.' One can maintain a commitment to excellence and ambition, but when the drive becomes 'crazy' and starts 'ruining your life,' it's time to slow down and not trade life for a story of endless striving.
The frequency is up to the individual, but it should be done often enough to build confidence and clarity in the practice. It can be a daily practice or a go-to practice in specific challenging situations or connections.
No, visualization is an option but not essential. Sharon herself struggles with it. Other methods include silently repeating a person's name, having a visceral sense of connection, or imagining a 'travelogue' through the world for global Metta.
A structured approach helps enhance concentration and focus, making the practice feel more alive and less rote. It helps cultivate a sense of offering or gift-giving toward a particular being, especially when the feeling of loving kindness doesn't arise naturally or when the sense of connection is broader than a simple feeling.
26 Actionable Insights
1. Don’t Wait to Meditate
Begin and maintain a meditation practice before a crisis hits, as the seemingly inconsequential or boring hours of practice build a vital internal resource that “counts” when you need it most.
2. Adopt “It’s Not A Race”
Embrace the mantra “it’s not a race” in your daily life and work, allowing yourself to stop and rest when needed, as this approach can lead to greater progress and reduce the pressure to constantly do more quickly.
3. Sustain Meditation for Crisis Support
Engage in regular meditation practice, as it can provide subconscious strength and a resilient perspective during health crises or challenging times, even without conscious effort to calm down.
4. Question Catastrophic Future Projections
When you find yourself projecting negative or catastrophic future scenarios, consciously question why you are rehearsing such deviations from your life, as this can prevent getting “tripped up” by mental proliferation.
5. Distinguish Pain from Suffering
Recognize that physical pain is distinct from the “extra suffering” we add through mental resistance or negative projections, and consciously try to avoid falling into that additional suffering.
6. Hack Aversion to Pain
Use meditation to hack your habitual response to pain, moving beyond blind aversion to a more mindful and less suffering-inducing engagement with physical discomfort.
7. Focus on Pain to Reduce Suffering
If not distracted, focusing on physical pain can make it more manageable and reduce the need for strong medication, as the mind’s engagement can alter the experience of suffering.
8. Delay Responding to Invitations
When receiving new invitations or requests, practice delaying your response instead of immediately saying yes, allowing yourself time to “breathe a bit” and avoid overcommitting.
9. Prioritize Restorative Retreat
During periods of recovery or significant life challenges, create a “retreat” environment by limiting social contact and phone calls to foster a deeply restorative period.
10. Practice Receiving Care
Challenge the conditioning that makes it difficult or embarrassing to receive care from others, recognizing that allowing others to help is a form of “letting go” and can be a profound learning experience.
11. Strive for Excellence, Not a Race
Pursue excellence in your work and life with a mindset of “it’s not a race,” ensuring that your ambition doesn’t lead to misery for yourself or those around you.
12. Appreciate Past Contributions
Allow yourself to acknowledge and feel gratitude for the positive impact you’ve already made, which can reduce the relentless “need to accomplish something” and create a sense of fulfillment and permission to rest.
13. Incorporate End-of-Life Wisdom
Practice “dying before you die” by actively seeking to incorporate the profound wisdom typically gained in one’s final moments into your present life, rather than waiting for a crisis.
14. Practice for Death by Facing Discomfort
View meditation as a practice for death, where learning to be present with current discomforts like knee pain can build the capacity to face whatever comes at the end of life.
15. Rejoice in Your Own Goodness
Cultivate the practice of “rejoicing” or taking delight in the good you have done, your commitments, and your care for others, as this non-arrogant self-appreciation can make moments of backsliding feel less terrible and provide a fuller perspective.
16. Avoid Self-Judgment for Thoughts
When negative thoughts or projections arise, practice self-compassion and avoid harsh self-judgment, even if you have a long-standing practice of mindfulness.
17. Problem-Solve to Regain Acuity
When experiencing mental fogginess or a lack of acuity, actively engaging in practical problem-solving can be a turning point to help your brain “come back” and restore cognitive function.
18. Remind Dying of Good Deeds
When with someone who is dying, remind them of the specific good they have done, as this practice, advised by the Buddha, helps them focus on the joy and power of their goodness rather than regret or things left undone, facilitating letting go.
19. Embrace Incremental Progress
Recognize that progress and change are incremental, involving steps forward and occasional steps back; value these moments of growth and realize that even setbacks don’t negate overall advancement in mindfulness and perspective.
20. Reduce Attachment to Outcomes
Cultivate a perspective where external validations or outcomes (like book sales or Amazon rankings) hold less importance, allowing you to focus on the inherent value of your work rather than its reception.
21. Mind is Trainable
Understand and embrace the fundamental insight that the mind is trainable, which underpins the potential for continuous growth and improvement in mindfulness and perspective.
22. Practice Loving Kindness Often
Practice loving kindness meditation often enough to build confidence and clarity in the practice, though the frequency is ultimately “up to you” and doesn’t necessarily require it to be your sole practice.
23. Use Loving Kindness in Uncertainty
When you feel uncertain or don’t know how to proceed in a situation or connection with someone, reach for loving kindness meditation as a go-to practice.
24. Visualization Optional in Metta
Do not feel pressured to visualize during loving kindness meditation, as it is an option, not a requirement; instead, focus on other methods like repeating names, feeling a visceral sense of connection, or a global sense of well-being to make the practice come alive.
25. Rest in Metta Feeling or Use Structure
It is acceptable to simply rest in the feeling of loving kindness, but also experiment with structured practices (phrases, directed thoughts) to enhance connection, especially when the feeling isn’t present or when the sense of connection is broader than a single emotion.
26. Utilize Structure When Feelings Absent
If the feeling of loving kindness doesn’t naturally arise during meditation, use the structured elements of the practice (like repeating phrases) as a tool to engage with it, rather than becoming discouraged.
9 Key Quotes
I didn't think, uh, you know, this is toxicity or I'm ill or get me to the hospital or anything. So in fact, when this guy looked down at me and said, I'm here to take you to the hospital, I'm an ambulance driver. He said, is that okay? And I looked at my friends like so confused, like why do I have to go to the hospital? And then I realized I couldn't remember their names and I thought, oh, I have to go to the hospital.
Sharon Salzberg
boy, I didn't know what I was going to find in here. Cause your numbers are really bad. Like your white blood cell count is through the roof, but you seem much better than your numbers. And I really honestly feel that that was my practice, you know, that that was sustaining me.
Sharon Salzberg
Why are you rehearsing that? You know, why are you rehearsing catastrophe? Why are you, why are you rehearsing, uh, such a huge deviation from your life?
Sharon Salzberg
I wouldn't wait. Like, don't wait. Um, and of course people sometimes wait and they reach for something in the midst of, you know, the bottom's falling out and you're in the hospital and it's all scary. And even then it might prove to be a resource or something helpful. Um, but the, you know, the truth was like, you don't have to wait.
Sharon Salzberg
It's not a race, you know, she said, you'll go further if you just stop now and then rest. And that's become my new mantra. It's not a race.
Sharon Salzberg
I didn't set out to have a legacy. It wasn't that kind of person. And none of us were, you know, I had, I was 23 when we started IMS and, and, uh, insight meditations. Yes. Thank you. Insight meditation study. And it was, none of us could have imagined what would happen in this country around the world in terms of mindfulness or, or the practice.
Sharon Salzberg
I think it's, it's bringing it more and more cause I think it has a lot to do with, um, quality of effort more, maybe even than quantity of effort.
Sharon Salzberg
I don't think you have to lose your edge. I don't think it depends on what your edge is, but I, I don't think you have to lose your commitment to excellence and to really, uh, shining in a way and, and, uh, even ambition, you know, having, having that, but when it gets crazy, then, uh, it's ruining your life. You're trading in your life for some story.
Sharon Salzberg
Can you take the wisdom that we often only get in those last and final moments and, and incorporated into your life?
Dan Harris
4 Protocols
Sharon Salzberg's Post-Hospital Recovery Regimen
Sharon Salzberg- Get up twice a day.
- Try to walk (using a walker initially).
- Stop and rest frequently, adopting 'It's not a race' as a mantra.
- Practice meditation and write.
- Limit social interaction by asking people not to visit right away and not talking on the phone.
- Delay answering invitations to avoid overcommitting.
Metta Meditation (for visualization challenges)
Sharon Salzberg- Instead of visualizing, say the name of the person or being to yourself.
- For 'all beings,' use an image of a planet or cultivate a visceral sense of energy/connection.
- Consider a 'travelogue' approach, mentally moving through different places and beings.
- Recognize that visualization is an option, not intrinsic to the practice's development.
Metta Meditation (for artificiality concerns)
Sharon Salzberg- It is acceptable to simply rest in the feeling of loving kindness.
- Experiment with using phrases or a sense of offering to enhance the feeling and connection.
- Utilize the structure (phrases, directed thoughts) especially when the feeling doesn't come naturally, as it can help cultivate connection beyond just a feeling.
Buddha's Advice for Sitting with the Dying
Sharon Salzberg- Remind the dying person of the good they have done in their life.
- Be specific about their acts of kindness or contributions if possible (e.g., 'you were a great cousin, you took me to the park').