Sharon Salzberg Effort Quotations

Meditation is not the construction of something foreign, it is not an effort to attain and then hold on to a particular experience. We may have a secret desire that through meditation we will accumulate a stockpile of magical experiences, or at least a mystical trophy or two, and then we will be able to proudly display them for others to see.

We apply our effort to be mindful, to be aware in this very moment, right here and now, and we bring a very wholehearted effort to it. This brings concentration. It is this power of concentration that we use to cut through the world of surface appearances to get to a much deeper reality.

Effort is the unconstrained willingness to persevere through difficulty.

To relinquish the futile effort to control change is one of the strengthening forces of true detachment & thus true love.

It is taught, we too can be enlightened, every one of us. We can be completely freed from the bonds of limitation and conditioned confusion through our own endeavor, inspiration, effort and development. There is a path, and we can traverse it.

By prizing heartfulness above faultlessness, we may reap more from our effort because we're more likely to be changed by it.