As a Seeker, when I use the word "teacher," I am applying this idea in a most expansive way to include all the folks who have taught me about the art of living.
Of course, only a handful of these people have I ever met close up, and to those men and women, I am so thankful.
Like my therapist of many years, Joan, who passed away in 2016. The professional mentors, Rebecca and Jon, that guided me during my social work training to be a psychotherapist. The first minister I ever confided in, BJ, at the first Unitarian Universalist church I ever belonged to. And the briefer encounters I've had with meditation teachers who have led silent retreats and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction trainings throughout the last 8 years.
However, for the most part, the majority of the folks I've come to call "teachers" over the last decade, I've actually never met; I've only ever read their books, listened to their podcasts, watched their TED Talks, read their articles and essays, and attended their lectures (if I was lucky).
One of those teachers, for me, is Sharon Salzberg.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Sharon Salzberg and her work, she is a leading Western Buddhist teacher, author and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts.
Sadly though, I learned in just the last two weeks that Sharon Salzberg had a recent major medical emergency.
Her assistant, Lily Cushman, wrote the following on Sharon Salzberg's website:
Dear Friends,
I’m sharing the news that Sharon went through a major health emergency this past weekend. She is now stable and on the path to a full recovery. She is receiving excellent medical care, and we are deeply grateful for all the amazing work and dedication of her doctors, nurses and hospital staff, it is truly remarkable.
To take care of her health, Sharon will be taking a few months off from teaching so that she has the time and space to heal completely. We will be updating her calendar of events to reflect these changes in the next day or so, and for those of you directly impacted by these cancellations, we thank you for your patience and understanding.
I know how many of you have a profoundly deep bond with Sharon, and that this message is not an easy one to read. Rest assured that she will be back in action in no time, and is surrounded by a tremendous support system during this time.
Lily Cushman
Director of Operations for Sharon Salzberg
Director of Operations for Sharon Salzberg
Not because I experienced emotion at all- I like to think of myself as an empathic, feeling person.
But rather because the quality of the emotion, the sadness, seemed to reflect an intimacy, or a "bond" as her colleague referred to, that I had not fully understood.
After all, I don't really know her.
But then, as I reflected further, in some ways, it makes sense.
As a Seeker, who is also a woman and American, I have been drawn to teachers who are also Western women.
Women who write and speak in a way that makes sense to me. Women who have generously offered their hard-won wisdom, gained from their own personal life experiences, to help and guide others, like myself, in their own journey of life's many confusing twists and turns.
I actually read one of Sharon Salzberg's generous offerings, a book Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience which is part spiritual memoir and part Buddhist philosophy and psychology, when I was pregnant with my daughter in 2013.
If you have not read it, I highly recommend this book if you are looking for an authentic reflection on a very personal journey toward a more skillful way to relate with one's own pain and suffering.
This is exactly what I was looking for in 2013.
You see, like many women, before I was pregnant with my daughter in 2013, I had had a miscarriage in 2012, and that miscarriage exposed a lot of deep seated fears inside of me that I had never felt in such a visceral way.
But, by reading about Ms. Salzberg's own journey of vulnerability and growth at the same time of my first pregnancy since my miscarriage, I was able to root down into a strength and sense of centeredness that I really needed at that time.
In Faith, Ms. Salzberg wrote:
I sensed deep within me the possibility of rising above the circumstances of my childhood, of defining myself by something other than my family's painful struggles and its hardened tone of defeat...
With a surge of conviction, I thought, But I am here, and I can learn to be truly free. I felt as if nothing and no one could take away the joy of that prospect.
I can learn to be truly free. I love that sentence.
Since hearing about Ms. Salzberg's health emergency, and contemplating the significance of her "teaching" on me and my own journey as a Seeker, I've reflected on other teachers (poets, philosophers, theologians, religious leaders, writers, psychologists, meditation teachers) who are also still living (since some of my other modern teachers like Maya Angelou, John O'Donohue, Thomas Keating, and most recently Mary Oliver are now deceased ), but who are "up there" in age.
Folks who are in their 80's and 90's, and still producing and offering more teachings to those of us who are listening.
Men and women on this list who come to mind are people who were born between 1926 and 1936 like:
Joanna Macy 1929, American
Jean Vanier 1928, Canadian
and Sylvia Boorstein 1936, American.
So to all those teachers, past and present, I offer my gratitude.
(In dedication to Sharon Salzberg.)
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