As Sharon Salzberg traveled the world teaching lessons from her New York Times bestseller Real Happiness, she herself learned an important lesson.
“I have a pretty large student body,” she said in a phone interview, “and everyone – special education teachers, hospice workers, firefighters, hedge-fund managers – were pretty well saying the problem was work.”
So Salzberg, who will speak Friday at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, researched and wrote Real Happiness at Work, which was released in January.
“My training in Buddhism is to first look at the problem and then look at the possible solutions,” she said, “so coming out of those interactions were the ‘Eight Pillars of Happiness in the Workplace’ to deal with the three major problems: burnout, meaninglessness and moral injury.”
Just knowing the pillars – balance, concentration, compassion, resilience, communication and connection, integrity, meaning and open awareness – is only the beginning. Her book includes significant research into different workplace situations; the latest research into sociological topics such as emotional intelligence; and meditation and mindfulness exercises to help readers change how they handle the things at work affecting their happiness and their productivity.
It’s not a book meant to be read in one sitting, but one that will help people build new habits as they learn how to put work and its accompanying emotions into perspective.
“I have never worked in a corporate setting,” Salzberg said, “but I know from the experiences of my students what it’s like. I’ve had an interesting response from people who haven’t read the book saying that I shouldn’t call it happiness because they’re not playing, they’re working. They imagine happiness means having fun.”
She has seen some of the biggest turnarounds among people who work as domestic violence counselors and other professions that entail giving emotional support to people who are in crisis. Shortly after her visit to Durango, she’ll be working with international aid staff, who experience the same kind of burnout.
In her book, Salzberg references a number of companies that have created meditation spaces in their facilities,and others where individuals have created their own refuges.
“Some people say, ‘I’m going to buy a book for everyone in my company, and I’m going to start a meditation program,’” she said. “I think the practice is going to expand now that science and research are catching up with what practitioners have long known.”
Salzberg, one of the co-founders of the Insight Meditation Center with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein, came to Buddhism somewhat accidentally.
“I went to college at 16, a product of the New York school system that liked to have children skip grades,” she said. “I took a class on ancient philosophies – to be honest because it met at a convenient time. I was very impressed with the way Buddha spoke about suffering, that it’s a natural part of life, that I was not alone.”
Before long, she had begun a meditation practice, and during her junior year at the State University of New York, Buffalo, created an independent-study project to survey meditation in India. She returned to the Asian country after graduation for several more years before returning to the U.S.
“Actually, I didn’t come back in 1974 as a teacher,” she said, “but came to it the old-fashioned way – one of my teachers told me to teach.”
Americans’ understanding of Buddhism and meditation has changed dramatically in the past 40 years.
“It wasn’t very popular when we established the institute,” Salzberg said. “If I was at a party and said, ‘I teach meditation,’ people would say ‘Ooh.’ Now, it’s grown up around us.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
If you go
The Durango Dharma Center is presenting Buddhist teacher and author Sharon Salzberg in a talk about themes from her new book Real Happiness at Work at 7 p.m. Friday, at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. Book sales and a silent auction benefiting the Dharma Center will be held beginning at 5:30 p.m. before the lecture, and Salzberg will sign books afterward.
Tickets are $35 for adults and $15 for people ages 22 and younger. They are available at 247-7657, www.durangoconcerts.com or at the Concert Hall Box Office at the Durango Welcome Center at the intersection of Main Avenue and Eighth Street.
Visit www.sharonsalzberg.com for more information and downloadable guided meditations.
Visit www.durangodharmacenter.org or the center’s page on Facebook to learn more about the center and its offerings.
