The character arc of Sharon Salzberg
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 5 August 1952 in New York City to a Jewish family. Between then and now sit a divorce when she was four and a father who left, her mother's death when she was nine, a father who returned when she was eleven and was hospitalised for the rest of his life, five different families by sixteen, an Asian philosophy course in her second year at university, an independent study trip to India, a first intensive meditation course at Bodh Gaya in January 1971, a retreat centre co-founded in 1974 at twenty two, and several decades of teaching. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Sharon Salzberg?
Five families before she was sixteen. Then she taught the world lovingkindness.
Her parents divorced when she was four and her father left. Her mother died when she was nine and she went to live with her father's parents. He came back when she was eleven, and soon afterwards overdosed and was hospitalised, and stayed inside the mental health system until he died. By sixteen she had lived with five different families. That is the whole first act, and it is why the second one is about kindness.
In her second year at the State University of New York at Buffalo, in 1969, she took a course in Asian philosophy and met Buddhism in it. The following year she took an independent study trip to India, on her own, at eighteen. In January 1971 she sat her first intensive meditation course at Bodh Gaya. She spent the next several years studying with Asian teachers, among them Dipa Ma, a widow who had lost her husband and children and become a formidable teacher, and S. N. Goenka.
She came back to the United States in 1974 and began teaching insight meditation. That same year, at twenty two, she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre in Massachusetts with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. It became one of the main doors through which this practice reached the West. She co-founded a centre for Buddhist studies there in 1989 and a long term retreat centre in 1998.
Her subject is the one nobody taught her: metta, usually translated as lovingkindness, the deliberate practice of wishing yourself and other people well. Her best known book on it was published in 1995. A later book reached the New York Times list in 2011. She has run retreats around the world for several decades, writes a monthly column and makes a podcast.
The moments
Sharon Salzberg's timeline.
The 1950s
Her father leaves
Setback, and it changed her direction. Four years old, and one parent gone.
The 1960s
Her mother dies
Setback, and it changed everything. Nine years old, and the other parent gone too.
He comes back, and goes
Setback, and it changed everything. He came back, and then he was gone again, for good.
Five families by sixteen
Setback, and it changed everything. Five houses, five sets of rules, and none of them hers.
One philosophy class
Milestone, and it changed everything. A course she took to fill a slot, and it decided the rest.
The 1970s
India at eighteen
Milestone, and it changed everything. Eighteen years old, on her own, on the other side of the world.
Finish the degree, or go
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go to India, taken, or finish at Buffalo. She came back four years later and co-founded a retreat centre at twenty two.
Her first retreat
Milestone, and it changed everything. The first time she ever sat down and stayed there.
Years with the teachers
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Three years of sitting, with teachers who had lost more than she had.
Insight Meditation Society
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty two years old, and she co-founded the place.
The 1980s
A centre, then a refuge
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Somewhere to study, and then somewhere to stay for months.
The 1990s
Lovingkindness
Milestone, and it changed everything. The book on kindness, by the girl nobody kept.
The 2010s
A programme anybody can do
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Twenty eight days, written so a beginner could actually finish it.
The retreats still run at Barre, in the woods, all year. What she set moving is a practice for being kind to yourself, taught across the West by a woman who had every reason to grow up hard and went looking for the opposite instead.
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Sources
- Sharon Salzberg, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Insight Meditation Society records for its founding at Barre in 1974.
- New York Times bestseller listings for 2011.