Table Of ContentSHARON SALZBERG
bestselling author of Lovingkindness
“Sharon Salzberg is a great teacher and
Faith is a book full of wisdom—knowledge
that is earned honestly and rendered vividly
through wonderful and revealing stories.
I will keep this book at my side for years. ”
—Susan Griffin,
author of A Chorus of Stones
Faith. Its a word loaded with promise and con
troversy. Its a word often misunderstood. We
may think that the innocent lucky few have
faith, and that those more worldly couldn’t pos
sibly. Or that we have to give up independence
to attain it.
In Faith, Sharon Salzberg strips away negative
conceptions that dismiss faith as being divisive or
requiring blind adherence to a belief system. She
offers discerning wisdom on understanding faith
as a healing quality, a refuge that can be nurtured
in each of us to soothe life’s deepest wounds. In
this beautifully written book, we find that faith
is neither blind nor ignorant. Rather, it is firmly
grounded in intelligence, common sense, and
most important, our own experience. Through
the teachings of the Buddha and insight gained
from her lifelong spiritual quest, Salzberg pro
vides us with a road map for cultivating a feeling
of ease and peace that can be practiced by any
one, of any tradition.
0208
d eep est experien ce
SHARON SALZBERG
RIVERHEAD BOOKS
A MEMBER OF
PENGUIN PUTNAM INC.
NEW YORK 2002
From Lalla: Naked Song, translated and copyright © Coleman Barks,
reprinted by permission of the translator.
From “East Coker* in Four Quartets, copyright 1942 by T. S. Eliot and
renewed 1970 by Esme Valerie Eliot, reprinted by permission of
Harcourt, Inc.
From “East Coker* in Four Quartets, copyright by T. S. Eliot, re
printed by permission of the publishers, Faber and Faber Ltd.
From “Autumn” by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated and copyright ©
Jonathan Cott, reprinted by permission of die translator.
Riverhead Books
a member of
Penguin Putnam Inc.
375 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
Copyright © 2002 by Sharon Salzberg
All rights reserved.This book, or parts thereof, may not
be reproduced in any form without permission.
Published simultaneously in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Salzberg, Sharon.
Faith : trusting your own deepest experience / Sharon Salzberg.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-57322-228-3
1. Salzberg, Sharon. 2. Buddhists—United States—Biography.
3. Spiritual biography. 4. Faith (Buddhism). I.Tide.
BQ984.L7A3 2002 2002017901
294.3'092—dc21
IB]
Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
This book is printed on add-free paper. ©
Book design by Marysarah Quinn
T o my teach ers,
wh o h a ve taug h t me h ow to liv e ,
an d wh y .
acknowledgments
So many people have helped me since 1996, when the
idea first came to me to write a book about faith, that I
couldn’t possibly name them all. Among them are wonder
ful friends who have helped shape my understanding of
faith through discussion, inspiration, or the example of
their lives. They include Joseph Goldstein, Tara Bennett-
Goleman, Dan Goleman, Sarah Doering, Ram Dass, Sunanda
Markus, Mark Epstein, Bob Thurman, Lila Anderson, Mag
gie Spiegel, Dorothy Austin, and Sylvia Boorstein.
Several wise and generous people either helped guide
me through the publishing process, gave me feedback on
the manuscript, or reminded me that the essence of good
writing is to “tell the truth," and pointed out when I fell
short of that. They include Amy Gross, Mark Matousek,
Tracy Cochran, Naomi Wolf, Patty Gift, Elizabeth Cutthrell,
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
Marsha Norman, Dean Ornish, Jonathan Cott, Barbara Gra
ham, Kate Wheeler, Catherine Ingram, and Jeff Zaleski.
In the course of writing this book I have been sheltered,
fed, supported, and befriended by Ann Buck, Jen Green
field, Gina Thompson, Daidie Donnelly, Julie Tato, Anne
Millikin, Fred Hanson, the staff, board, and teachers of
IMS, Davine Fox, Mitch Kapor, and my extraordinary yoga
teacher John Friend. Gyano Gibson and Eric McCord, the
home team, provided the essential platform that kept the
rest of my life going so that I could write. Eric did every
thing from help me find the missing toolbar on the com
puter on a Saturday morning, to permissions, to all levels
of computer support. Gyano helped me make numerous
difficult choices about what needed to be said, entered
changes for what seemed like a million hours in LA, and has
steadfastly accompanied me throughout the many byways
of this journey.
Shoshana Alexander first sat down with me in 1997, to
ask what I would want to say in a book about faith. Since
then she has interviewed me to help discern what I really
did want to say, helped create a structure when there was
none apparent, helped create a new structure whenever I
changed my mind, taught me about writing, and edited at
least ten drafts of most chapters. Joan Oliver did many
hours of research, gave me much moral support, and added
v i i i
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
immeasurably to the manuscript through her refined sense
of language and precision of expression. Cathy Saypol, in a
burst of intuition, gave me a subtitle.
I owe a great debt to my agent, Joy Harris, who was
once described accurately to me as “the closest you’ll ever
come to unconditional love in a business relationship.” Her
caring and clarity have held me through this whole process,
from the time I first appeared in her office saying, “I’m not
really a writer, I’m a meditation teacher,” until this moment.
Without Amy Hertz, my editor at Riverhead, this book
would never have come into being. Amy has always trusted
me, even when I’ve been discouraged or confused, and her
clear vision, remarkable intelligence, and professional stan
dards have sustained the whole project and brought my
work to an entirely different level.
Special thanks to Krishna Das, whose CDs kept me
company many times at 2 a.m. as I was writing, and whose
chanting always brings me back to the things I care about
more than anything; and to the people I’ve taught and med
itated with in NYC, who through the years have become
good friends, and who, since September 11, have kept re
minding me of what faith looks like.
