Ep. 246 – Susan Cain

Metta Hour with Sharon Salzberg

For episode 246, Susan Cain makes her first appearance on the Metta Hour!

Susan is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Quiet, and Bittersweet, which was also an Oprah Book Club selection. She has spent the last twenty years exploring a particular realm of human nature: the quiet, the sensitive, the thoughtful, the bittersweet. Susan’s record-smashing TED talks have been viewed over 50 million times and she the host of the Quiet Life online community.

In this conversation, Susan and Sharon discuss:

  • How Susan approaches writing
  • VIA character strength test
  • Does great art have to come from great pain
  • How suffering brings us together
  • Susan embracing her “differences”
  • The Quiet Life Community
  • Why sadness is a bridge to connection
  • The Dalai Lama the Darwinist
  • Moral elevation
  • Dipa Ma telling Sharon she would teach
  • Leonard Coen as Susan’s patron saint
  • Beauty in the broken world
  • Never be ashamed of your suffering
  • The history of the word “loser”
  • Susan learning Lovingkindness meditation
  • Lovingkindness and boundaries
  • Chocolate and Brussels sprouts

Susan closes the conversation with a guided reflection. You can join Susan’s Quiet Life Community right here.

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