Love Your Enemies

Coping with anger and pain is more challenging than ever in these times—and more necessary. Two acclaimed Buddhist teachers offer strategies and wisdom in a book that’s been called “possibly the most inspiring and liberating meditation on love ever written.”When people and circumstances upset us, how do we deal with them? Often, we feel victimized. We become hurt, angry, and defensive. We end up seeing others as enemies, and when things don’t go our way, we become enemies to ourselves.

But what if we could move past this pain, anger, and defensiveness?

Inspired by Buddhist philosophy, this book introduces us to the four kinds of enemies we encounter in life: the outer enemy, people, institutions, and situations that mean to harm us; the inner enemy, anger, hatred, fear, and other destructive emotions; the secret enemy, self-obsession that isolates us from others; and the super-secret enemy, deep-seated self-loathing that prevents us from finding inner freedom and true happiness.

In this practical guide, we learn not only how to identify our enemies, but more important, how to transform our relationship to them.Love Your Enemiesteaches us how to . . .
·break free from the mode of “us” versus “them” thinking
·develop compassion, patience, and love
·accept what is beyond our control
·embrace lovingkindness, right speech, and other core concepts

First published in 2013,Love Your Enemiesis, more than ever, required reading for navigating our world. Throughout, authors Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman draw from ancient spiritual wisdom and modern psychology to help you find peace within yourself and with the world.

“If life is a struggle, this book is your friend. Its whispered truths, like the first inklings of the dawn, bring both relief and recognition. Return to it time and again; its good humor and wise counsel are a balm for the soul.”
—Mark Epstein, author of The Trauma of Everyday Life

“If there are two beings in the whole world whom I trust with my whole heart to give powerful, honest, kind, and deeply truthful teachings that can free us from burning in the mental anguish that is the ‘new normal’ in these anxious and fear-ridden times, it is Tenzin Bob Thurman and Sharon Salzberg. Having known both of them for many years, I can say that I am blessed that they are with me on this desert island called Earth.”
—Krishna Das, musician and author of Chants of a Lifetime

“Brilliant! Love Your Enemies is possibly the most inspiring and liberating meditation on love ever written.”
—Robert Holden, Ph.D., author of Shift Happens! and Loveability

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer and New York Times best-selling author who helped bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture more than fifty years ago. A co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, she is the author of fourteen books, including her seminal Lovingkindness and the best seller Real Happiness, and her podcast The Metta Hour has been downloaded more than eight million times. She teaches worldwide and lives in Barre, MA, and New York City.

Robert A.F. Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and the co-founder and president of Tibet House US. The first Westerner ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk by H.H. the Dalai Lama, he was named by Time as one of its 25 most influential Americans and is widely regarded as a leading American authority on Tibetan Buddhism. A gifted teacher and speaker, he is the author of many books, including Essential Tibetan Buddhism and The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Together, Sharon and Robert co-authored Love Your Enemies.