“Our can-do culture has made many of us believe that we should always be self-sufficient. Somewhere along the way, we also got the message that asking for help is a sign of weakness. We often forget that we’re interdependent creatures whose very existence depends on the kindness of others, including—with a bow to Tennessee Williams—strangers.”

author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practice

Sharon Salzberg is an author and teacher of Buddhist meditation practice in the West. She co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1974 with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein. Her work centers on vipassanā, or insight, and mettā, or loving-kindness, and she has led meditation retreats around the world for several decades. She is known for writing and teaching in that tradition, with an emphasis on practice and attention to the mind.