Sharon Salzberg has been a student of Buddhism since 1971 and has been leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. She teaches both intensive awareness practice (vipassana or insight meditation) and the profound cultivation of lovingkindness and compassion (the Brahma Viharas). Cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, she is the author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, Loving Kindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, The Force of Kindness, published by Sounds True.