Sally Clough Armstrong began practicing vipassana meditation in India in 1981. She moved to the Bay Area in 1988, and worked at Spirit Rock until 1994 in a number of roles, including executive director. She began teaching in 1996, and is one of the guiding teachers of Spirit Rock's Dedicated Practitioner Program.
Sally has always been inspired by the depth and the breadth of the Buddha’s teaching, as presented in the suttas of the Pali Canon, because the truth and power of the Buddha’s words still speak to us today. Her intention in teaching is to make these ancient texts and practices accessible and relevant to all levels of practitioner, from the very new to the dedicated meditator.
There are two great proximate causes for compassion: suffering and wisdom. Suffering opens the heart and wisdom lets us see the fragile impermanent nature of all things.
Q&A at end of talk
The near enemy of compassion is pity; the far energy is cruelty. But more often the obstacles to true compassion are wanting to fix rather than be with suffering.
The Buddha instructed us to bring awareness to the five aggregates of form, feeling tone, perception, mental formations and consciousness and to notice how we cling to and identify with them. If we cling and identify we will suffer. Non-clinging = Non-suffering.
