Robin's Reviews > Real Happiness: A 28-Day Program to Realize the Power of Meditation

As much as I wanted to like Real Happiness more, I found it difficult to get through. As a longtime meditator, I’m not the target audience. I was hoping to find some tips for teaching my own meditation classes, but Salzberg’s approach and exercises are very different from mine. I found her wording repetitive and the book didn’t really hold my interest.

However, Real Happiness could be very useful for a beginning meditator looking for a 4-week program with lots of Q&A that might or might not apply to their situation. I especially like that Salzberg includes free online audio files for her meditations.

And even though I’ve only rated 3 stars (“liked it”), the following quotes are worth contemplating:

“It’s better to do nothing than to waste your time.” –unattributed Insight Meditator

“Meditation is never one thing.” –S. Salzberg

“Meditation allows us to stop looking for happiness in the wrong places.” –S. Salzberg

I’m going to try reading Salzberg’s 1995 book Lovingkindness with a book club next month. I’m not usually keen on lovingkindness meditations—they feel unnatural to me—but perhaps I’ll learn something. If I like it, I’ll post a review.