Seventh Book: Radical Acceptance

This book, found by my mother and written by Tara Brach, Ph.D., is very gentle and practical. I think she has a way of putting revolutionary things so that they seem very self evident. Or maybe she just has a way of revealing the self-evidentness of things that seem revolutionary. I really want to try her meditation practices, they seem very useful. I also wonder if I shouldn't endeavor to learn more about Vipassana meditation, this being the second time it's come up in the recent past. Instead of going on and on about this book, I want to give you a few quotes:


My beloved child,
Break your heart no longer.
Each time you judge yourself you break your own heart.
You stop feeding on the love which is the wellspring of your vitality.
The time has come, your time

To live, to celebrate and to see the goodness that you are...

Let no one, no thing, no idea or ideal obstruct you
If one comes, even in the name of "Truth" forgive it for its unknowing
Do not fight.
Let go.
And breathe--into the goodness that you are.

--Bapuji

Enough. These few words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.

This opening to the life
we have refused
again and again
until now.

Until now.
--David Whyte

Here's a tough one, from my friend Rumi:

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Some momentary awareness
comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!...

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

--Rumi

And one last one I really like:

"Seeing pure awareness without engaging lovingly in our life is a daydream. Living in this relative world without vision is a nightmare."
--Japanese Proverb

Now there's something true.