Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a BuddhaFor many of us, feelings of deficiency are right around the corner. It doesn’t take much--just hearing of someone else’s accomplishments, being criticized, getting into an argument, making a mistake at work--to make us feel that we are not okay. Beginning to understand how our lives have become ensnared in this trance of unworthiness is our first step toward reconnecting with who we really are and what it means to live fully. --fromRadical Acceptance Radical Acceptance “Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering,” says Tara Brach at the start of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and conflicts in our relationships, in addictions and perfectionism, in loneliness and overwork--all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled. Radical Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance developed over Dr. Brach’s twenty years of work with therapy clients and Buddhist students. Writing with great warmth and clarity, Tara Brach brings her teachings alive through personal stories and case histories, fresh interpretations of Buddhist tales, and guided meditations. Step by step, she leads us to trust our innate goodness, showing how we can develop the balance of clear-sightedness and compassion that is the essence ofRadical Acceptance.Radical Acceptancedoes not mean self-indulgence or passivity. Instead it empowers genuine change: healing fear and shame and helping to build loving, authentic relationships. When we stop being at war with ourselves, we are free to live fully every precious moment of our lives. |
Contents
ONE The Trance of Unworthiness | 5 |
ONE Recognizing the Trance of Unworthiness | 22 |
FIVE Developing an Embodied Presence | 123 |
SEVEN Opening Our Heart in the Face of Fear | 161 |
SEVEN Meeting Fear | 175 |
EIGHT Becoming the Holder of Suffering | 217 |
NINE TonglenAwakening the Heart | 243 |
The Gateway to a Forgiving | 246 |
TWELVE Realizing Our True Nature | 307 |
Acknowledgments | 329 |
Other editions - View all
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha Tara Brach No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
Ajahn Buddhadasa alive anger anxiety arise asked awaken Barbara become began begin bodhi tree bodhisattva body and mind breath Buddha Buddha nature Buddhist Charlotte Joko Beck chest Coleman Barks compassion craving Dalai Lama deepen deepest deeply dzogchen emotions experience eyes face feel felt forgive freedom fully gently grief happening healing heart and mind hold hurt inner inside intense kind knew Kwan Yin Laura let go listen living lovingkindness Mara meditation Milarepa moments mother nature notice offer ourselves pain path pause perience person practice prayer presence Radical Acceptance realize recognize relax remember respond retreat rience Rosalie Rumi sangha Sarah say yes sensations sense shame Siddhartha sitting smile someone spiritual stories suffering take refuge talk teacher tender tension Thich Nhat Hanh thing thoughts tion told tonglen touch trance of fear trance of unworthiness truth trying vipassana vulnerability wakeful wrong