I like things to be simply stated. I find it’s much easier (and more effective) to put simple concepts into practice and let the complexities arise, than to understand and practice complex concepts and techniques. A few days ago, while reading Jack Kornfield’s A Path with Heart, I came upon a simple statement that made me stop and simply say, “yes:”
Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.
There was a time when I felt…well...”less than.” I didn’t measure up. I wasn’t “making it” and didn’t see a course that would take me there. The thing that brought me out of that was self-acceptance.
I spent weeks practicing self-acceptance. Almost every day I reminded myself that I was who I was. It was not a question of being OK or worthy/unworthy – that didn’t matter. It was simply acknowledging and accepting the fact of the matter. Eventually, I also recognized that everyone else was in the same situation as well.
This practice greatly informs my work in forgiveness. Kornfield describes it well when he writes:
In truly listening to our most painful songs,
we can learn the divine art of forgiveness.
…both forgiveness and compassion
arise spontaneously with the
opening of the heart. Somehow, in feeling
our own pain and sorrow, our own ocean of tears,
we come to know that ours is a shared pain
and that the mystery and beauty and pain of life
cannot be separated. This universal pain,
too, is part of our connection with one another,
and in the face of it,
we cannot withhold our love any longer.
When Moses asked God for his name, the response was Yahweh: “I am that I am…I shall be what I shall be.” That names the divine in each of us.
Quote
It doesn’t matter what is happening. What matters is how we are relating to our experience. Tara Branch
Web
Enjoy a longer excerpt from Jack Kornfield’s A Path with Heart from which the above was taken (read now)
There was a time when I felt…well...”less than.” I didn’t measure up. I wasn’t “making it” and didn’t see a course that would take me there. The thing that brought me out of that was self-acceptance.
I spent weeks practicing self-acceptance. Almost every day I reminded myself that I was who I was. It was not a question of being OK or worthy/unworthy – that didn’t matter. It was simply acknowledging and accepting the fact of the matter. Eventually, I also recognized that everyone else was in the same situation as well.
This practice greatly informs my work in forgiveness. Kornfield describes it well when he writes:
In truly listening to our most painful songs,
we can learn the divine art of forgiveness.
…both forgiveness and compassion
arise spontaneously with the
opening of the heart. Somehow, in feeling
our own pain and sorrow, our own ocean of tears,
we come to know that ours is a shared pain
and that the mystery and beauty and pain of life
cannot be separated. This universal pain,
too, is part of our connection with one another,
and in the face of it,
we cannot withhold our love any longer.
When Moses asked God for his name, the response was Yahweh: “I am that I am…I shall be what I shall be.” That names the divine in each of us.
Quote
It doesn’t matter what is happening. What matters is how we are relating to our experience. Tara Branch
Web
Enjoy a longer excerpt from Jack Kornfield’s A Path with Heart from which the above was taken (read now)
RSS Feed