July 2007 - Book of The Month
Radical Acceptance, by Tara Brach, Ph.D.

I am currently reading an insightful book written by Buddhist teacher and scholar, Tara Brach, PhD. It is an compassionate and insightful journey inside the wars we wage within. It is beautifully written, includes supplemental meditations, and is laced with tons of beautiful quotes from teachers of all paths. Tara shares her story as a peek into the discovery of self-acceptance.

Excerpt:

The renowned seventh-century Zen master Seng-tsan taught that true freedom is being "without anxiety about imperfections." This means accepting our human existence and all of life as it is. Imperfection i snot our personal problem - it is a natural part of existing. We all get caught in wants and fears, we all act unconsciously, we all get diseased and deteriorate. When we relax about imperfection, we no longer lose our life moments in the pursuit of being different and in the fear of what is wrong.

D.H. Lawrence described our Western culture as being like a great uprooted tree with its roots in the air. "We are perishing for lack of fulfillment of our greater needs," he wrote, "we are cut off from the great sources of our inward nourishment and renewal." We come alive as we rediscover the truth of our goodness and our natural connectedness to all of life. Our "greater needs" are met in relating lovingly with each other, relating with full presence to each moment, relating to the beauty and pain that is within and around us. As Lawrence said, "We must plant ourselves again in the universe."

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