The Deepest Acceptance

let’s simply note that in every experience of suffering, when you take the focus off the details of the situation, off the story of what’s happening, off the external circumstances, and really come back to your present experience—to present thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the body—you will always find seeking, even if that seeking is playing

Seen in this way, suffering is always, always a signpost pointing back to wholeness.

as Neil Young sang, “Though my problems are meaningless, that don’t make ’em go away.”

I teach one thing and one thing only: a deep and fearless acceptance of whatever comes your way.

What I’m saying is that if we are to be truly free, we must face this reality with open eyes. We must move away from denial, wishful thinking, and hope, and tell the truth about life as it is. Great freedom lies in admitting the truth of this moment, however much it clashes with our hopes, dreams, and plans.

Perhaps this was not my life to hold up in the first place. Perhaps I wasn’t really who I thought I was. Perhaps true freedom had nothing to do with being a better wave in the ocean, with perfecting my story of myself. Perhaps freedom was all about waking up from the dream that we are separate waves in the first place and embracing all that appears

The shadow side of spiritual teachings is that the mind can easily use them to deny reality—and then deny that it is denying reality! Real spirituality has nothing to do with this kind of denial. Real spirituality is the end of denial. And we come out of denial totally when we simply admit the truth of this moment, however painful that admission ma

Even in the midst of the noisiest thoughts, there is something here that is very quiet—something that is deeply at peace. It’s what you are. It watches all thoughts as they come and go. It allows all thoughts to come and go.

Existence is rich with mystery and wonder, and sometimes, without warning, light can shine through the cracks in the separate self. For a few brief moments, there is the cosmic suggestion that life is somehow infinitely more than what it appears to be. The most ordinary of things can easily turn extraordinary, making us wonder if, perhaps, the extr