*Tricycle's Daily Dharma*
Radical Self-Acceptance
One finds that no matter how sincere one's intention to be attentive and
aware, the mind rebels against such instructions and races off to
indulge in all manner of distractions, memories and fantasies....The
comforting illusion of personal coherence and continuity is ripped away
to expose only fragmentary islands of consciousness separated by yawning
gulfs of unawareness....The first step in this practice of mindful
awareness is radical self-acceptance.
Such self-acceptance, however, does not operate in an ethical vacuum,
where no moral assessment is made of one's emotional states. The
training in mindful awareness is part of a Buddhist path with values and
goals. Emotional states are evaluated according to whether they increase
or decrease the potential for suffering. If an emotion, such as hatred
or envy, is judged to be destructive, then it is simply recognized as
such. It is neither expressed through violent thoughts, words or deeds,
nor is it suppressed or denied as incompatiable with a "spiritual"life.
In seeing it for what it is -- a transient emotional state -- one
mindfully observes it follow its own nature: to arise, abide for a
while, and then pass away.
- Stephen Batchelor, /The Awakening of the West/
From /Everyday Mind/, a /Tricycle/ book edited by Jean Smith
