Radical Acceptance

We struggle in life because of a tenacious habit of wanting life to be different from what it is: The room you are in is too warm, you don't like your job, or your partner isn't quite the person of your dreams. You adjust the thermostat, get a new job, or tell your partner what you need. Now it's too cool, you are earning less money, or your partner has found some flaws in you. The more we try to make life conform to our desires, the more we struggle, and the more we suffer. The only way out of this vicious cycle is to accept what arises, completely: in other words, do nothing.

Paradoxically, such radical acceptance opens a way of living that we could hardly have imagined.

-Ken McLeod, "Something from Nothing"

CSL