The great gift of a spiritual path is coming to trust that you can find a way to true refuge. You realize that you can start right where you are, in the midst of your life, and find peace in any circumstance. Even at those moments when the ground shakes terribly beneath youโwhen thereโs a loss that will alter your life foreverโyou can still trust that you will find your way home. This is possible because youโve touched the timeless love and awareness that are intrinsic to who you are.
Tara BrachThe two wings of mindfulness and kindness will begin to open the heart to more connection with our world.
Tara BrachThe mistake we make is that when we're feeling another person is not treating us in the way that makes us feel secure and loved, we fixate our attention on that person and what's wrong with them. We also fixate on what's wrong with us. Instead, we can bring forward two wings of awareness: the wing of mindfulness (noticing what's going on inside us) and the wing of kindness (compassion to what's going on inside us).
Tara BrachThe trance of unworthiness keeps the sweetness of belonging out of reach. The path to "the sweetness of belonging," is acceptance - acceptance of ourselves and acceptance of others without judgment.
Tara BrachWe want to be in open, loving communion with each other and our greatest fear is intimacy. That it won't work and we'll be rejected.
Tara BrachBecause we have such a deeply grooved conditioning to reject and condemn ourselves, particularly in this culture, I find that emphasis on the word "acceptance" is central in healing. It brings our attention to the possibility of saying yes to what we are experiencing in the moment, and counteracts the conditioning to push away what feels unpleasant or intense or unfamiliar.
Tara Brach