Gil Fronsdal, a teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California, gives this short talk (a dharmette) on how to apply Buddhist practice to particular suffering, and on where the practice of acceptance can fall short.
One of the formulations of Buddhism or applications of it or transformations of it is whether particular practice or particular attitude for what represents practice for some Buddhists, and that is the practice of acceptance.
Somehow, the idea of learning how to be accepting and having an accepting awareness is very important for a lot of people here in the United States. And somehow, it releases, relieves some kind of lack of acceptance, sometimes a lot of self-judgement, a lot of self-criticism, a lot of reactivity. That is so beneficial, that for some people that is like life changing to learn how to practice self-awareness.
If you study the ancient teachings of the Buddha, you don’t find this emphasis on acceptance. It’s hard to find it. The teaching of acceptance can lead to being a little bit off-centered. Sometimes acceptance becomes complacency, some things should not be accepted.
More from: Gil Fronsdal
