Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha.
Tara BrachRead
We, like the Mother of the World, become the compassionate presence that can hold, with tenderness, the rising and passing waves of suffering.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of being compassionate and present during difficult times of suffering.
In this quote, Tara Brach draws parallels between our ability to embody compassion and the nurturing presence of a mother. By acknowledging that suffering is an inevitable part of life, she encourages us to be a source of comfort and tenderness for ourselves and others, holding space for both the highs and lows that life presents.
Themes
CompassionSufferingPresenceTendernessMotherWaves
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about mental health, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of compassion towards those who are suffering.
More from Tara Brach
All quotes βClearly recognizing what is happening inside us, and regarding what we see with an open, kind and loving heart, is what I call Radical Acceptance. If we are holding back from any part of our experience, if our heart shuts out any part of who we are and what we feel, we are fueling the fears and feelings of separation that sustain the trance of unworthiness. Radical Acceptance directly dismantles the very foundations of this trance.
Tara BrachRead
Buddhist practices offer a way of saying, 'Hey, come back over here, reconnect.' The only way that you'll actually wake up and have some freedom is if you have the capacity and courage to stay with the vulnerability and the discomfort.
Tara BrachRead
There is so much division in this world. So what is really the path of healing? It can begin in this moment, by embracing the life that's here.
Tara BrachRead
We wait for things to be different in order to feel okay with life. As long as we keep attaching our happiness to the external events of our lives, which are ever changing, weβll always be left waiting for it.
Tara BrachRead
The intimacy that arises in listening and speaking truth is only possible if we can open to the vulnerability of our own hearts. Breathing in, contacting the life that is right here, is our first step. Once we have held ourselves with kindness, we can touch others in a vital and healing way.
Tara BrachRead
Similar quotes
The sickness of a family member, friend or neighbor is a call to Christians to demonstrate true compassion, that gentle and persevering sharing in another's pain.
Pope John Paul IiRead
The compassion we feel normally is biased and mixed with attachment. Genuine compassion flows towards all living beings, particularly your enemies. If I try to develop compassion towards my enemy, it may not benefit him directly, he may not even be aware of it. But it will immediately benefit me by calming my mind. On the other hand, if I dwell on how awful everything is, I immediately lose my peace of mind.
Dalai LamaRead
What is called generosity is really compassion. In the Shin'ei it is written "Seen from the eye of compassion, there is noone to be disliked. One who has sinned is to be pitied all the more." There is no limit to the breadth and depth of ones heart. There is room enough for all. That we still worship the sages of the three ancient kingdoms is because their compassion reaches us yet today.
Yamamoto TsunetomoRead
What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion, everyday acts of compassion. In South Africa they have a phrase called ubuntu. Ubuntu comes out of a philosophy that says, the only way for me to be human is for you to reflect my humanity back at me.
Chris AbaniRead
We should strive to keep our hearts open to the sufferings and wretchedness of other people, and pray continually that God may grant us that spirit of compassion which is truly the spirit of God.
Vincent De PaulRead
Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and the regular exercise of choosing kindness over cruelty would change us.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead