Quotes from Tara Brach

Our issues are in our tissues.

How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races—the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses. Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are only princesses waiting for us to act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

I'm skimming over life and racing to the finish line—death.

Just as a clear pond reflects the sky, mindfulness allows us to see the truth of our experience.

to failure." Playing it safe requires that we avoid risky situations—which covers pretty much all of life.

other people want to feel important and loved. Just that. [author's patient, Phil]

But Radical Acceptance also means not overlooking another important truth: the endless creativity and possibility that exist in living. By accepting the truth of change, accepting that we don't know how our life will unfold, we open ourselves to hope so that we can move forward with vitality and will.

make love of your self perfect.

Taking our hands off the controls and pausing is an opportunity to clearly see the wants and fears that are driving us.... Often the moment when we most need to pause is exactly when it feels most intolerable to do so.

Everything within and around us is subject to change; the truth that if we try to hold on to or resist the stream of experience, we deepen the trance of fear.

The poet Rumi saw clearly the relationship between our wounds and our awakening. He counseled, "Don't turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That's where the light enters you.

As cartoonist Jules Feiffer puts it: "I grew up to have my father's looks, my father's speech patterns, my father's posture, my father's walk, my father's opinions and my mother's contempt for my father.

When we disconnect from the body, we are pulling away from the energetic expression of our being that connects us with all of life. By imagining a great tree uprooted from earth, we can sense the unnaturalness, violence, and suffering of this severed belonging. The experience of being uprooted is a kind of dying.

The more you Nurture yourself, the more you'll find you're living from your future self—the best of who you are.

You nights of anguish. Why didn't I kneel more deeply to accept you, Inconsolable sisters, and, surrendering, lose myself in your loosened hair. How we squander our hours of pain. How we gaze beyond them into the bitter duration To see if they have an end. Though they are really Seasons of us, our winter …

I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself.

Whenever we reject a part of our being, we are confirming to ourselves our fundamental unworthiness.

The instant we agree to feel fear or vulnerability, greed or agitation, we are holding our life with an unconditionally friendly heart.

REFLECTION Pause and let yourself sink into this moment, into presence, into your heart. Gently say to yourself, "There's nothing to do. This is enough . . . I am enough." Feel the fullness and peace of coming home.

This means accepting our human existence and all of life as it is. Imperfection is not our personal problem—it is a natural part of existing.

Buddhist mindfulness meditation called vipassana, which means "to see clearly

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." Our

Mindfulness is the intentional process of paying attention, without judgment, to the unfolding

Through Buddhist awareness practices, we free ourselves from the suffering of trance by learning to recognize what is true in the present moment, and by embracing whatever we see with an open heart. This cultivation of mindfulness and compassion is what I call Radical Acceptance.