Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha

For many of us, feelings of deficiency are right around the corner. It doesn’t take
much–just hearing of someone else’s accomplishments, being criticized, getting into
an argument, making a mistake at work–to make us feel that we are not okay. Beginning
to understand how our lives have become ensnared in this trance of unworthiness is
our first step toward reconnecting with who we really are and what it means to live
fully.

-from Radical Acceptance

Believing that something
is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering, says Tara Brach at the start
of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and
conflicts in our relationships, in addictions and perfectionism, in loneliness and
overwork-all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled. Radical
Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance
developed over Dr. Brach’s twenty years of work with therapy clients and Buddhist
students.

Writing with great warmth and clarity, Tara Brach brings her teachings
alive through personal stories and case histories, fresh interpretations of Buddhist
tales, and guided meditations. Step by step, she leads us to trust our innate goodness,
showing how we can develop the balance of clear-sightedness and compassion that is
the essence of Radical Acceptance. Radical Acceptance does not mean self-indulgence
or passivity. Instead it empowers genuine change: healing fear and shame and helping
to build loving, authentic relationships. When we stop being at war with ourselves,
we are free to live fully every precious moment of our lives.