acceptance, but not complacency
Jul. 17th, 2023 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cattasallaOne popular idea of the point of Buddhist practice is pure acceptance of whatever is happening with no interest in changing it. I see this message delivered by modern Western teachers from a variety of traditions. But this is not what the Buddha taught. My own teacher, a monastic trained in the Thai forest tradition, told a story of being invited to talk at a Western Buddhist study group. He read from the Dhammapāda about training the mind. Everyone at the group was shocked. They believed that acceptance was what one should be doing, and not anything more.
The Buddha was quite clear that we need to train our minds. Unless we have reached full arahantship, he explicitly teaches to not be satisfied. To not be complacent. To continue striving. Not in a way that you never take a break or rest, the effort should be balanced at best, but for most people oscillates between intensity and some degree of slack. But we are to look at ourselves, see what needs changing, and work on it.
This is not to say acceptance has no place. Indeed, it is vital for the process of effective change. We have to accept where we're at. We have to acknowledge our current shortcomings as well as our current strengths. Denial and repression get us nowhere, and neither does shame or embarrassment. It is vital to accept where we are, and accept what is happening.
But once the current reality of our minds is accepted, we can work to change it. We can build on our strengths and overcome our shortcomings. More love, more letting go (a bit paradoxical, yes).
A Buddhist friend who was a therapist for awhile told me of a therapy technique called ACT: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. That's what the Buddha taught, and that's what I'm talking about here. Complete acceptance of your current state of being, without guilt or fear or anxiety or arrogance, along with a commitment to change in specific ways...to apply right effort and uproot our unwholesome, unskillful, unhealthy, harmful tendencies and replace them with wholesome, skilled, healthy, helpful tendencies.
The Buddha was quite clear that we need to train our minds. Unless we have reached full arahantship, he explicitly teaches to not be satisfied. To not be complacent. To continue striving. Not in a way that you never take a break or rest, the effort should be balanced at best, but for most people oscillates between intensity and some degree of slack. But we are to look at ourselves, see what needs changing, and work on it.
This is not to say acceptance has no place. Indeed, it is vital for the process of effective change. We have to accept where we're at. We have to acknowledge our current shortcomings as well as our current strengths. Denial and repression get us nowhere, and neither does shame or embarrassment. It is vital to accept where we are, and accept what is happening.
But once the current reality of our minds is accepted, we can work to change it. We can build on our strengths and overcome our shortcomings. More love, more letting go (a bit paradoxical, yes).
A Buddhist friend who was a therapist for awhile told me of a therapy technique called ACT: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. That's what the Buddha taught, and that's what I'm talking about here. Complete acceptance of your current state of being, without guilt or fear or anxiety or arrogance, along with a commitment to change in specific ways...to apply right effort and uproot our unwholesome, unskillful, unhealthy, harmful tendencies and replace them with wholesome, skilled, healthy, helpful tendencies.