Tara Brach
Tara Brach
Tara Brachis an American psychologist and proponent of Buddhist meditation. She is the senior teacher and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C., a "spiritual community" that teaches and practices Vipassana meditation. The group's Wednesday night meeting in Bethesda, Maryland, which is taught by Dr. Brach, is a large gathering of approximately 250-300 people. Her colleagues include Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein and others in the Vipassana or Insight meditation tradition. Brach also teaches about Buddhist meditation...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPsychologist
Date of Birth17 May 1953
CountryUnited States of America
The trance of unworthiness keeps the sweetness of belonging out of reach. The path to "the sweetness of belonging," is acceptance - acceptance of ourselves and acceptance of others without judgment.
We are uncomfortable because everything in our life keeps changing -- our inner moods, our bodies, our work, the people we love, the world we live in. We can't hold on to anything -- a beautiful sunset, a sweet taste, an intimate moment with a lover, our very existence as the body/mind we call self -- because all things come and go. Lacking any permanent satisfaction, we continuously need another injection of fuel, stimulation, reassurance from loved ones, medicine, exercise, and meditation. We are continually driven to become something more, to experience something else.
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.
There are some things we can't choose, but in being present we can choose how we want to relate to them
But this revolutionary act of treating ourselves tenderly can begin to undo the aversive messages of a lifetime.
Sometimes the easiest way to appreciate ourselves is by looking through the eyes of someone who loves us.
Feeling compassion for ourselves in no way releases us from responsibility for our actions. Rather, it releases us from the self-hatred that prevents us from responding to our life with clarity and balance.
When we put down ideas of what life should be like, we are free to wholeheartedly say yes to our life as it is.
Compassion can be described as letting ourselves be touched by the vulnerability and suffering that is within ourselves and all beings. The full flowering of compassion also includes action: Not only do we attune to the presence of suffering, we respond to it.
Nothing is wrong—whatever is happening is just “real life.
We can find true refuge within our own hearts and minds-right here, right now, in the midst of our moment-to-momen t lives.
Imagine you are walking in the woods and you see a small dog sitting by a tree. As you approach it, it suddenly lunges at you, teeth bared. You are frightened and angry. But then you notice that one of its legs is caught in a trap. Immediately your mood shifts from anger to concern: You see that the dog's aggression is coming from a place of vulnerability and pain. This applies to all of us. When we behave in hurtful ways, it is because we are caught in some kind of trap. The more we look through the eyes of wisdom at ourselves and one another, the more we cultivate a compassionate heart.
Mindfulness is a pause -- the space between stimulus and response: that's where choice lies.
You can think of spiritual practice as a kind of spiritual re-parenting ... You're offering yourself the two qualities that make up good parenting: understanding - seeing yourself for who you truly are - and relating to what you see with unconditional love.