Today we would ask you to meditate on the word acceptance.

Many of you have difficulty with acceptance.  There is a belief system in your society, inculcated in most of you when you are very young, that people of value “work hard to make their dreams happen.”  That the worthy human being is someone who ever strives to control and conquer his reality.  The “successful” human is ever engaged in struggle for achievement.

This belief, for many of you, is a source of terrible misery.  For it creates a life in which one can never truly be doing enough; in which one is always falling short of one’s potential; in which other people seem to “have their lives together,” while you are an unworthy mess.

This “work hard and make your dreams happen” belief especially runs into trouble when you experience adversity — physical illness, economic hardship, the disillusion of relationships.

That is why the quality of acceptance is something to embrace, to see really as your dear friend.  Acceptance is so simple.  It is seeing with true perception.  It is embracing life, in the present moment, as it is.  Not only that — it invites life in.  It accepts, as you accept a gift, or accept food into your mouth, or accept a hug.  It is a dropping of all defenses.  It is a letting in, a relaxing, an invitation.

Acceptance is not “giving up”.  That is a lie.  Acceptance does not mean abandoning your dreams.  On the contrary.  Acceptance just means that you are at peace with life.  That is all it means.  It just means you are at peace.  How much easier it is for you to do things when you are at peace.  Consider: nations at war exhaust their resources and live in constant states of stress and existential threat.  Nations at peace can put their resources into growth and prosperity.  That is why peace of mind is essential to growth and well-being.  And the road to true peace lies in acceptance.

Accept your life, as it is.  Accept yourself, for who you are.  Accept the world, as it is.  Then, and only then, will you awaken to the true beauty that is around you.