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Words to inspire the belief that we have all we need to be the change we wish to see.

Tag: Tara Brach

To be or to do

Author Ryan Holiday was talking with Tim Ferriss on The Tim Ferriss Show and he said, “To be or to do? This is a key question that comes to us from the great strategist John Boyd who, as he mentored young men and women in the Pentagon, would see that you kind of can go down two paths in life. There’s the person who wants to look important, that wants to achieve a high rank, that wants to be in the newspapers or on TV. Then there’s the person who wants to quietly get things done. I think it was Truman who said, ‘It’s amazing how much you can accomplish if you don’t care about who gets the credit.’

To be or to do is largely about credit. Do you care about accomplishments, or do you care about impact? Do you care about credit, or do you care about getting things done? You have to ask yourself, ‘Am I trying to be an important person? Am I trying to accomplish important things?’ And this question is critical, ‘To be or to do?’ How are you measuring your life?

Hillel said, ‘If I am not for me, who is?’ And then he said, ‘If I am only for me, who am I?’ This, I think, is related to the idea of to be or to do.” Continue reading

Legends of the Holy Grail

I’m reading Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach and she writes, “In one of the legends of the Holy Grail, Parsifal, a young knight on a quest, wanders into a parched and devastated land where nothing grows. When he arrives at the capital of this wasteland, he finds the townspeople behaving as if everything were normal. They are not wondering, ‘What horror has befallen us?’ or ‘What can we do?’ Rather, they are dull and mechanical, as if under a spell. Continue reading

Resentment

Resentment. Author and psychologist Tara Brach writes in her book Radical Acceptance, “The word resentment means ‘to feel again.’ Each time we repeat to ourselves a story of how we’ve been wronged, we feel again in our body and mind the anger at being violated. But often enough our resentment of others reflects our resentment of ourselves. When someone rejects us, he or she might be reinforcing a view we already hold – that we’re not good enough, not kind enough, not lovable enough.” Continue reading

Radical acceptance

I am reading Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With The Heart Of A Buddha by Tara Brach. Two quotes that she mentioned made me pause.

“Last night, as I was sleeping, I dreamt – marvelous error! – that I had a beehive here inside my heart. And the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures,” poet Antonio Machado, translated by Robert Bly.

And the second quote was from psychologist Carl Rogers, “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” Continue reading

What are you unwilling to feel?

Podcaster and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss mentioned something he heard from psychologist, author and mindfulness leader Tara Brach.  She asked, “What are you unwilling to feel?”

What a question.  What are you unwilling to feel?  And by not feeling it, does it lead to alcohol, gambling, drugs, relationship problems, commitment issues, stagnation and more? Continue reading

See ourselves as part of the ocean

In a recent meditation, author Tara Brach said something profound.  She said we need to see ourselves as part of the ocean.  Embracing the waves.  Not in fear of the waves or fighting the waves.  When we fear or fight the waves we end up with motion sickness.  Being tossed around in our life without control.  We have to realize that we are one with the entire ocean and that is our power. Continue reading

That space

Psychologist and author Tara Brach mentioned a quote and a poem in a meditation she offered recently that really moved me.

Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychologist and Holocaust survivor said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

That space.

How many times have we reacted and regretted it immediately?  We made someone feel bad, we yelled, we pressed send, we wounded with words. Continue reading

What do I believe that is limiting me?

I was listening to psychologist and meditation teacher Tara Brach on the Tim Ferriss podcast the other day.  She asked, “What do I believe that is limiting me?”  Do I, like many others, suffer from imposter syndrome?  Do I think I’m not smart enough, thin enough, friendly enough, organized enough?  Do I think I’m bad at presentations or networking or making money?   Continue reading

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