Radical Acceptance
Tara Brach · 2003
Radical Acceptance (2003) is a book by Tara Brach on Self-compassion & Buddhist psychology. Tara Brach fuses vipassana Buddhism with clinical psychology to treat the "trance of unworthiness", the felt sense that something is wrong with us, using the two wings of mindfulness and compassion.
The book that reframes the nagging sense that \"something is wrong with me\" as a trance you can wake from, by learning to stop fixing yourself and start holding yourself with the two wings of clear seeing and compassion.
Two of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of Radical Acceptance pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first two.
- The trance of unworthiness is the book's core diagnosis: a semi-conscious, pervasive belief that 'something is wrong with me.' Its emblem is Mohini, a zoo tiger who kept pacing a 12-by-12 patch even after being freed into acres, we cage ourselves in self-judgment when freedom is available.
- Brach defines Radical Acceptance exactly: 'clearly recognizing what is happening inside us, and regarding what we see with an open, kind and loving heart', a willingness to experience life as it is, not a verdict that the situation is good.
The other 5 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 9 chapters
The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.
- "Something Is Wrong with Me": The Trance of Unworthiness
- The Two Wings: What Radical Acceptance Actually Is
- The Sacred Pause: "I See You, Mara"
- Unconditional Friendliness: Inviting Mara to Tea
- Coming Home to the Body
- Radical Acceptance of Desire and Fear
- Awakening Compassion for Ourselves: Becoming the Holder and the Held
- The Unreal Other: Widening the Circles of Compassion
- Basic Goodness: Realizing Our True Nature
Finish Radical Acceptance tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 11 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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