Acceptance, The Master Key | Step-by-Step Guidance

Acceptance — one simple word, yet deeply potent. If unfolded wisely, it can transform the entire experience of life by unlocking inner peace and wisdom. What does ‘Acceptance’ really mean to you? And why should you bother to ‘Accept’? Listen to this podcast to understand and meditate along. Session recorded live in Basel, Switzerland. Format: Wisdom Talk (20 min) & Guided Meditation (30 min). Please Note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

A very warm welcome to all of you in this Monday evening meditation session with me,

Dhyan Se.

Today's topic of meditation is acceptance.

Acceptance is one of those qualities without which a meditator cannot proceed much further in his practice.

It's something that is not only relevant for meditation but also for our lives.

So it's worthwhile going through this quality,

Understanding what is acceptance and if needed practice it,

If needed give it that attention in the practice of meditation so that you not only bring this to your practice but also bring this to different aspects of your life.

So for today's session I would like you to choose an aspect,

Choose something in your life which you have been trying to accept,

Has been on your list pending for a long time.

You don't have to share it,

Just give yourself a few minutes to close your eyes and connect to what does acceptance mean to you and something that you would like to accept in your life which has been long pending.

Just these two things.

What does acceptance mean to you and something that you want to accept.

Give yourself the next two minutes,

Three minutes to tune yourself into these two thoughts.

You may open your eyes.

The first part,

What does acceptance mean to you,

Anyone who would like to share?

Anything,

It doesn't have to be very personal.

What does acceptance mean to you?

Has this any place in your life?

Yes?

Accepting the other the way they are.

Most people around me,

The people I am in charge of,

Accepting the way they are and proceed from there.

Very nice.

Anyone else?

Not wanting to change things.

Anyone else?

Not fighting,

Yes.

Letting go.

Accepting oneself,

Accepting others,

Not fighting,

Letting go.

This is exactly what we are going to go deeper into today.

The way we are going to meditate upon this is in four steps,

In four levels.

The first is the acceptance of our body.

You will be surprised how much against you are of your own body.

Since we are born,

We are in this body.

We did not choose this body consciously.

And throughout our lives,

We hate like,

Dislike things about our body.

Some of us are tall,

Some of us are short,

Some of us are fat,

Some of us are thin.

So many aspects of our body that we either like or dislike,

Reject or accept.

But there is no complete acceptance of who we are.

From the very childhood to the end of our lives,

We live in this body,

But there is no total acceptance of the body.

There is that conflict,

That fight with the body which we are not even aware of.

We are constantly in that fight.

In some situations of our life,

That fight becomes more significant,

More prominent.

It comes out more.

And in some situations,

You don't even recognize that you are fighting with your own self,

With your own body.

So this first gross aspect of ourselves,

Which is our body,

In this meditation session,

I would invite you to take few minutes of completely accepting the body.

I am reminded of a person who was in an accident and after that his whole body was paralyzed except for the head.

Except for the head,

The entire body was paralyzed.

He couldn't move his hands,

He couldn't move his legs.

He was dependent 24x7 on help to do things and on one day he was alone.

His help was not there and he was sitting in his wheelchair and came a fly.

That fly came and sat on his head and he tried to move the fly away.

He tried to shake his hands,

But the fly was still there.

And the fly became even more annoying.

It started to go into his eyes,

Into his ears,

Into his nose,

Into his mouth.

For 20 minutes the fly kept on hovering around his face and bothering him.

He got so annoyed that he started crying because he didn't know what to do.

He couldn't move the fly away.

He started crying.

After that phase was over,

He closed his eyes and there was a shift.

That shift was he accepted and there was a smile on his face and even the fly was gone.

That level of acceptance is needed in meditation where you accept your body completely,

Just the way it is,

Just the way it is.

Beautiful,

Ugly,

Tall,

Short,

Fat,

Thin,

Healthy,

Unhealthy.

While you are sitting in meditation you might also feel discomfort because you are sitting for one hour almost here and you start to have sleepy legs,

You start to have pain in your back or your legs.

If you immediately react to it you will lose the meditation.

Accept the way your body is,

If it's in pain or not in pain,

Just for these minutes,

Just for these moments and see what that brings to you.

So this first level of acceptance is on the body.

The second level of acceptance is on the mind.

So many thoughts,

So many crazy things going on in our head.

Only if we look at it,

If we pay attention to it for a few minutes we realize how much craziness is going on in the head.

Thoughts,

Emotions,

Plans,

Past,

Future,

Everything is going on in the head.

And when we say I am meditating,

Most of us then they try to fight with the thoughts,

They try to control the thoughts,

They try to push them away,

They try to wrestle with them.

Accept your mind,

Accept the state of your mind,

The way it is.

That's the starting point where if there are thoughts,

If there are emotions,

If the thoughts are a lot or less,

It does not matter.

The starting point is accept completely the state of your mind.

If you have a beautiful state of mind,

A harmonious state of mind,

Good.

If you have a disharmony state of mind,

If there is a lot of turmoil in your head,

Accept.

Just for a few minutes,

Accept,

That's the starting point.

Third is on the level of I.

It's a bit deeper.

When you go beyond the body,

When you go beyond the mind,

What is left is this sense of I.

Is this undefinable sense of I,

That sense of aliveness,

That sense of existence.

Out of this sense of I comes so many things.

Comes ego,

Comes wishes,

Desires,

Wants.

I want this,

I want that,

I want my life to be like this,

Not like this.

All these ideas,

All these wishes,

All these desires,

They all arise out of this sense of I.

And until we accept first how we are,

How it is,

We will never reach to peace,

We will never reach to meditation,

Neither in the session nor in life.

So just for this session,

Give yourself this chance to,

House over your life is,

House over your perception of yourself is,

Of your I is,

Accept it,

Just the way you are.

If you are a good person,

Good.

If you are a bad person,

It's also okay.

Accept yourself just the way you are.

So many people,

They don't accept who they are.

They constantly fight with who they are.

They want to be somebody else and throughout their life they are just trying to be somebody else.

Let's start with who we are.

Let's start with even the idea of who we are.

Just that idea is enough to accept first,

Accept completely how it is.

What else is left?

The body,

The mind,

The I and the rest.

Everything that is outside,

The other.

Everything that is the people around you,

Your surroundings,

The environment,

The people that are at your home or at your work.

Anything and everything.

The whole without exception,

Without excluding anybody,

The whole.

That level of acceptance is needed as well to accept this universe,

This cosmos,

This world in its complete entirety the way it is.

We are too small as compared to this entire world,

Yet we have the audacity to think we are going to change the world or we are going to,

The world is this way,

It should be that way,

We have ideas about how things should be.

For these few minutes,

Let all of them go.

For these few minutes,

If the world is a good place,

Good.

If the world is a bad place,

It's also okay.

Just accept the world the way it is.

When you have gone through all these four levels of acceptance,

The peace,

The centeredness,

The silence that arises is worth experiencing.

It's worth bringing not just only in these minutes,

But also throughout your life as well.

Before we sit into this guided meditation,

I would like you to also still go into this idea of what is acceptance for you.

I described to you these four different levels of acceptance,

But again I invite you to think what does this acceptance mean to you?

Does this mean no conflict?

Does this mean be at peace with oneself and with others?

What does this mean to you?

And use that sense of what acceptance is throughout the meditation while we go through these four different levels,

Starting from the body,

Then the mind,

Then the sense of I,

And then everything else outside.

Once we have gone through these four levels of acceptance,

We'll sit in silence,

In awareness for another 10-15 minutes without having to do anything,

Without having to end and just be in this moment as long as you can.

Any questions about how we are going to do this?

If not,

Then let's close our eyes.

Take a nice deep breath,

Inhale from the nose,

And also exhale from the nose.

Keep your back straight,

Shoulders down,

Neck and head straight,

Face relaxed,

And gentle smile on your face.

Another deep breath in from the nose,

And out from the nose.

Let your breath settle,

Let your body settle,

Let your mind settle.

Keep on breathing as naturally as you always do,

And allow your body to settle in this posture.

Bring your awareness to your body,

And notice your posture.

Bring your awareness to your body,

Bring your awareness to your feet,

And slowly move upwards,

Scan your body,

Just become aware of your body from your feet to the top of your head.

As you become aware of your body,

Just let it be the way it is.

Don't try to change anything about your body.

Let it be the way it is.

Be it feeling hot or cold,

At rest or moving,

Simply observe and allow your body to just be.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Don't try to change anything about your body.

Just remain aware and let it be.

Let your body be the way it is.

Observe all the sensations in your body without trying to change anything about it.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Be silent and aware of your body.

Now move your awareness to your mind and simply observe what's going on in your mind.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Allow your awareness to settle and observe your thoughts.

Thoughts come and go.

Simply observe without trying to change anything.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Remain silent and aware.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Be aware of your mind.

Let your body be the way it is.

Let your body be the way it is.

Now move your awareness to this sense of I and observe what is this sense of I that is there with every breath that you take.

Let your awareness be the way it is.

Let your awareness be the way it is.

Let your awareness be the way it is.

Let your awareness be the way it is.

Let every breath in and out remain aware of this sense of I and trying to change anything.

Let every breath go deeper into this sense of I.

Let every breath go deeper into this sense of I.

Let every breath go deeper into this sense of I.

Let every breath go deeper into this sense of I.

Let every breath go deeper into this sense of I.

Out of this session,

Whatever has bothered you,

Accept it.

Let be noises,

Movements,

Anything and everything.

Let complete acceptance sit in silence,

In awareness for the next minutes.

Let complete acceptance sit in silence,

In awareness for the next minutes.

Stay silent.

Aware in acceptance.

And let it all go.

And let it all go.

And let it all go.

And let it all go.

And let it all go.

And let it all go.

And let it all go.

And let it all go.

Now bring your awareness to your breath.

Become aware of your body,

Of your mind.

In acceptance of how you feel right now,

Very slowly and gently you may open your eyes or keep them closed.

You may move your body or remain still and give yourself the next couple of minutes to reflect on your experience,

What went through your body,

Your mind,

Your awareness.

Once again,

What does acceptance mean to you?

Give yourself these minutes before you go back into the world.

News or Acceptance is one of the hardest things.

One of the hardest aspects,

Topics for both meditation and otherwise.

I am thankful that you tried.

You gave your very best to remain still,

To remain in acceptance of your body,

Of your mind,

Of your self and everything else around.

Just like in this room,

There can be in situations of your life also things that you would not want them to happen.

You would not accept them,

But you will have to accept them.

So I hope that there was something in this session for you,

For both your meditation practice and for the rest of your life.

If there are any questions related to meditation,

Now we have another five minutes or so where we discuss,

Share anything that is worth sharing from your experience.

Anything that is worth discussing,

Any question,

Any doubt that you have on your mind before you leave this session.

Anyone?

Yes?

In the regard of discrimination,

When to accept and when to.

.

.

I mean we can accept prematurely,

But we could change the situation for the better.

In small things like meditation posture,

Like using some support,

Or in big things,

Well this is a problem of the world we cannot solve,

But actually we can,

Because we work together.

I can speak for meditation first,

Because that's where I can speak out of my own experience.

You have to be in complete acceptance.

Complete acceptance means total acceptance of exactly the way things are.

And if you project that on the world,

Yes,

If you start thinking about the world,

So many things have to be improved,

Because we think things are not right,

Or some things are right.

But what I'm imploring you to explore in meditation is,

For once,

Just even the idea that accept everything the way it is.

You don't have to love it,

You don't have to hate it,

Accept it.

That state is very powerful.

That state has its own taste.

That state has its own wisdom.

Out of that,

Once you have tasted that,

Once you have tasted that complete acceptance,

You're free to do what you want to do afterwards.

If you want to change,

Go change.

If you want to let it be the way it is,

Let it be.

What I'm bringing in this session is this idea,

This taste which is missing,

To accept first.

Because this is something which we lack somewhere,

Somewhere in our life.

Because our mind is so powerful,

Our ego,

Our sense of this world has become so strong that before we accept it,

We reject it,

We judge it,

We evaluate it.

So that's where,

Also for the practice,

Also for the practice,

If your body is uncomfortable in pain,

Yes,

That's a fact.

If you accept it,

Try,

When you go into this full acceptance of that your body is in pain,

It's unable to sit,

See what happens.

Right now there is a partial acceptance of how it is and yes,

You try to change it,

You try to make it comfortable,

But let go of that control just for a few minutes,

Just for even a second.

Let go of that control and then see where it takes you.

That's what I could maybe share out of my little experience of meditation and what this means for me in life as well.

Thanks for asking that question.

Reviews

Thank you so much for sharing this talk and guided practice. So helpful. I have been striving/resisting/fighting and trying to "fix" a number of things in my life including my ill health. I have really struggled with acceptance due to a fear of what this would mean for myself and my loved ones. I found this talk extremely powerful/informative and the guidance in the practice extremely helpful and compassionate. I will return to it frequently and am very grateful for it 🙏

Great. As always. Thank you!

Accepting things as they are is my New Years intention and this talk and meditation was very helpful. Thank you!

Thank you for sharing your practice.

Good talk 🌟 mostly silent meditation.....fell asleep. But woke very relaxed 😌 thx 🙏🏼

Acceptance, control and then fear of loss, again 🤷‍♀️😊 Thank you very much! This was an amazing experience 🙇‍♀️❤️