Summary
Pain is an excellent navigator on the path to wisdom. Though we might prefer to be pain free, this is impossible in human life, where all things are impermanent. The question is, How can we learn to use pain as a doorway to insight and healing? If pain is the answer then what is the question? How do our wounds shape our characters as we move through the trauma of everyday life? What is the relationship between blessing (acceptance) and transformation? We were delighted to have renowned meditation teacher, Tara Brach as this month’s guest interview.
SEEKERS SESSION RECORDING & TRANSCRIPT
GUEST INTERVIEW WITH TARA BRACH
About Tara Brach
Tara Brach’s teachings blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices, mindful attention to our inner life, and a full, compassionate engagement with our world. The result is a distinctive voice in Western Buddhism, one that offers a wise and caring approach to freeing ourselves and society from suffering.
Tara earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Fielding Institute, with a dissertation exploring meditation as a therapeutic modality in treating addiction. She went on to complete a five-year Buddhist teacher training program at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, under the guidance of Jack Kornfield. Working as both a psychotherapist and a meditation teacher, she found herself naturally blending these two powerful traditions—introducing meditation to her therapy clients and sharing western psychological insights with meditation students. This synthesis has evolved, in more recent years, into Tara’s groundbreaking work in training psychotherapists to integrate mindfulness strategies into their clinical work.
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Radical Acceptance Revisited
One of the truths we most regularly forget is that if we are at war with ourselves, we can’t feel love and connection with our world. This talk looks at the genesis of the “Trance of Unworthiness” and how the wings of mindfulness and heartfulness can dissolve the trance and reveal the loving awareness that is our essence Being.
VIDEO REFLECTION
DEEPENING PROMPTS
1. Since pain is information, ask yourself: What are the various pain points in your life trying to tell you (physical, emotional, spiritual)? Be specific.
2. What are the obstacles to self-love and self-care in your life? Be specific.
3. If you could drop one harmful outdated story about yourself, what would it be? How would letting go of this narrative affect your life moving forward?