Class 3: Accepting The World

Introduction

Now it's time for the third expansion of your awareness - as you also become aware of the feelings in your heart, and let go of judging so that you can open up to love.

The master we're focusing upon in this third class is Buddha. Emerging from the ancient Hindu tradition, Buddha realized the core inner cause of human suffering - and offered a meditative path beyond that suffering.

The primary source of human emotional suffering and spiritual poverty, as Buddha pointed out, is our mental habit of maintaining fear-based thoughts in our minds, and judging the world around us rather than accepting and loving the world.

The choice that Buddha offered in meditation (and the verbal intent of the third focus phrase of this new meditation process) is to silence the judgmental function of the mind, and shift to acceptance mode - so that our hearts can open, and we can interact with the world around us rather than be in conflict with the world.

• As you'll notice if you watch your everyday flow of thoughts, Buddha was definitely right - all too often our chronic thoughts remain locked in judgment mode.

Judgment is surely a necessary function of the deductive mind - we need to discriminate, and avoid dangerous situations etc. Judging has its role in life.

• But when judgment tends to dominate other functions of consciousness, we suffer. Why? Because when we're judging, we can't experience love in our hearts.

This is a psychological fact - we can't be in judgment mode, and acceptance mode, at the same time. So each moment, we must choose.

In meditation, we choose to at least temporarily silence the judgmental thoughts that generate anxiety and separation and rejection, and shift into acceptance and love, so we can interact positively and open-heartedly with the world around us.

Buddha strongly taught the necessity of shifting into acceptance mode. And the focus phrase that most powerfully expresses this intent is this:

• "I accept the world, just as it is."

See how it feels right now, to pause, and on your next exhale, say these words. Notice their power!