I feel acceptance relates to forgiveness. I would agree. A lot of people have a hard time forgiving others and an even worse time forgiving themselves. Nature itself is very forgiving of human psychological limitations, though I would say those are not dictated strictly by biology. If biology were the definition of human limitations, I shouldn’t be able to do these events or comprehend what you say my friends, as the encoding center of my brain was damaged.

How do we accept what makes us very sad? Like forgiveness, it’s the realization that it’s not actually about you, that simple. Your feelings are legitimate. The sadness is to be accepted, but whatever grief you feel is your reaction to what is. No event that happens, happens to hurt you personally.

Society tends to lead us toward a path of guilt that we must face punishment for our misdeeds, real or imagined. It is a hard thought cycle to break. It is. It’s an intoxicating emotional addiction. We come to associate love and sense of social place with pain and punishment. The phrase “love hurts” has been used in music repeatedly. Love does not hurt, rejection hurts, and the most genuine reason for grief is self rejection. The idea that you must be anything other than who you are and where you are, and the idea that you should feel anything other than what you feel.

I have found an odd comfort in sadness myself, and perhaps even odder clarity in humiliation. The latter reminds me to step back and remember that I have a choice in my activities. When you feel really good about something you do, you can come to associate your sense of self with that activity. Want to be “the teacher” or “the breadwinner”, or the winner in general? Then comes grief when you lose, but do you have any reason to believe you will never lose or that events should even work that way if they could?

People build their self image so large that way, so as they say “the higher you climb the further you fall”? Yes, but you can’t in reality climb or fall. If I had to venture an opinion about my classes, I would say they are 70% fail, but they are 30% meaningful. Now with acceptance, I can accept my perception and the actual event, and any outside input I can get, and make a decision without basing it on any shallow mood or half baked opinion I might have. And have my actions reflect a wisdom that goes beyond my limited perception. But without acceptance, you are stuck in the very tight space of your own head. I myself don’t like cramped spaces.

Do we accept that people are cruel? Yes, and accept that likewise they are kind, and accept that at any given time their perceptions are limited. Someone’s focus is easy to read, no psychic ability required. It will always be reflected in their behaviour. People are cruel when they are focused on cruelty. People are selfish when they are focused on selfishness. People are loving when they are focused on love. Where they get lost is to think any of it is about them personally. That they are themselves alone in their experience.

What about when they focus in their imagination? Focus in imagination behaves the same as focus on material. In fact, you can not be totally focused on your imagination ever. For one thing, your external senses never shut off and your brain is always adding in its real life experience. For the other, your very being is a mirror of the world itself. You cannot accept self and reject reality.

And you can never uninstall real life. Yes, exactly, though some people do try. They call it intoxication. They fail or they die, or both. I prefer acceptance. If something is upsetting to me, I am free to do nothing about it if I choose, and I will choose to do nothing if I am better served in my rest then I would be in my action.

You can know when to rest and when to take action when you accept that your life is all life, and that you don’t have to outrace the world itself. It’s not a footrace, and racing hearts lead to heart attack if not allowed to rest.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~