This week you learned that the most difficult thing to do is to accept oneself completely. They say, "the moment you can do that, you have in effect done psychologically what is the equivalent of saying in philosophical or theological terms, you as you are now are the Buddha. That’s unbelievable because we are always trying to get away from ourselves as we are now in one fashion or another. And we will only stop doing that through a series of experiments in which we try resolutely to get away from ourselves as we are. So that is the middle way. When you get to the point, when you stop judging as better or worse individual differences and merely understand them as a matrix through which the dharma is manifest, you’re on your way home. As long as you sit and say, "If only I had this, if only I could be in retreat all the time, if only I didn’t have children, if only I did have children. If only I were taller, if only I was shorter. If only I had bigger breasts, if only I had smaller. If only I had blonde hair. If only I didn’t have a mole on my cheek. If only I weren’t dying. If only I were older. If only I were younger. You are as you are within your life, just as it exists at this moment, there is dharma. You need only quiet down and listen for the dharma to hear it. The next moment, it may all be different, but at this moment where you are is just where you need to be to come to God.”
**Think about your “if onlys”. What would happen if you simply dropped the habit of judging them as wrong in some way? (even the “if only I didn’t have all of these if onlys.”) What “series of experiments” can you do to start that process? Please share any insights, songs or poems you love about self-acceptance.