Radical Acceptance 101

I met Harvard professor Dr. Richard Alpert when I was 12 years old in the spring of 1966. He had come by to visit my mother, whom he had befriended two years earlier. At that first meeting we bonded over a common passion for a particular, very popular science fiction book, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.

Almost 60 years later I can condense what his spiritual teachings have finally instilled into me into three key principles:

Radical Acceptance: Per his instructions I now understand how the universe is designed to burn out my attachments, how to be more deeply involved in my life and yet less attached to it, to more often be just a witness to it. This is the practice of radical acceptance. It is not giving up, it is not surrender, it does not mean I stop trying to relieve suffering wherever I see it, in myself and others. It just means I'm not demanding, insisting or even strongly hoping that the Universe unfolds the way I think I ‘need’ it to, because I'm not attached that way anymore. Besides, I don't believe everything I think, as much as I used to, with regards to what my ‘needs’ are.

Embracing Impermanence: At every stage of his life Dr. Alpert modeled for us how to gracefully let go of the past and embrace the new Now he found himself in. The Big Ice Cream Cone In The Sky (Be Here Now p.37) always melts. Practicing this principle has made the difference for me between the times I carried big, depressive burdens around and the times I was able to dance.

Today I mostly just dance.

Understanding the impermanent nature of absolutely everything, visualizing everything as having already turned to dust from one perspective, vastly facilitates my ability to practice the kind of radical acceptance that eliminates the clinging to attachments that caused most all of the suffering I ever experienced.

Living as Fully in the Present Instant as Possible: For all of my adult life, when trying to explain the teachings of Dr. Alpert to people who were not familiar with them, I have told them that to be here now does not mean you do not make plans to go to college next fall. It means you make those plans in the context of what's going on right now, and you let go of any attachment to what actually happens next fall. As he was fond of saying,

“You take care of what's on your plate. Then you return your awareness to just the present moment again.”

 Today I am fortunate to have a very healthy, happy, hands-off relationship with my memories and my expectations.

Richard was uniquely masterful at conveying Eastern mysticism in a way that made it accessible, understandable and attractive to us in the West. We carry on that tradition for each other, in this group and others. That's all I'm trying to do with these kinds of posts. We can act as guardrails for each other by sharing and caring in these virtual environments, and in real life wherever we can. To help everyone stay on a path that elevates all of us.

"The transformative process is our job, so that we are not ruled by fear but by love."—Richard Alpert

“There is only “us.” There is no other.” —Richard Alpert

Every time we choose connection over protection, while still honoring healthy boundaries, we remember what we truly are: one being, playing as many. (John 10:34)

All One. I love Us,

Jake