Nice passage from Tara Brach
Sent to the email group:
My wife's book group was reading the Tara Brach book Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha (2003, 2023). She came upon this passage relevant to what many of us are doing, and passed it along to me. (Thanks, N!) Right on target, I'd say.
“Those who are devotional in nature might seek safety and refuge in the living spirit of the Buddha's awakened heart and mind. Much like praying to Christ or the Divine Mother, we can take refuge in a being or presence that cares about our suffering. In taking this first refuge, I sometimes say, 'I take refuge in the Beloved' and surrender into what I experience as the boundlessness of compassion. When I am feeling fear, I surrender it to the Beloved. By this, I am not trying to get rid of fear, but rather letting go into a refuge that is vast enough to hold my fear with love” (p. 168).