Hello, you are listening to the Secular Buddhism Podcast. This is episode number seven. I am your host Noah Rochetta

and today I'm talking about acceptance versus resignation. So let's get started.

Hey guys, welcome to the Secular Buddhism Podcast. This podcast is produced every week,

covers philosophical topics within Buddhism and secular humanism. Episodes one through five serve as

a basic introduction to secular Buddhism and to general Buddhist concepts. So if you're new to

the podcast, I recommend listening to the first five episodes in order. All episodes after that,

including this one are meant to be individual topics that you can listen to in any order.

Before we start, the Dalai Lama says, do not try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist.

Use it to be a better whatever you already are. Please keep this in mind as you listen and learn

about the topics and concepts discussed in this podcast episode. And if you enjoy this podcast,

please feel free to share, write a review, or give it a rating. So let's jump into this week's topic.

So what is acceptance? I think there's a common misconception around the idea of acceptance,

it has to do with the semantics of the word acceptance. And it's common to associate the word

acceptance with the word resignation. So I want to spend some time discussing what acceptance is,

but clarifying also what it's not. Buddhism does not encourage resignation, it encourages acceptance.

So let's talk about that. What is acceptance? Acceptance is kind of like sitting in a field,

looking up at the sky and watching the clouds go by. There's no resistance to the moment to

moment experience, there's only observation and acceptance. It would be silly to watch the clouds

and be upset that they're not forming into the specific shapes that we want. And yet that's exactly

what we tend to do in life. I like to compare the experience of being alive to the experience

of playing a game of Tetris. And I've mentioned this before in other podcasts. But if you've played Tetris,

you know that the whole point of the game is to wait and see what shape will appear next. And then

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