The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

Please visit our website at audiodharma.org.

So continuing the theme of appreciation as a foundation for compassion.

A form of appreciation, part of this that makes appreciation more valuable and richer,

is our ability to accept people as they are.

And this is a nuance kind of topic because, of course, there are people who do things that we can't accept.

And so we're not condoning or allowing them to continue to do things which are harmful.

So one of the aspects of acceptance, at the same time, it's profound for some people to be accepted as they are.

There are plenty of people in this society that are not accepted for basically, you know, for who they are.

And so to go everywhere they go, there's people not accepting them, not including them, marginalizing them, ignoring them.

Because somehow they're not accepted.

The non-accepting people might think that they're not being prejudiced, they're not being hostile,

but the subtle ways in which people keep silent or overlook them or ignore them or prioritize other people to give their attention to.

And some people, it's quite dramatic that how they're not accepted.

Some people, it's subtle, but it takes its toll over a long time.

And because it's such a common phenomenon in the world that people in some way are they're not accepted,

not that we don't make room for them, we don't include them in our efforts to be inclusive,

to be friends, to be friend people, that it's such a powerful thing to do.

And some people, it's rare, they rarely get accepted for themselves for how they are,

and to have someone that sits down with them and just there and accepts them as they are.

I've known homeless people who, when I sat down at an bench with them and just talked with them,

somebody could see something inside of them relaxed, and at first they felt kind of cautious.

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