Acceptance overlaps with its opposite Betterment and is characterized by:
- Thanking the world for what it is rather than cursing the world for what it is not.
- Accepting God's or fates creation rather than wanting to improve it.
- Accepting your personal impending death rather than inventing afterlife.
- Accepting neither good nor evil in the world except in the minds of humans.
- Accepting neither heaven nor hell nor judgement.
- Accepting only eternal now, no past nor future.
- Accepting your self or soul changes with new experiences and eventually dies.
- Accepting senses are not reliable representatives of reality.
- Accepting senses as better representatives of reality than imagination (mind).
- Go with the flow.
Similar phrases are used in Betterment to facilitate comparisons to its opposite.
Aphorisms 6 and 9 sort of get at what is meant by "Acceptance", i.e. thanking rather
than cursing God (I prefer random chance as first cause). Acceptance is similar to Bellah's
(citing Maslow) B-cognition for "Being" - participation in the here and now rather rather than
thinking the current state is "Deficient" and needs improvement (D-cognition, see Betterment).
Lao Tzu puts it: "The world can't be improved, if you try you will ruin it."
"Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are."
"The way is easy, yet people prefer side paths"
Jesus recommends: "Be ye therefore perfect"
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