What Acceptance Really Means in Zen Practice

You have to accept your life. Acceptance does not mean liking your life, nor does it mean that everything is good, right, or even a good idea. Acceptance simply means recognizing the truth of what is.

One of the Buddha’s essential teachings is that what we perceive and what we think are not necessarily the truth. Our perceptions are filtered through opinions, habits, conditions, and circumstances. Because of this, we often react not to reality itself, but to our interpretation of it.

Zen Master Seung Sahn emphasized the importance of letting go—putting down our opinions, conditions, and situations—so that we can see clearly what is actually happening in front of us. This teaching appears again and again throughout Zen practice and Zen literature.

When we cannot see clearly, we act on faulty information. And when we act on faulty information, we inevitably create faulty results. This is why clear perception is so important in our practice and in our daily lives.

Accepting what is does not solve everything, but it is a good place to start. From acceptance, clarity can arise. From clarity, appropriate action becomes possible.

— Zen Master Bon Soeng