One of the highlights of yamabushi training is the Naorai celebration meal we have after training finishes. Not only is this often the first place you get to actually talk to the other participants, you also get to hear what they felt during the training. We all go through the exact same training, but the experiences and interpretations can be entirely different, and it is always interesting to hear how others went.

One comment from our recent trainings was about Uketamo, acceptance.

On the surface the word acceptance can have a somewhat negative connotation. If someone tells you that you should just accept something, it can be frustrating to hear. Acceptance is something you have to do towards bad things that happen to you. We know that acceptance is the path forward, but there is always some resistance against it.

What this means is we cringe at the very term acceptance. We don’t want to hear it. We want to avoid it due to the discomfort it brings.

But as we all know there is always another side to the coin. We all know that acceptance is eventually good for us, that it will help us through. But yet we still feel this resistance.

The same thing can be said for when good things happen to us. We feel guilt when things continuously go right, like we don’t deserve it. But even then the advice is the same.

Accept. And move forward.

Inspired by the comments of Cheesie.