True Refuge

Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart

By: Tara Brach

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 12 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's Summary

How do you cope when facing life-threatening illness, family conflict, faltering relationships, old trauma, obsessive thinking, overwhelming emotion, or inevitable loss? If you're like most people, chances are you react with fear and confusion, falling back on timeworn strategies: anger, self-judgment, and addictive behaviors. Though these old, conditioned attempts to control our life may offer fleeting relief, ultimately they leave us feeling isolated and mired in pain. There is another way.

Beneath the turbulence of our thoughts and emotions exists a profound stillness, a silent awareness capable of limitless love. Tara Brach, author of the award-winning Radical Acceptance, calls this awareness our true refuge, because it is available to every one of us, at any moment, no exceptions. In this book, Brach offers a practical guide to finding our inner sanctuary of peace and wisdom in the midst of difficulty. Based on a fresh interpretation of the three classic Buddhist gateways to freedom - truth, love, and awareness - True Refuge shows us the way not just to heal our suffering, but also to cultivate our capacity for genuine happiness. Through spiritual teachings, guided meditations, and inspirational stories of people who discovered loving presence during times of great struggle, Brach invites us to connect more deeply with our own inner life, one another, and the world around us.

True Refuge is essential listening for anyone encountering hardship or crisis; anyone dedicated to a path of spiritual awakening. The book reminds us of our own innate intelligence and goodness, making possible an enduring trust in ourselves and our lives. We realize that what we seek is within us, and regardless of circumstances, "there is always a way to take refuge in a healing and liberating presence".

©2013 Tara Brach (P)2013 Tantor

Quality Buddhist-Inspired Guidance, with Examples

Tara Brach's other book--Radical Acceptance--had a very positive impact on me, so I dove for her second title. Although I found a portion of the material between True Refuge and Radical Acceptance to be duplicate (not necessarily a bad thing), reading TR was time well-spent. Like RA, TR is chock-full of examples with clients and students of Brach's, which gives the book a grounded feel. My biggest criticism of TR is Brach's repeatedly going to body parts as focal points for pain--I know that's a big part of her teachings and I respect that, but it doesn't spoil my enjoying and learning from the mindsets that she teaches. Below is a hodgepodge of lessons and quotes I took away from this title. Finally: Cassandra Campbell needs to accompany me to work and dictate my email to me every day. A terrific, calming narration well-suited for Brach's writing. Excellent audiobook.

- The three keys to True Refuge: truth, love, awareness.
- Brach's illustration of this application regarding her own terminal illness and her inability to go to the ocean anymore.
- "Perfection is not a prerequisite for anything but pain." --Donna Fall
- Good doubt searches for truth. Bad doubt arises from fear and anxiety.
- The "hub of consciousness" has spokes and a wheel which we travel out on. We must always return to the hub.
- Between stimulus and response is a space where we can take action.
- "Nothing influences our environment and a child's life more than the unlived life of a parent." --Carl Jung
- Compulsive thinking: Houdini can't escape from the unlocked lock. Compulsive thinking is fear-based and does no good in the long run. Pursuit of a conscious goal or ideal is different (and good).
- What we resist, persists.
- Grocers and thinkers: the only two people who weigh everything.
- Understand the difference between "what's real" and "what's true"
- Reality is always more kind than the stories that we tell about it.
- "If I don't know you, it's easy to hate you--but if I look into your eyes, I can't."
- "Ignorance is the source of all suffering." --Buddha
- Every thought is examined, or identified with. Choose wisely.
- The feeling of love--just 20 seconds, be it a hug from a spouse or a thought of a loved friend, pet, Jesus, etc.--has biological proof of positive effects to the brain.
- Thoughts that wire together, fire together. Condition yourself to be positive.
- The moment you see the importance of loving yourself you will see the importance of not making others suffer.
- "Avoid striking yourself with the second arrow." The first arrow--your reactions to stress--will perhaps never change or go away. But you can control your reactions to those reactions.
- Those who are free of resent surely find peace.
- Feed the right wolf: the reacting wolf or the loving wolf. You choose.
- Let the killer of your child drown in a river. Will you save them?
- "Wise speech is what is true and helpful." -Buddha
- Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Life is somewhere in the middle.
- Why doesn't the monk know what happens when he dies? Because he's not dead yet.

After finishing this title, I was standing in Barton Springs (a popular Austin swimming location) meditating and watching the lap swimmers in the morning. It was a busy morning--lots of swimmers--but still: 95%+ of the surface area is still calm, unoccupied water. I thought about how consciousness is similar: even though our mind may be racing with thoughts, those thoughts are still dwarfed by the space of consciousness itself. I credit reading TR for that moment of enlightenment.

Namaste - A must

Tara Brach does not use cheap tricks. It is old knowledge+personal stories.A resource to accept & evolve.

A book to touch your soul

Tara Brach, who has achieved notoriety for her gentle approach to living, primarily through a psychological/Buddhist approach, provides some guidelines for moving through life, using what she refers to as "R.A.I.N." By this, she shows us how to meet challenging situations.

First Recognize the reality of what is occurring.

Then Accept that is it what it is.

Investigate what it means, and then the huge move that brings it all together, is:

"rest in Natural awareness." (in other words, do not be so quick to react, but move to a state of awareness in which we have a different relationship to what is happening).

Tara Brach also wrote "Radical Acceptance," in which she also suggests that we are so quick to run from, or distance ourselves from situations that feel unpleasant, that we may do better in the long run finding a way to move into them, with curiosity, patience and willingness to be present to what is happening.

As happens sometimes, they have chosen someone else to read this book. Although Cassandra Campbell has done an excellent job, Tara Brach has a beautifully soft voice, and I would so have preferred hearing her narrate it herself. However, this book is certainly worth listening to.

not the right narrator!

I've heard this narrator for other fiction and she's great, and I love reading Tara Brach and listening to her podcasts, but this was a terrible pairing! Cassandra read this like a story book, adding melodramatic emphasis on the personal stories included as case studies. at best, laughable. But really, just unbearably bad.

Tara, PLEASE Narrate your own books!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Meh. It's a bit redundant if you've listened to Radical Acceptance.

What did you like best about this story?

Tara Brach's advice is helpful and practical, (which is why her choice of reader does not support that).

What didn’t you like about Cassandra Campbell’s performance?

Oh! so condescending. It felt like she thought she was talking to idiots or tiny little children (I'd give children more respect, personally). Her sing songish way of saying things so slowly in a small (phony) voice as if she was fearful of breaking bad news to a meanie who might slap her - made the book hard to get through. I finally just bought the printed version.

Do you think True Refuge needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. Redundant

Any additional comments?

Personally, I do not like how "guided meditations" are sprinkled throughout the book, right in the middle of telling the story. Put them at the end or beginning or on a separate tape. I had to fast forward many times to appreciate the message fully.

Sad

I feel badly for the author because she suffers from a debilitating disease. But it was hard to like this book. I thought about naming this review 'Sappy Buddhism from the Hamptons'. That's what it sounds like to me.

It reads like a romance novel. The example patients are not believable because they all use the exact same types of expressions, though it's written as though she's quoting them.

I'm also surprised when people who espouse Buddhist thought are vaguely hostile to what sounds like their shallow misperceptions about conservatism.

There is a reasonably good intro to the RAIN method. Otherwise, there's not much here unless you are a woman who likes to indulge in fantasies about men opening up emotionally to you, or if you like reading books with references to 'social justice', or if you want to feel like you're doing emotional work when you're probably really not.

I hope the author has found peace, though, and would not wish her condition on anyone.

Found a safe haven

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

yes, because so many find refuge in social media, drugs and other negative activities, about time people start waking up...

What other book might you compare True Refuge to and why?

the power of now by Eckhart Tolle.. True refugee teaches you to be in the present the same as the power of now.

Which character – as performed by Cassandra Campbell – was your favorite?

The author

What insight do you think you’ll apply from True Refuge?

The acronym R.A.I.N which help deal with a painful experience you can't let go off

touching

Instructions on being human, very well put. Buddhism based but approachable for all.
Highly recommended.

Highly recommend!

I would love Tara one day. Her teaching's and personal story give me inspiration that I will fine deep and lasting peace.

Tara's Guidance Provides Instruction to Self Love

What did you love best about True Refuge?

Tara's experience and guidance has provided me with a willingness, more accepting, and openness to caring about myself and others