Accepting the Blame

i just wanted to gather together some quotes and sayings regarding a matter dear to my heart at the moment. a lesson that i am slowly learning and in my own clumsy way trying to live by right now.

"Enlightenment is to turn around and see MY own mistake. Other's
mistake is also my mistake. Others are right even if they are wrong.
I'm wrong even if i'm right. "

- Master Chin Kung

i remember when i first came across this saying by Venerable Master Chin Kung that it completely stopped me in my tracks. it seems so radical and completely contorary to what we believe and how we behave. "other's mistake is also my mistake" - it is the epitome of placing others before oneself. consider how much reconcilliation between people there would be if everyone lived by these words. it is, admittedly quite the challenge.

"In this and all my other lives,

While turning in the round without beginning,

Blindly I have brought forth evil,

And incited others to commit the same"

- Shantideva

to really consider, in the light of innumerable kalpas spent wandering the realms of samsara, how much wrong-doing we have commited and how much we have lead others to commit is a  frightening thought! truely, our small minds can't even grasp the depths of it! so how then, came i become angry if another criticises or blames me? is it not more than certain that there is much truth in what they say? but so often i would wish to deny and to place blame at the feet of others.


"I am such that I do not know right and wrong
And cannot distinguish false and true;
I lack even small love and small compassion,
And yet, for fame and profit, enjoy teaching others."

- Shinran Shonin


if Shinran, a man humble enough to say that he had no followers, could still see the faults contained within his heart and the deceit and vanity contained within his mind, who then am i to deny such within myself? heed the first line - "I am such that I do not know right and wrong - remember what i said about the depths of our wrongdoing? how then can we truely know what is right and what is wrong when our minds can't even grasp these depths? in the light of all these teachings from the Masters i attempt to walk (more often than not fall or stumble) forward mindful that 10 times out of 10, if someone criticises or blames me, i am worthy of such.


namu amida butsu