Unexpected Freedom

No BlameBut the worst stain of all is ignorance.Be purified of this and you are free.Dhammapada verse 243Can we contemplate together what happens when we getcaught in blaming? Several times recently I have heard usedthe expression, ‘a culture of blame’. Strangely, some of thoseusing this expression appear to feel that someone ‘out there’is responsible for the existence of this culture.From the perspective of practice we begin ourinvestigation into blaming by looking first for what it is that weourselves are contributing to our suffering. Once we are ableto acknowledge our part, we are then in a position to perceivethe causes for the arising of this suffering more accurately.Let us consider some examples. Last week, the driver of theJCB, working on the building site which will become our retreatcentre, dug up the mains water-pipe, so that the monastery andsurrounding houses were without running water for fourhours. There was quite a bit of blaming going around inresponse to that. Some thought it was the driver’s fault for notbeing more careful, others the project manager for not doingsufficient research, some the site manager for leaving theworkers to carry on without supervision. There was even thesuggestion that the neighbours brought it upon themselveswith the bad kamma they had created by being so difficult!65