by Namja Dharma
His first teachings subsequent to Enlightenment, the Buddha laid down The Four Noble Truths that set in motion what has become known as the first turning of the wheel of Dharma. It was here he outlined the truth of suffering, or Dukkha (Pali), the origins of suffering, the fact that suffering can end, and finally the Path that can lead us out of the woods which is known as the Noble Eightfold Path.
The very first component of the Eightfold path is Right View. The ability to hold a correct view of reality, i.e. Buddha’s teachings, both from a wisdom perspective as well as a more traditional based intellectual understanding, is considered the first step toward reshaping how we perceive and what we tend to believe. The result, of course, is to bring our minds in line with actual reality and ultimately the lessening our karmic debt. And since we all live our lives in the relative half of Buddha’s Two Truths (relative and absolute), making the very best of it while we’re here is certainly a worthy goal.
Initially Right View seems simple enough: to understand the nature of reality we first must see things as they actually are. Change your perception and get a different result. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find Right View can be quite challenging. Some time ago I heard a phrase that has stuck with me and has forever changed my understanding of Right View. To paraphrase, this person said ‘Nothing is my fault, everything is my responsibility.’ At first this seemed to be a rather ludicrous claim, obviously the mad ravings of an over-achiever. But the longer I thought about it the more I saw how tightly wound these two really are and how significant the choice between them becomes when viewed in light of our own behaviors and ultimately--our own happiness.
How does all this relate to our karmic conditioning? One person says, “It’s my fault.” Another person says, “It’s my responsibility.” What’s the difference and why should we care? How do these terms relate, and more importantly, why should we be concerned about the relationship between these two seemingly unrelated nouns? Because understanding the truth behind the ‘why’ which drives the ‘how’ that becomes our various actions and reactions can help us unknot our karmically conditioned existence. And it all starts with recontextualizing how we view our world.
There are two components that make up our perception of reality. The stuff that we perceive is known as content and the framework in which we perceive is known as the context. Try as you might, altering or limiting the content we receive is difficult. We live in an age where the average person is exposed to more on a daily basis than ever before in the history of the world. Of course we all can chose what we see and hear to some degree but to a large extent the choice is often not our own as to what we are exposed. Today’s culture is hyper-kinetic, over stimulated and marred with prefabricated ideas on how we should think and feel. Make one small change in the contextual framework, however, and you can make a monumental change in your ability to move closer to true reality.
Using our analogy of fault vs. responsibility, then, we find that fault remains almost always on the backside of the energy curve. Fault is reactive whereas responsibility is proactive. One cannot accept Fault. Fault places blame and then runs away afraid of what happens next. Responsibility is empowering while fault is disempowering. Fault tends to place blame, especially on others. Responsibility, on the other hand, always accepts ‘that’ for what it is. Someone might say, “It’s my fault that such and such went wrong.” The second part of that statement is “It’s my fault because my father made me sleep in a garbage can.” Responsibility is accepting, even when it demands accountability. Everyone knows someone who refuses to accept responsibility for his or her actions. It’s painful to watch and even dangerous to be around these people as they meander through life constantly spewing a mess in their wake.
Understanding Right View starts with a little housekeeping. Think attribution. How we view things is often times more important than what we are viewing when it comes to understanding and diagnosing our behavior. Thoughts don’t come prepackaged with instruction-sets such as “You must be sad, now!” Thoughts are simply bundles of energy to which we attribute meaning based on past experience. The context in which we position an event within our frame of reference actually determines the meaning we attribute to that particular event and this meaning is what shapes our thought energy, which in turn drives our actions, and so on and so forth.
Many of us spend our time reacting to external events rather than simply being with the event and looking at it as ‘event’. Someone cuts us off in traffic and we explode. We’re denied a promotion at work and we get depressed. We assign meaning such as my fault, your fault, Dave’s fault, somebody else's problem, man. Everything becomes an excuse (which, by the way, is Fault’s next-door neighbor). Excuses fuel more denial leading to more Fault which in turn leads us through a vicious circle that hardens our karmic conditioning and chokes us like a tourniquet on a severed limb.
Using meditation, we can rest with our thoughts and begin to understand them for what they really are, emptiness. Developing a regular practice of simply watching our thoughts come in, stick around for a while and then leave in a vanishing whisper is profound training for truly comprehending Right View. I know no other activity that requires so little effort yet provides such abundant rewards. Most schools of Buddhism recognize both Shamatha, aka Calm Abiding, and Vipassana, or Insight meditation, as cornerstones of a life long practice that will lead us through the maze of clutter and confusion we’ve accumulated through countless lifetimes of sentient living.
Ultimately we get to the point where we are asking, “Do I have the Right View?” And the answer should always be another question--Who is it that’s asking the question, ‘Do I have the Right View’. If we ask and the answer returned is “I have the right view,” then we probably need to keep looking.
So whether your are at Fault or Responsible, whether your glass is half full or half empty, if you are winner or a loser, whatever you think, you are. Perception is reality. Spending time understanding Right View will undoubtedly provide lessons as to who we really are, how we relate to others and ultimately will have a major impact on our overall level of happiness. How we contextualize our world determines both form and function. Since we all have the ability to control reality at this level, why not start now!
Fault vs. Responsibility - Which is the Right View?
©2007 John Roach
The very first component of the Eightfold path is Right View. The ability to hold a correct view of reality, i.e. Buddha’s teachings, both from a wisdom perspective as well as a more traditional based intellectual understanding, is considered the first step toward reshaping how we perceive and what we tend to believe. The result, of course, is to bring our minds in line with actual reality and ultimately the lessening our karmic debt. And since we all live our lives in the relative half of Buddha’s Two Truths (relative and absolute), making the very best of it while we’re here is certainly a worthy goal.
Initially Right View seems simple enough: to understand the nature of reality we first must see things as they actually are. Change your perception and get a different result. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find Right View can be quite challenging. Some time ago I heard a phrase that has stuck with me and has forever changed my understanding of Right View. To paraphrase, this person said ‘Nothing is my fault, everything is my responsibility.’ At first this seemed to be a rather ludicrous claim, obviously the mad ravings of an over-achiever. But the longer I thought about it the more I saw how tightly wound these two really are and how significant the choice between them becomes when viewed in light of our own behaviors and ultimately--our own happiness.
How does all this relate to our karmic conditioning? One person says, “It’s my fault.” Another person says, “It’s my responsibility.” What’s the difference and why should we care? How do these terms relate, and more importantly, why should we be concerned about the relationship between these two seemingly unrelated nouns? Because understanding the truth behind the ‘why’ which drives the ‘how’ that becomes our various actions and reactions can help us unknot our karmically conditioned existence. And it all starts with recontextualizing how we view our world.
There are two components that make up our perception of reality. The stuff that we perceive is known as content and the framework in which we perceive is known as the context. Try as you might, altering or limiting the content we receive is difficult. We live in an age where the average person is exposed to more on a daily basis than ever before in the history of the world. Of course we all can chose what we see and hear to some degree but to a large extent the choice is often not our own as to what we are exposed. Today’s culture is hyper-kinetic, over stimulated and marred with prefabricated ideas on how we should think and feel. Make one small change in the contextual framework, however, and you can make a monumental change in your ability to move closer to true reality.
Using our analogy of fault vs. responsibility, then, we find that fault remains almost always on the backside of the energy curve. Fault is reactive whereas responsibility is proactive. One cannot accept Fault. Fault places blame and then runs away afraid of what happens next. Responsibility is empowering while fault is disempowering. Fault tends to place blame, especially on others. Responsibility, on the other hand, always accepts ‘that’ for what it is. Someone might say, “It’s my fault that such and such went wrong.” The second part of that statement is “It’s my fault because my father made me sleep in a garbage can.” Responsibility is accepting, even when it demands accountability. Everyone knows someone who refuses to accept responsibility for his or her actions. It’s painful to watch and even dangerous to be around these people as they meander through life constantly spewing a mess in their wake.
Understanding Right View starts with a little housekeeping. Think attribution. How we view things is often times more important than what we are viewing when it comes to understanding and diagnosing our behavior. Thoughts don’t come prepackaged with instruction-sets such as “You must be sad, now!” Thoughts are simply bundles of energy to which we attribute meaning based on past experience. The context in which we position an event within our frame of reference actually determines the meaning we attribute to that particular event and this meaning is what shapes our thought energy, which in turn drives our actions, and so on and so forth.
Many of us spend our time reacting to external events rather than simply being with the event and looking at it as ‘event’. Someone cuts us off in traffic and we explode. We’re denied a promotion at work and we get depressed. We assign meaning such as my fault, your fault, Dave’s fault, somebody else's problem, man. Everything becomes an excuse (which, by the way, is Fault’s next-door neighbor). Excuses fuel more denial leading to more Fault which in turn leads us through a vicious circle that hardens our karmic conditioning and chokes us like a tourniquet on a severed limb.
Using meditation, we can rest with our thoughts and begin to understand them for what they really are, emptiness. Developing a regular practice of simply watching our thoughts come in, stick around for a while and then leave in a vanishing whisper is profound training for truly comprehending Right View. I know no other activity that requires so little effort yet provides such abundant rewards. Most schools of Buddhism recognize both Shamatha, aka Calm Abiding, and Vipassana, or Insight meditation, as cornerstones of a life long practice that will lead us through the maze of clutter and confusion we’ve accumulated through countless lifetimes of sentient living.
Ultimately we get to the point where we are asking, “Do I have the Right View?” And the answer should always be another question--Who is it that’s asking the question, ‘Do I have the Right View’. If we ask and the answer returned is “I have the right view,” then we probably need to keep looking.
So whether your are at Fault or Responsible, whether your glass is half full or half empty, if you are winner or a loser, whatever you think, you are. Perception is reality. Spending time understanding Right View will undoubtedly provide lessons as to who we really are, how we relate to others and ultimately will have a major impact on our overall level of happiness. How we contextualize our world determines both form and function. Since we all have the ability to control reality at this level, why not start now!
Fault vs. Responsibility - Which is the Right View?
©2007 John Roach
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2 comments:
Hi John,
Thanks for sharing these thoughts. I find your ideas to be thought-provoking to say the least.
In reading your discussion on fault and responsibility I was wondering if you considered the fact that sometimes thoughts and the emotions that they inspire appear almost contemporaneously, and reactions could be instantaneous.
Having the right response to one's own "drama and trauma" may be dependent upon one's ability to
interrupt this sequence - thought and the automatic emotional response to thought.
logically
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