Contemplative Monday

The following quote was taken from: 

Heart Advice: Weekly Quotes from Pema Chodron

This particular quote was from her book: When Things Fall Apart

DRIVE ALL BLAMES INTO ONESELF

"There's a slogan in the Mahayana teachings that says,

'Drive all blames into oneself.'

The essence of this slogan is, 'When it hurts so bad, it's because

I am hanging on so tight.'

It's not saying that we should beat ourselves up. It's not advocating

martyrdom. What it implies is that pain comes from holding

so tightly to having it our own way and that one of the main exits

we take when we find ourselves so uncomfortable,

when we find ourselves in an unwanted situation or an 

unwanted place, is to blame.

This slogan is a helpful and interesting suggestion that we

could begin to shift that deep-seated, ancient,

habitual tendency to hang on to having everything on our 

own terms. The way to start would be,

first, when we feel the tendency to blame, to try to get in touch with

what it feels like to be holding on to ourselves so tightly."