Whose Fault?

remember that nothing else is the cause of our disturbance or loss of tranquility except our own opinion --Epictetus

He goes on to say we have been trained to place blame outside of ourselves from childhood on. A small child trips on a rock, falls, and cries. Epictetus says the nurse (nanny) then blames the rock, Did the naughty rock hurt you? she says, and  on and on it goes. 

Know thyself...  judge not by appearances, but judge righteous judgement... an in examined life is not worth living, --- words of wisdom from across time come to us now. 

It seems to me that part of being in charge of oneself is to examine ourselves, ask ourselves questions. Where did this idea/belief come from? Why do I believe it? What are other views about it?  etc.

I have noticed that it is particularly urgent for us to examine that to which we attach strong emotion lest we join fanatics everywhere and every time who believe in far fetched things or resist new discoveries. Extreme examples often are wrapped up in religious fervor, think Inquisitions, witch hunts, Crusades, etc; or politics, think wars both physical and verbal; or science, think flat earth, Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin. Pick any area and you'll find fanatics.

We don't have to go all the way to those extremes to still be captive to our emotions. Whatever issue gets your blood boiling, pull yourself back from it and explore other ways to see it. Maybe your one-sided view has distorted what is actual and has led you to invest your emotions into a false or partially false position.

So a couple more questions to self: Am I willing to seek Truth? Am I willing to be wrong? Or am I just stubborn and insist everything has to be the way I see it whether or not it is true? Do I have the courage to genuinely ask myself these questions and seek sincere answers? I hope and pray you do!