The Dhammapada on seeing your own faults first. From The Dhammapada by the Buddha, gathered 3rd century BC.
A later commentary tells of a woman in Savatthi, in north India, who invited the Buddha to her house for a meal. A wandering holy man she had long fed like a son, Pathika, hid in the back room.
When he heard her praise the talk, he burst out, insulted them both and ran off. She was too upset to follow another word.
A later commentary on the Dhammapada tells of a woman in Savatthi so upset by a holy man’s insults that she could not listen. The verse that follows says to watch what you have done and left undone, not what others did. In 1919, after riots broke out in his protest, Gandhi named his own mistake first. He held that you should look at your own mistakes through a magnifying lens.
Other people’s faults are easy to see; start with your own, the only ones you can fix. Practical advice: when something goes wrong, say your own part first.
Well established · checked against 7 sourcesAfter the next thing that goes wrong, write down your own part first.
“When things go wrong at home, I only see what everyone else did. How do I see my part?”
Apologize after a big fight, with a mentor playing the other person. →
Turn the Lens Around and the other 11 ideas of The Dhammapada, a minute at a time.
Download on theApp StoreEvery idea is drawn from the public-domain text, and its names, dates and quotes are checked against the sources listed with it. The paintings are made for Counsel; they show the scene, not a historical record.
