quote · Words worth keeping
We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don't like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others....Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself. Rather than own that pain, we scramble to find some comfortable ground.
We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don't like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others....Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself. Rather than own that pain, we scramble to find some comfortable ground.
Approximate author period: c. 1936 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Pema Chödrön
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
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- Approximate author period: c. 1936 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 1936; activity date not established; Wikidata Q442384, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q442384 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 42059; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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