Cattāri Brahmavihārā

As I have been working with various brahmavihara practices and my own personal at of aspirations I have found my home life to be especially fruitful ground. The last few days in particular have been rough due to being tired from work and stress on my wife at home.

Throughout it all I have been successful in remembering to return to the practice as soon as possible despite the habitual feelings of hopelessness that inevitably accompany such failings. As a result I have thus far managed to avoid the snowball effect that had always thrown me off the path in the past.

One thing that I think has both been invaluable and incredibly difficult is the practice of accepting responsibility for everything that happens. To put it another way, accepting my role in every interaction of which I’m a part. My wife couldn’t be upset with me if I weren’t there and, even more importantly, my feelings of resentment wouldn’t exist of I had practiced well enough to have overcome them.

In short, my life is a problem of my own making so why try to shift the blame? To whom should I complain? If I’m serious about getting out of this them is time I took my life into my hands and accepted full responsibility for it.