Fundamentals
Blame and Explanation
Blame and explanation often arise together. Something happens, and the mind moves immediately into 'this is because…'.
A cause is selected, a story is built, and attention shifts from what is directly present into an interpretation of why it is present or who or what caused it. This movement can appear like understanding, but it covers the actuality of experience.
Consider the examples below. What is common across all of these is that explanation replaces connection with what is actually present. Blame fixes a cause. Explanation builds a model. Both create distance from the immediacy of what is actually arising.
Examples:
Disorganisation
You walk into a friend's disorganised apartment, and they immediately begin explaining why it's disorganised: 'I've been really busy' or 'I'm just a messy person'. In another context, the explanation might turn outward into systems and authority: 'science says this is due to my ADHD', 'psychology explains this as part of my personality', 'this is because of trauma responses in the nervous system'. Each explanation points away from the experience and exploration of disorganisation, and obstructs the possibility of change.
Lying awake
A person lies awake at night. The mind says: 'this is because I drank coffee too late', or 'my sleep cycle is broken'. A narrative forms, and attention moves into solving and justifying. What is often missed is the field of experience itself: sensations in the body, images in the mind, all appearing without needing an explanation as to how they arose. Free from explanations, a person can embrace the situation of being awake, and potentially do things they might not otherwise have done, if they had been asleep.
Sophisticated stories
Even in spiritual or psychological contexts, explanations can become refined and socially acceptable. 'My nervous system is dysregulated', 'this is my ego pattern', 'this is conditioning from childhood'. The language becomes more sophisticated, but the movement is the same: away from direct experience and into an explanation about it.