The Search For Enlightenment

Taking responsibility for all our actions is a basic principle of Buddhism, but of course it should be a principle we all live by, irrespective of our faith. We were spectators to an incident at work today, where responsibility was dodged, or at least postponed.

We were just packing up at the end of the day, when we heard a loud bang. Someone joked that it was someone wrecking one of our cars, but a quick look out of the window showed us that it was not a joke.

Someone had backed into a car in our car park and was already out of their car, inspecting the damage. It was clear from the debris on the tarmac, that it was a little more than a little nudge. Bits of plastic lying around and a rather nasty looking hole in the bumper were evidence of the impact.

Naturally, we expected the culprit to park up and come into the office to talk to the owner of the other car. But to our amazement, the driver had a quick look around, jumped back into their car, and drove off.

But there were a lot of witnesses to the incident and we all know who the driver was. It will be interesting to see what happens in the morning when the person gets into the office. I can imagine that there will be a deal of embarrassment when the incident is discussed.

I guess that we would like to think that the driver was in a hurry to get somewhere, and has every intention of accepting responsibility for the accident, time will tell.

Postscript: Following a little quiet encouragement, the perpetrator has exchanged details with the victim and the matter will be settled via their respective insurance brokers.

Sadly, the reputation of the perpetrator has been tarnished still further, as it appears that this is not the first occurrence of acting in this manner.