Appropriate attention keeps focusing you back on your own actions and the results you’re getting from them. Now, this is not blaming the victim. It’s giving you the power to change the fact that you may be suffering right now.

"As a meditator, you have to be constantly self-reflective — and that’s what appropriate attention [yoniso-manasikāra] is. It keeps focusing you back on your actions and the results you’re getting from them. This is what the four noble truths are all about. You’re suffering? You can’t blame it on the weather. You can’t blame it on the economy. You can’t blame it on the political structure. Those things may be miserable, but you don’t have to be miserable because of them. It’s what you’re doing right now.

Now, this is not blaming the victim. It’s giving you the power to change the fact that you may be suffering right now and reminds you that you don’t have to be anybody’s victim, that the important element — i.e., the extent to which you’re suffering over things: That’s under your control. Or you can bring it under your control.

This is why this self-reflective ability is so important. It’s what makes or breaks a meditator."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Gift of Discernment"

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