Pitfalls of answers: what are effects of answers having be received, yet knowing they where wrong?

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The doctrine of kamma-vipaka is for puthujjana (ordinary people). Refer to MN 117.

Enlightened mind knows honest mistake is caused by ignorance rather than by a 'self' (SN 12.17).

What to do to rest possible most at ease and secure is trust in anatta (not-self) & SN 12.17.

Buddhism is a path of liberation & love (AN 3.99) rather than a method of bondage & guilt.

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Some of the thoughts that came to mind when you asked this question include:

  • Be careful when you speak -- don't represent uncertainty as certainty.

    If someone tells you, "there is the secure way through the dangerous forest", and then someone else asks you, "what is the way?", avoid telling them more than you know: for example instead of saying, "that way is secure" (which you don't know), you could say, "someone told me that way is secure, but I am not sure of that, I haven't tried it myself"; or "someone told me last week it was secure, but I don't know about this week."

    A perhaps-exaggerated example of how careful you could be is: if you see a white house, and someone asks, "what colour is the house?", don't say "it's white" -- say, "it looks white, from this side" (because it might be a different colour on another side).

  • Be careful who you listen to and who you trust.

    If someone tells you, "there is the secure way through the dangerous forest", then it matters whether you believe them. Are they deliberately lying, or telling the truth? Do they exaggerate their knowledge, deceiving themselves, or do they speak carefully? Are they knowledgeable (and reliable) about some topics, but not others?

    Having a (good) idea about that topic will help you to avoid (accepting and) passing on false information from unreliable witnesses.

  • Can you correct the mistake?

    If a wrong deed (e.g. wrong speech) should be confessed then, at least from a mundane perspective, confessing the mistake to the person whom you misinformed might be appropriate: "sorry, do you remember I told you about a safe path? I might have misinformed you about that, I just heard from someone else that it's dangerous".

  • The world is complicated.

    Is there really nothing you can do to correct the mistake? Try not to make the same mistake again, but perhaps you need to forgive yourself, detach from your involvement in that past event, and regain some equanimity. After all it's not your fault (not your intention) that someone planted a minefield there, and that someone else misinformed you about it, and that a third person put too much trust into the information you relayed to them. If your intent was to be helpful, and you were skillful in what you did, then why not "rest most at ease and secure"?

    People act a part within an imperfect (e.g. ignorant) system. You can (maybe should) try to improve that system and your role within it...

    I suppose this is a kind of problem that a medical doctor must face for their whole working life: in spite of the good they do and try to do, their patients still get sick, and die sooner or later. A doctor is supposed to be careful when they help so that that (death) is not the doctor's fault, but there's some limit to what they can do.

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