Redefining true responsibility

Many views exist on responsibility. Some feel taking it is key, others prefer to avoid related discomfort, pain. A part of you would argue taking responsibility is like taking control of life. Yet what is really under our control?

Society distorts things. We are taught being responsible is doing what we are told by our elders (parents, teachers, mentors), and being irresponsible is acting from our perception of individual needs. The mistaken fear often adopted is if we act spontaneously, this will be like avoiding social, family and cultural responsibilities on our shoulders. In fact, this is a huge misunderstanding or way our minds are manipulated away from truth.

In truth, response is possible only if you are spontaneous, act in the moment, now. Response means that your attention, awareness, consciousness, is fully present. Come what may,  respond with your whole being. It is not a question of being in tune with anyone else, some holy scripture, or some imagined personality. It simply means to be in tune with the present moment.

This ability to respond in the here and now, based on feelings at present is responsibility, another term that silently refers to meditation.  This is a forgotten secret. Remembering and putting this into practice changes how you relate to yourself and the world.

Move beyond your own Resistance

Notice nothing stands in the way of the unfolding of who we are in this physical reality except the nature of our own resistance. Spirituality is part of every soul destiny. We grow, expand into an intergrated version of Truth at unique rates.  At some stage it dawns we cannot simply live vicariously through, mimic or truly grow another's experiences. We must navigate our own alchemical journey.

Some still ask whether human lives are predestined, whether we have any control. Truth is, this is not a personal problem, it is a philosophical question. Our lives are both predestined and not. This applies to all. On some level, everything is predetermined. Whatever is physical in us, material, mental, is predetermined. Yet, something within also untouchable, unpredictable. That something is the nature and flow of consciousness.

Thing is, if we identify with the body and material existence, in the same proportion we are determined, limited by cause and effect. Yet, if we are not identified with material existence, with either body or mind – if we feel self as something separate, different, beyond and transcendent to body-mind – then that consciousness is not predetermined. It is spontaneous, free.

Many people seek to prolong experiences of freedom in the physical world, and wonder why such feelings do not last. Matter implies slavery. Thus, much depends on how we define ourselves and live our lives. If we believe, ”I am only the body,” then everything about us is completely predetermined, beyond our control. If we say that man is only the body, we cannot say that man is not predetermined. If we feel we are just a material existence, then true freedom is not possible. Those who do not believe in such a thing as consciousness believe in fate. Matter means that which cannot be free. It must flow in the chain of cause and effect.

Yet, one who has known consciousness has known freedom. Consciousness itself means freedom. Only a spiritual person can harness the energy of freedom to consciously co-create. Once someone has tasted consciousness, enlightenment, s/he is completely out of the realm of cause and effect. He becomes absolutely unpredictable. He exists in the moment as the flow.

For many, human existence is simply a chain of events in which every step follows the past. Living in this vibration implies the future is not really future, but a by-product of the past. It is only the past determining, shaping, formulating and conditioning the future. That is why the future is predictable.

Some say a HU-man is as predictable as anything else. The only difficulty is that we have not yet devised the means to know the complete human history (total past). It is said that the moment we know, we can predict everything about humanity. Yet, if one being in the whole history of mankind is free and unpredictable, then man as a whole is potentially free and unpredictable. The whole possibility of freedom depends on seeing ourselves as more than a body.

So, if you are just an outward flow of life, then everything is determined. What about the inner? Do not offer a predictable reply. Do not say, ”I am the soul.” If we feel nothing exists inside, then be honest. Honesty will be the first step toward the inner freedom of consciousness. To go deeply inside, it hits everything is just an extension of the outside. That is, the body, thoughts have come from without, even your self has been defined by others. We are taught to adopt labels, beliefs, experience and do so unless energy shifts occur to change it.

To fear external opinion comes from the belief that the external is completely in control of the self, that we hold no power or sovereignty. If the external can trigger us, this implies we are still at least partly in the vibration of ego self, body, thoughts given to by others. This implies we are simply layers of outside ideas. If identified with the personality that arises from others, then everything is determined. How to move beyond this?

Be aware of everything that comes from the outside and come to a place where we are non-identified with it. The moment arises when the outside boundary dissolves. A vacuum arises. This vacuum is the passage between the outside and the inside, the door. We are so afraid of the vacuum, of being empty that we cling to the outside accumulation of ideas. One has to be brave enough to disidentify with the accumulation and to remain in the vacuum. Until courage is found, we cling and fill self with it.

Another view of being in this vaccuum is meditation. As we find courage to be in this moment, through breathing, meditation or other spiritual practie, soon our whole being will automatically turn inward. When urge to attach fades, our being turns inward. At this point, something dawns that transcends all we have been thinking self to be. Now we are no longer becoming; we are being, we are that. This being is free; nothing can determine it. It is absolute freedom. No chain of cause and effect is possible. This is the still point of consciousness.

Somebody asked me

Somebody asked me why it sometimes seems like everything is working against them. The feeling that they are often under the wire to get places or pay bills on-time, that they feel disempowered by people or conditions. In a nutshell, this individual seems to move through degrees of stress to discomfort, and forgets one may also thrive on conditions of uncertainty.  Who can relate here?

What if, whenever things seem to evoke negativity or fear, we could stop and breathe deeply?

What if, we could shift from thinking something or someone is working against us, to sensing everything is always working in our favor in some way, nudging us in the best possible direction?

What if, the next time we wish we were somewhere else, doing something else, with someone else, we ask ourselves how being right where we are, is itself a blessing?

What if, we could remind ourselves, other way always exist to see, feel or respond differently to our physical, mental or emotional or other conditions? Which other avenues are opening to us?

What if, we could let go of wishing we could control everything, and simply trust more?

Take it one moment at a time

Its common to be asked what your plans are for the day, week and year.  What happens as you take things one moment at a time, focus on the present rather than the future? Where are you right now? Feel your way.

Savour where you are

Notice it is always possible to appreciate something about where you are.  Its common to focus on the direction you are headed, on particlar goals, unfolding projects or aspirations, but its less common to see blessings here and now.  If something is out of balance, it is an opportunity ot bring it into balance again.  And yet, during that journey of returning to balance, is an invite to recognize joy can be felt all along the learning curve.  Be aware additonal ways of seeing each situation always exist.  You have the power to shift your perception and experience.