September 13, 2010
Unconditional Responsibility (Quote of the Week)
It is so important to come to that point in our own spiritual evolution where we are finally ready and willing to be wholeheartedly accountable for ourselves—for who we are and how we are. Heroically, we must be ready to accept unconditional responsibility for the seen and unseen consequences of everything that has ever happened to us.
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Andrew Cohen is a spiritual teacher, cultural visionary, founder of EnlightenNext, and the author of 
“I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feeings I experience and decide upon the goals I would achieve. And everything that happens to me I ask for and receive as I have asked.” Memorized this from A Course in Miracles over 20 years ago. Same spirit and intent as this quote of the week from Andrew.
DEAR JIM!
I AM A COURSE OF MIRACLES STUDENT TO.THS QOUTE IS SO TRUE.
LOVE &PEACE ,VESNA
yes VESNA, and there is a bigger,broader,bubbling stream of …Joy, Love, Peace, and Tranquility…. in all this too
I am a student of the Course In Miracles as well. I find that its teachings help me to understand and use teachings of other sources with clarity and surety. It takes all the guesswork out of the vast information that comes our way.
Yes… we are wholly responsible! And this truth behooves expression in every individual collectively. Thank you Andrew!
The only way to God is the express route. Unexpressed love is rout.
Genius Loci
I saw God arrested
In lieu of time vested,
And watched my surrogate link
Into hoary labyrinths sink.
It ensconced with love obtuse
Deraigning not life’s hitherto ruse…
From jihad to genocide it immolated,
So weary of death we prostrated,
But death held little favor
For this rebellious Homo Faber,
And upon my horizon it molt
Where from religious nosism I bolt,
Into increate frontiers, too ostracized,
Upon an eclectic field, too romanticized.
[I saw the identity of all indigenous,
An epoch ripe, borne of telesis],
An empowerment so sublime
As to bridge eschatological time.
My faculties sensing consummation
In clairvoyant ken, gleaned alembication.
I bore this industry to create
A character incarnate a higher state.
Thus, with incunabula belate
I intrepidly plied God’s fate
And fixed my mortality
To breaching God’s very identity
Only to find
We were one of a kind.
Tris Legacy
Written in a state of samadhi
Written in 1986/89? This was written around the same time/year as my ND/LE (Near Death/Life Experience).
Not sure what this means. If somebody threw me off a building was I responsible for crushing your flower bed when I landed on it? Causally responsible, perhaps. But surely only in part, not unconditionally. The person who threw me is also causally responsible. Am I morally responsible? I doubt it. It’s not like I jumped. How can this quote be interpreted in a way that makes sense?
It is a device to assume responsibilty. It means accepting your part. What was I thinking, what was I feeling, what was my body positon? It is an acceptance that what we perceive is not a fixed reality but is perceived according to our intent thoughts and feelings.
Of course we co-dream this with all other sentient beings in this dream. What expectations do we have what are we allowing? If we accept responsibility for our state then we can change that state and so the projected reality.
We have the opportunity to understand how what we call reality is created. If we accept responsibility, then we can turn nightmare to dream and create in beauty and joy.
I still don’t get it. In what sense am I responsible for crushing your flower bed if someone throws me off a building and I land on it? Are you saying that I chose to have that happen to me? Why believe that? Would you also say that the victims who died when the World Trade Center was destroyed chose their death? Sorry, I don’t get it.
No. You’re not morally responsible for ruining their flowers- If you were REALLY forced to and gave everything in a fight against being thrown.
However you are morally responsible for how you react if they were to blame you for ruining the flowers.
In any case I believe you’re overcomplicating this.
Here I’ve capitalized a few words in the quote:
“It is so important to come to that point in our own spiritual evolution where we are finally ready and willing to be wholeheartedly accountable for ourselves—for WHO WE ARE and HOW WE ARE. Heroically, we must be ready to accept unconditional responsibility for the seen and unseen CONSEQUENCES of everything that has ever happened to us.”
Let me know if it helps.
This is exactly the part of the quote that is so confusing. If I am responsible for the consequences of everything that has happened to me then surely I am responsible for ruining your flowers. Landing on your flowers was a consequences of something that happened to me, namely getting thrown off the roof. There’s no two ways about it. So, I’m afraid it still doesn’t help. Likewise, how can we be responsible for something we did not choose to do? This quote makes it sound like the victims of 911 chose to die since their deaths are the consequences of something that happened to them, namely getting stuck in the collapsing WTC towers. I’m sorry, I don’t think I am overcomplicating this. I think Andrew needs to rethink his submission.
You also take the action of being thrown out of context, as if it spontaneously happened. If you take responsibility for the reason you may be in that situation, then maybe you can begin to see the connection. Were you seeking advice from a monk and the action was the answer? When it comes to WTC, in some ways we are responsible for the perception of America all over the world. When we vote with knowledge and wisdom or in ignorance or don’t vote at all we still have taken actions that only we are responsible for. If we accept that then we can take charge of our lives.
I am not taking anything out of context. I am simply pointing out that Andrew’s statement entails the uncomfortable consequences that I mention. You are just seeking for a way to blame the victim. Suppose I am thrown off the roof by a lunatic I have never met before who does it just for the fun of it. Am I responsible? Of course not. As for being responsible for being thrown off the roof by a monk I was seeking advice from that is about the silliest attribution of responsibility I can imagine. To ask for advice is certainly not to ask to be thrown off a roof. As for the WTC victims I’m sure not all of them voted for candidates who gave an unfavorable impression of America in the world. And even if they did that is a far cry from saying they are responsible for their own deaths at the hands of terrorists. Again, you are just trying to find a way to blame the victim.
‘Unconditional Responsibility’ and the potential for MEGALOEGOMANIA is there…LOL
perhaps we need to critically define well… ‘Wise or Virtuous Unconditional Responsibility’ {-_-}
Ah, but just how do we arrive at that “point”?? It seems to me there is no way, other than through suffering.
This is the slowest route, suffering. Any activity that brings attention and awareness hones our ability to perceive. Earth is not meant for suffering. Have you looked at a sunset, heard the melt coming in the mountains and the response from the beings that have wintered there?
Before suffering Spirit communicates its intent to us directly, many times it teaches and points out, when we don’t listen then we incur suffering to bring us to attention.
It is not what is happening to us that is important it is the mood with which we respond to it.
Join http://www.onearthpractice.com in its free globally connected silence practices, which combine simple body work and meditation techniques taught by leaders from many traditions in the field of awareness. See you in October.
In this state we realize that we have no fears and no resentment. We realize the truth, everything is flawless. The truth is found in our unconditional love of self. It is in the self that everything exists. In this acceptance of the true self, we have unconditional love for everything that exists because we can not be separate from anything.
There is a great relief, when oneness sits with the ONE upon the throne of self reliability, responding simply to what is.
In this presentation of Self to what is, without doubt, there is … ahhhh, a soft and yet resounding yes… I am that which I am within.
Uninvolved in any other energetic exchange, the dynamic is completed within being and emanates without.
Quite the ripple; this wave and streaming of unconditional responseability.
A lineage of nonresistors.
From the Howe Sound of British Columbia, where nonresistance of salt waters blends within the confluence of seeral freshwater rivers…. these in turn, streamings from nonresistant melting of glacial fields and ice caps….. ultimately response able.
Maybe a lineage of non-resistors or perhaps ironically we are all resisting. We may be locked in our own ego of what is, even those who wish to be Singular are making up rules and Gods, but we may just be children playing games. I am always refreshed by any reminder about that sort of concept ” Wanting to be different like all the different people”. Resisting and conforming can only be determined by what side you are on.
I’m supporting your “Resisting and conforming can only be determined by what side you are on.”
On one side may be those who are egoistically bent on distinguishing themselves come hell or high water. This we see in our individualistic and freedom-bent segment of the population.
Another option is to attempt to understand a middle way that allows us to conform in a time-tested way that channels our energies into productive goals for the betterment not only of ourselves but with the objective of bettering the world and to compassionately influence others unaggresively by our example.
This is important to me because it causes me to confront, and deal with every experience like its mine and do the best job I can. I notice when I share others are opened to a greater fulfilling experience:)
Yes, it’s karma.
Life Is Fair
Answer badness with badness,
Easy to do
Answer kindness with kindness,
Easy too
Answer unkindness with kindness,
That takes insight
Call it action and you’re right
Call it karma with no fright
Not about wrong or right
What we send around comes around
It applies to all while earthbound
If we take responsibility for our thoughts and actions
It’s we who decide how others’ words cause our reactions
Blaming and judging others
May be our druthers
If that’s what we believe
It’s what we receive
So be aware,
Life Is fair.
Thank you love the spirit and creativity of this.
The main responsibility we have is that of managing our own energy. Responsibility is the “ability to respond”. We create with the thoughts we choose and we co-create with the words and the vibrations we engage with others. If we are independent (physically) and interdependent (energetically) at the same time, then the responsibility of our selves should be in line with our ability to respond for the whole.
How can we assume responsibility “for the seen and the unseen” or anything else unless we claim personal authorship of such things?
This is instant realization of Oneness and not a method to be put into practice. This realization lets one consciously participate in the Scheme of the Universe where nothing is alien.
If I may submit, that’s why higher consciousness and holistic interest and attn to 1)the personal, 2)the interpersonal, 3) compassion for the non-human and even the non-sentient, and 4) wardship of human interaction with the cosmos are all important if one is concerned with raising consciousness and behaving in a holistically spiritual way.
Ignoring any of those areas of consciousness is operating with incompleteness, not holistically conscious and fully developing personal spirituality.
Responsibility, I wholly concur I am responsible for all my actions. I am responsible to search for the things from my past that drive me, to understand and remove the negative programs that were put onto the blank disk of my pure mind. I am Responsible to break the age old cycle of distrust, fear, anger, greed and superstition that has pulled down my species and apparently blocked us from a Universal connection with our past and possibly preventing us from a connection that can give us a future.
I am responsible to ask, WHAT IS THE QUESTION, I am responsible to let go of the assumption I am the only species in the Universe/Cosmos that is conscious.
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE for the things that were done by my ancestors or my family.
That assumption that I am responsible FOR things done before me or TOO me smacks of the Original Sin concept that has laid a burden of GUILT for far too long.
To accept the concept that I am responsible for things put onto my pure Mind of being presupposes that with the “Big Bang” and the Star Dust we were all formed from came “Original Sin”. If this is so there can be no evolution.
The concept that I am responsible for the “Sins of my father’s” smacks of the guilt based religious philosophy that at a young age drove me away from questions about the nature of existence, about the concept of God. It drove me to hide behind the concept of NOTHING, atheism.
At some point the Light of some Universal connection began to shine into the darkness of my self imposed prison. That light GLOWED on the words RESPONSIBALITY IS A GIFT, YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTIONS OF THOSE WHO WERE ALSO STRUGGELING AGAINST THE DARKNESS.
With this quote you’re turning your gaze more towards the real. For all of his shortcomings, Karl Marx wrote:
Criticism has plucked the imaginary flowers on the chain not in order that man shall continue to bear that chain without fantasy or consolation, but so that he shall throw off the chain and pluck the living flower.
Escapism is the major preoccupation of Americans today, presenting itself in a myriad of forms. Let us hone in on this most useless and wasteful practice. People run to so-called spirituality in order to escape their lives. If we really understand reality correctly, there really is no such thing as spirituality, only reality.
We need to start there. Please elaborate further on this topic. Thank you.
FACTS, FACTS AND MORE FACTS.That is all that matters.
It seems the challange is to seperate the FACTS from the often unlived by the authors Philosophys.
Only history will judge who has chosen correctly.
Anyone who attempts to stop my searching for FACTS by telling me THEY have THE answer has clearly told me they have no concept of the QUESTION’S.
My RESPONSIBALITY is to continue to peel away the layers of fear from the past.
Will this body of Universial Energy I call ME ever know if I have chosen correctly, That may be the QUESTION.
“There is no proof of life after Death, but then there is none against it, we will know soon enough so why worry” Robert H Heinlein
Smile, it’s good for our health.
Good accurate info and facts are of course essential but then there’s also the necessary followup of how to utilize all that info, whether it remains mere knowledge or can be translated into actions that can benefit and better the world and humanity.
There’s been such an over-emphasis on reason and knowledge by the intellectual community worldwide that has brought on the disregard for the spiritual component of humans, to the lessening of moral standards. I’m including religions who preach morality but act in irresponsible ways. I also include scientists in collusion with their employers who have mostly profit motives rather than responsible products and the sources of their materials with disregard for environments and the people and creatures that inhabit them.
Worldwide secularization seems to have freed a lot of people from considering moral responsibility but I contend that atheism and secular practice does not preclude maintaining spiritual values and a sense of morality and responsibility.
Dear Caroline, how can you deal with a reality you cannot explain ??
That , I never understand , as a young student I had no idea of spiritual topics except in the form of art and literature , but I could not accept this way of doing “so as” , this way of getting on with your life in the meaning to be pragmatic which is nothing else as repress the truth : socalled realism a la Marx is no explanation , only a way , even when sincere and remarquably clever , to survive ethically correct … but no answer to my longing , my thurst …
sorry my english is rather primitive , thank you for the imput
My intial response is …who says this is true?
Personally, I have no idea if I am responsible or not – partially or wholely – who does??
some sage?, ..some book??
But for the sake of some intellectual debate…lets say it is true…I am totally responsible for ALL the seen and unseen events/ consequences of everything that has ever happened to me/us
so what?
does that mean I have the power to make history…hey maybe even change it?…if so, all i have to say is.. better know how to use that kind of power.
Dear Nobody and anyone else who reads this post:
Anyone who says I am responsible for everything that has, will and does ever happen to me is someone who has yet to achieve a high level of empathy. I am an adult who was an abused child–I still am that abused child–she is me and I am her. I did nothing to cause myself to be abused by my father and later my mother. I was only a little girl–and a good one at that. I lived in fear and terror and did not do anything bad because I did not want be beaten which later turned into rape also. I was made to be believe I was of no use, or less! At 5, 10, even 15 — I am not responsible for anyone who did or would abuse me, not then, and now, no one abuses me and gets away with it–if when I seem to be turning the other cheek because now, I am responsible for myself because I CAN BE.
Let us remember not to put expectations on each other that can be truly contradictory to the meaning of higher consciousness, conscientiousness, compassion, and empathy.
I think you are absolutely right. Andrew missed the boat with this one.
Hi Ilene,
I can well understand that you continue to be traumatized and hope you are coping with that in a way that allows you to go on with your life.
If you are able, have you found professional help or anything that has helped you to assuage your hurt?
If I may sugggest with your interest of gaining peace is to decide for yourself if you are able to make the choice to choose to leave the past behind or not. This is not easy I am very sure but if you can find help in any way, I wish you well.
Aloha,
Hi again, Ilene,
I thought of you when the book “The Courage to Be Free” by Guy Finley was being discussed on New Dimensions. You seem to have weathered your abuse and come out well but if you would want to deal with it further, I recommend reading the book.
The program New Dimensions (access online) is such a valuable go-to listening for me and Mr. Finley was really impressive. He said so many wise things that made so much sense.
Best regards, aloha!
- Heroically we must be ready to accept unconditional responsibility for the seen and unseen consequences of everything that has ever happened to us –
This is a great quote. At the outset it is easy to understand. It begins with one stopping his complaints and blaming others for one’s past. Makes perfect sense. In practice in working with people inside a spiritual setting this can’t work unless everyone else does the same. That is whole different dimension. This can turn into a nightmare or a power game if the responsibility is not equally emburdened on everyone’s shoulders. Even then the quote is still true, but the results are not as one would expect. The winners will play the blame game and the loosers end up paying through their blood and sweat. Despite this, the quote still remains true. This quote is absolutely true, but one has to be extremely cautious in its practical interpretation.
The old karma theory – what happens to you is what you do. Problem is that the originators of this theory didn’t consider quantum mechanics with uncertainty at the micro level, and chaos theory going up through the macro level, the classic flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil causing a tornado in Texas. So the folks in Texas are wondering what they did to deserve their mobile home spiraling into the sky!
What I get out of Andy’s unconditional responsibility quote is deal with your reality right now. Doesn’t matter whose “fault” it was – the butterfly’s, you choosing to live in a trailer, a trailer that’s located in tornado alley, and drinking beer middle of the day, whatever. When the trailer hits ground again, and you, miraculously, are still alive, observe your quality of consciousness at the moment. Do what has to be done, and, waiting Medevac, stay focused. Observe the fears, likes and dislikes, egotism. Introspect and take it from there.
Simplify.
We are responsible for OUR THOUGHTS. Clearly that is the crux of Enlightenment. Taking the next step … that is, to CONTROL your own thoughts for the purpose of becoming a better human being (more conscious, more fulfilled, purposeful, compassionate, giving etc.)is hard enough. We all must “rewin (this) freedom and existence each day,” as Faust declares.
If the aim is to Enlighten, why befuddle with a lot of flowery language that is nebulous and “mystic”? So many of us do not grasp it because it is vague and uncertain. You must take Responsibility for communicating to your audience — those who are eager to learn — too.
Keep it simple. Fred’s blunt expression is a clear message: What is explained? Nietzsche said it about Physics. I ask you metaphyscians the same thing. Keep it simple and you might change the world. Expound on your subjective mystical experiences and it is all semantic imprecision to that same audience. They are lost. You have lost them.
very good , important point , well , I don’t see , folks are lost , they are seeking and developing and finding , or not , now or later , but the interesting and thrilling dynamic results of the diversity of meanings . If each one of us finds the button to transform his or her feelings through observing his or her thoughts , he or she will never more complain , the other are expressing themselves in that or that way , flowering or mystical or else , he or she will simply enjoy it , the joy you’re feeling is the only proof you’re on the right way … although good feelings can be misleading too , a thing of differencing through experience …
semantic problematic is as far interesting as we’re all prisonners of our language patterns and you’re right , a little bit less mystical vocubulary would help . On the other side it is the great deserving of Andrew that he expresses himself in a clear and no mystical manner ,
which is the expression of a vivid way of thinking and experiencing life and things . It’s not possible to
get it in a few sentences , Fred’s reaction might be normal on the one side , the statement of Andrew is provocant and is always whirling strong emotions , how is it that folks who don’t understand the quote are posting on that very homepage , which hasard had led them to it ? which aspect of it do interest them so that they really have the need to write an answer ??
if they trust Andrew or any anyother master they will go an and think about it , may be they will sometime come to the same observation and express it in a complete different way , how would YOU explain karma ? is it to explain or to accept ??
Hi Clea! Just a thought re: “I don’t see , folks are lost , they are seeking and developing and finding ,”
We do say that it’s not over till it’s over and I submit that though the seeking, developing and finding should continue till the end of life, there are those who do continue and then there are those who seem to give up and evade that process through diverting their attn and go through their lives amusing and avoiding gaining any self-awareness or attempting to gain insight into a more responsible way.
I wonder is this is avoidable, but seeking “solace” with addictions is certainly a counterproductive way to go. We all have the responsibility to ourselves and to those who care for our welfare to be better than behaving like that.
Let’s not forget that evolution as development is remembrance…taking heroic responsibility is remembering the deep structures of your very own consciousness; the gross,psychic/subtle,causal and nondual. We all have developed into the gross level of body-mind(average mode), but the psychic/subtle level is where we directly encounter the soul/authentic self, and taking responsibility for developing into this all-important,pivotal,no turning back,”beginning” of transpersonal stage development is encountering responsibility of a different nature, because you are then transcending the self(ego)in such a way that you are encountering the self of the “other” as your very own self…why not at least imagine this now and take radical responsibility, heroically, for the potential of this encounter and dissolution of your separate self. This stage of encounter can’t be cognized…it is trans-rational, but the purposeful responsibility we take for “the unseen,” meaning our own unconsciousness, is an important stepping stone down the path of our evolution/development/remembrance. The way to it is deeply within.
One of the things responsibility and accountability both imply is at least a freedom to do or not do something—to be able to make a choice. So is it possible “to be wholeheartedly accountable for ourselves—for who we are and how we are”? Certainly for what I have done and will do in the future—freely done and will do—I can accept both responsibility and accountability. To realize the significance of this is empowering.
And “to accept unconditional responsibility for the seen and unseen consequences of everything that has ever happened to us”? No; this goes too far. Even though this responsibility is not for “everything that has ever happened to us” but just for the consequences we created by the choices we made responding to those things that happened to us? My reply is still no. Why? Because part of responsibility and accountability involves an ability to comprehend at least some of the consequences of our intentions. This ability is only gradually acquired as we grow up from infancy to adulthood.
Are you saying that a person of maturity cannot comprehend all or even some of the consequences of their choices?
I mean … isn’t it enough for such a one to say, for example, “I will behave and think with compassion for them and myself in this situation.”
Is that not enough for this responsibiltiy we speak of if he then proceeds to act in just that way?
You see, he has chosen something, knows he has chosen it, and accepts the results. I may be missing some point, but again, it is a simple thing. He has chosen his thoughts and actions, and he accepts the consequences of the same.
You point the truth of being responsible for the consequences of our actions. I submit–anything else is irresponsible even if unconciously acting w/o knowing the consequences.
Science has been given a pass, innovation and profit motives given carte blanche benefits of the doubt that their work guarantees betterment of living. This is now being questioned where we’re now recognizing the downside of this recklessness. Better living is not always bettered through chemistry. I believe we’re in the process of resetting the button on progress with little thought to the unintended consequences. Without giving serious consideratin to this, we proceed headlong in the direction of polluting Earth to unacceptability and the eventual self-destruction of our existence on the planet.
Once again, in light of other replies I think I need to clarify my point. There is no problem with the quote as far as observing one’s quality of consciousness, staying focused, observing one’s own internal experience. For anyone who knows what spiritual life is, this is ordinary stuff.
The problem only lies when this is applied in practice in a group setting. Then the practice of this rule is up to one’s own integrity. Then the consequences are dangerous for the person who is at the loosing end. The quote is still true, but the practice of it requires extreme caution.
After the fact, knowing really what happened is a mute point, it requires concrete action. What is revealed has to be backed up with tangible action that shows that one has accepted complete responsibility without any negotiations and blame games. Any mount of theory can’t compensate for action. To cite a simple example, if one demolishes a building, then accepting responsibility means nothing short of rebuilding the building without shifting the blame, or is one is unable to do so, then coming together around this while accepting one’s limitations in a completely open way. Otherwise the truth of the quote, which is comparable to the powerful explosion of an atom bomb turns into cotton candy and has really no value. At any given point the quote is completely true.
Yes.
It’s a truth but if you express it in that way , it’s only a half truth because people get the feeling they are in a certain way “guilty” , you can see it in the comments , many are making the confusion between “responsably” and “guilty” .
I know it from myself , it’s just the mistake , we Must avoid , for years and years , I did it and become weaker and weaker . I knew , it’s up to me , I knew it from my own intution as a young girl , only from observing life and the way adults were living and from dreams and readings , we must change it , some
guys are doing it , they are happy and profound , no happy-end primitive stories but creative people …
why can I NOT ?
The thing is , nobody told , anyway it was’nt “in” , you have to love YOURSELF , you are WORTH to be loved , whole generations of intellectual mankind are prisoners in a whirl of self hatred complex !!
So , when I hear somebody saying “everybody “deserves ” what happens to him or her ” , I feel it ‘s wrong , very wrong to express it in that way !
The basis will always be : understanding WHY negativity MUST exist , nothing else , that is basic , negativity is a challenge , and we need that challenge , the Dalai-Lama is challenged from China and I am or was challenged from bad thinking about myself and with the time it becomes funny to feel , you’ve got it , you become stronger
and stronger , everyday , every minute and sometimes you become again a little bit weaker , but never so weak
as at the beginning of your insight …
so it’s my favourite subject , I could dance and sing about it , try , try, try , it works , 100 percents !
love oneself in the right way is not easy
Andy’s quote could hardly be more incorrect.
As Albert Einstein said:
“Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for insects as well as for the stars. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.“
“You can will what you want, but you can’t will what you will”.
If Andy was up to date on the last 35 years of neuroscience he would know a) that our brains actually initiate actions well before our “I” is told it is going to happen, b) that free will is a feeling the brain generates so that we believe we are in control, and c) that the “I” is an illusion – a mere construct of patched together ad-hoc, situational “I”s from haphazardly assembled experiences. There is no single “I” anywhere that can be ascertained in our brains – “we” are just genetics and conditioning that have resulted in pre-programmed behavioral algorithms dancing as the Universe would have us dance.
Being responsible for the future as well as the past effects of all of your actions is impossible. You have no clue as to what actions of countless unknown others brought you to who and where you are today, nor do you have any idea what will result from your current actions as they impact thousands of unknown others as they ripple through their lives. If your great, great, great grandmother had waited for another bus, or not answered some phone call, you wouldn’t be here today.
With all due respect to Einstein re: ““Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control.”
I submit that though the statement may be true, we do have some control over outcomes of our actions as we all have and make choices. That these actions and choices may also be part of a pre-determined script is possible but our choices do exert some influence over outcomes, IMO.
I understand the importance of accepting responsibility for my life and actions. But please explain to me how I am responsible for the sudden death of my only child. She was only 42 years old and died instantly from a pulmonary embolism following surgery in January. Why would I choose this? No sane person would. And how am I responsible for it?
Linda, I’m very sorry for your daughter’s death, and it resonates with me since I lost my wife of many years. So much death around, almost as much as birth, and if we feel responsible, we’d probably blow our brains out. But responsibility is more a legal term, a loan contract, something like that. The heart has a different language. We feel love for the person, but there’s no one there. That’s sadness. So we send love to that person, perhaps many times a day, and to others. It opens us up, and we see past all the intellectualizing, the ego trips, the blah-blah-blah, and just feel. The sun, for example, that I happen to be watching now, just shining and shining, pure love that sustains the world. And your beautiful daughter? She sustains the world.
Linda
I can not imagine what you have been through. I only know my struggles. I also know that our life as we understand it is just a short breath, just a wave. Our life as it is now has purpose with all it parts, but it is ok sometimes to see that it is sort of an illusion. At least in the sense that you are separated from your Daughter. You might see it easier if you imagine looking at all of our waves from a distance.For myself this means the separation from our loved ones during this physical life is a relatively short time. And if we really are ONE it would be of great importance that we live out the rest of our time as our loved ones would want us to because a part of them remains with us. My mother’s dearest friend and soulmate 30+ years died suddenly. It was hard to see my mother in such pain. She said in a way comforted by the fact that a part of herself also went with her friend the memories that her friend had of my mother went too. This sounded so sad. I imagined wonderful visions and thoughts that included my mother were no more of this world, but then my mother clarified that my mother was the mirror to those memories and they were still alive in my mother. Together they existed in both places and the veil of separation is much thinner. Maybe that sounds sort of like a obvious analogy, but for some reason it hit me on a deeper level. Thank you for reminding everyone that most ideas no matter how profound are just words, truth is nothing that can be translated into words.
The quote says that we must be ready to accept the “consequences” of everything that happens to us. We are not the cause of all that happens to us. We do not the cause of such tragic losses as the death of a loved one. Acceptance of the “consequences” of what happens to us is to me the same idea that we always have the choice, the freedom, to chose our response to what happens to us.
Victor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning explains this idea, this brillant and simple breakthrough idea that is really the crux of Cohen’s quote:
“Everything can be taken from a man,” Frankl writes,”but …the last of the human freedoms – to choose
one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
If we are subjected to the worst mistreatments, or the worst possible misfortunes, there is still a moment between the time we perceive these pains and the time that we respond to them. In that moment, we make some choice which governs the “consequences of what happens to us.”
There are other consequences of what happens to us besides the attitude we adopt. If Andrew meant what you say he did he should have said that we are responsible for the attitude we take toward whatever happens to us not that we are responsible for the consequences of everything that has happened to us. The consequences of being in the WTC towers when the planes hit included one’s death whatever one’s attitude toward that event might have been. Andrew’s quote makes the one who died responsible for his own death. It shows a lack of empathy as Ilene said.
As we feel , so we are. As we think , so we become.
We (as in this local corner of the cosmos) began many moons ago; this nest of ours is ancient and finely woven.
When a heart evolves , then one SEES the unseen , forgives the suffering and understands the unknowable paradoxes. We began as one and return in beauty.
Does it mean that “God has fallen from the sky. There is nobody up there and that God is in there (us as human beings at the leading edge of conciousness) ” as Andrew in Evolutionnary Enlightenment states and demonstrates
If it is so, “I” do agree. We humans beings are completely responsible for our destiny as Consciousness going somewhere. And the work is us to do, not to any thought-invented God or angels or super-human beings.
Does it mean that as long as I state that I take responsibility of my actions , I can hurt others and exploit them for my own or my organization’s fullfillment and that there is no excuse to be make for my errors. Definitely, not
Responsibilty cannot exist without humility, wisdom and compassion. It is not merely a matter of will and determination with its ruthlessness and brutality.
In our personal development re: spirituality, I think those who are still not perfected will encounter situations where there’s a real tussle with doing the right thing especially when it may mean danger, financial loss and other consequential outcomes. The tougher the tussle and then doing the right thing, the more advancement is made. This has dire consequences at times and we laud people who really stand up to power that can affect not only themselves but many others.
As is said, spirituality is not for wimps.
Best regards in your spiritual advancement, all!
An absolute, unlimited beginning for your book might begin with intention(ie your 3rd entry)because do we have our minds or do our minds have us? We need agendas,missions,that are free from all social and cultural constructs. We ESPECIALLY need agendas that are free from money, fame and power limitations. BUT, how do we begin to have any intentions at all (do all our intentions HAVE us) and are our intentions clear or muddy or always relative when,say in the most extreme visualization,we find ourselves in absolute poverty and become PHYSICALLY desperate for the simplest of lifes basic needs? Forget about comfort levels, there is that “slippery slope”, the relativity of what is considered basic. I mean how do those who are in IMMANENT, IMMEDIATE (yes I know even then there is the relativity question) danger (yes this also is a word subject to interpretation) of dying, starving, those about to be put to death by judicial/extrajudicial capital punishment(we call it “punishment” instead of death!), how do these unfortunates even formulate human intention? Going back to your first entry, do you expect them to “be wholly accountable for themselves” if they are reduced to animal like, sub human survival? HOW? Answering this question is most important to me because I AM THEM and until we all acknowledge that WE’RE ALL AT RISK OF BEING THEM we’re unauthentic, delusional, we must be emotionally defensive instinctively, intuitively limited in our sprituality regardless of how much and how well we meditiate. It seems to me that all other questions are infected with ego and drama and are therefore relative to this question: HOW CAN WE FIRST RAISE ALL FROM ANY SUBHUMAN LEVEL AND PROVIDE MAINTENANCE TO THEM AND OURSELVES? Then we can go on to addressing the CONTINGENCIES of humanity
Hi Barbara and all!
Re: “do we have our minds or do our minds have us?”
Can I submit that making choices that further our and the world we live in a way where we are concious and consider the consequences of our actions and choices is the way we are responsible?
As Buddhists are enjoined: First comes right thought, then comes right action (including speaking, right?)
Think of the most spiritual approach to situations, if possible, that come the highest thoughts you are capable. When you “cook” them sufficiently, not before, then you can act with responsibility and be ready to accept the blowback and unintended consequences.
“…(Further our world…” is a relative judgement. Who is to decide what further, ie, what progressive is? Perhaps before we are or can be conscious and before we do or can consider consequences, we need to have UNLIMITED HUMAN AGENCY instead of the LIMITED virtuality of “ROLE” agency,identity, etc., that most of us have. It seeems that too many of us have our HUMAN identity (agency, etc.) in IDENTITY (AGENCY) LIMITING JAIL! So maybe, for most of us, our actions ACT US and maybe our choices CHOOSE US.
Whenever we think, due to being as habituated as most of us are to think in terms of social and cultural constructs, ie roles, identities, limits, etc., maybe we limit spiritualities’ potential. Maybe spirituality without drama and/ or ego is thought without limitation (flow, exponential meditation?) and maybe responsibility without limitation is thought without drama and ego.