Responsibility

Today, I wanted to do something different and so I decided to give you a chapter from my book, Rare Sense; One day It Will Be Commmon: A Practical Guide to a Fulfilled and Balanced Life. It is the chapter on responsibility. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Responsibility

“Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.” - William Blake

One of the biggest challenges in this modern age seems to be taking responsibility for our actions. We try to blame others for our very existence and our life and quickly look to lay responsibility elsewhere than at our own doorstep.

But this is really not possible since we are creating it all. However, if you believe that you do not have control, that you do not create your existence, then it is much easier to not take responsibility for it and to blame others.

As a child, we may lack the maturity as to how to respond to negative things said about us and thus are limited in our ability to choose what to believe. It is especially more difficult when the people who are supposed to love and protect us are the very ones causing the pain. However, once we mature and can make those informed, intelligent choices we can no longer blame others for the choices we make. Of course even children have the wisdom to choose to accept what is said about them. We can choose to internalize it or let it roll of our backs, like water off a duck. Very early on, we sometimes have a better understanding of who we really are. It is when we get older and start accepting someone else’s version of who we are that we start to doubt ourselves.

One of the best examples of not taking responsibility for our actions involved the lawsuit against McDonald’s by the lady who placed the coffee cup between her legs and burned herself. Had rare sense been applied in this situation, that lawsuit would have been thrown out, but in this day and age we are quicker to blame others than ourselves. Let me ask this question? Did any McDonald’s employee place that cup between that lady’s legs or did she choose to do that herself? I know you know the answer, so why was she not made to take responsibility for her own actions?

"I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime." - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Taking responsibility for our lives is the rare sense or spiritual thing to do. I have said earlier, we always take responsibility when things are going well, but we want to blame others when it is not. Convenient isn’t it?

Well, that is simply not the way things work in the universe. We were given free will. We are responsible for our lives and the decisions we make. Yes, there are some things that happen to us that make us think that sometimes we are not in control. However, if we really look at our lives, the things that have happened and what our responses to those things have been, we will find that somehow, some way, we created it.

Looking in that mirror is one of hardest things we will ever do, but we must. Because until we do, we will not be able to change our circumstances for we will think that we do not have control, yet what we think about is brought to us.

So, if you think you are not responsible and that you do not have control, things will continue to be created in which you do not have control and your life will seem like it is one disaster after another. Taking responsibility is taking control and having control is using your free will.

Here is something that is going to sound contradictory, so please bear with me. We can think we are not responsible but we still are. We can think we are not in control but we still are. We can think that we do not have free will but we still do. For you see, we have free will and that is one thing that does not change about us. With that free will we are free to think whatever we want to think, but no matter what we think we are responsible for all of it. Either what happens to us or how we are going to react to it. And with that comes responsibility.

If things are not going the way we wish them to be, then we need to take the time to see what thoughts and decisions we have made to create the circumstances we face today. Sometimes we have to go back many years to find the answer, sometimes just a few seconds but we will find the answer because it lies within us.

The good and bad, the ups and downs, all of it! Being responsible is having rare sense because we are telling the universe; I understand who I am and what I am capable of. I understand that I have the gift of free will and that I use that gift each and every moment of every single day! I am in control and I am a creative being, one with God and an integral part of the universe.

“Let us not talk of karma, but simply of responsibility toward the whole world.” - His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Copyright 2007 - Harry E. Shade, All Rights Reserved

If you would like to purchase a copy of my book, please go to my web site, www.raresenseunlimited.com for details. It is available in paperback, e-book and audio versions

Well, that's it. Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments about this post. I look forward to hearing from you.

Until next time, may you be blessed always and in all ways.

Harry