THE PARADOX OF SELF-RESPONSIBILITY! “Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: "no one to blame!” Erica Jong Self-responsibility is the very corner stone of self-realization- and yet to truly move into it - beyond its intellectual understanding- is an ongoing process, with twists and turns and seeming contradictions - which ultimately play themselves out! We all begin by placing responsibility outside self, feeling and saying: “You are responsible”. This is easily identifiable for us all - we hold the dentist responsible for a treatment going awry; the boy friend responsible for the break-up; the government, the judicial system, the police, the plumber even, for our myriad problems. These are but examples of how we hold the ‘other’ responsible and I invite you at this point to view your own so that this does not remain merely an academic understanding. Then at some point in life, this sense of responsibility expands to an acceptance that we too play a part- that both the other and self are responsible and we thus move to feeling or saying: “We are responsible.” Initially this is more easily discernable in personal relationships and our understanding of their dynamics being a two-way thing! But as we take it wider we perhaps realize that the dentistry did not pan out ideally because we had carelessly delayed vital appointments! Or that the plumber did not perform, as we had not paid him on time! Or the vital part we play in corruption by willingly paying bribes to meet our ends! Once again I invite you to move beyond the merely intellectual and become aware of your personal experiences at this level of responsibility. This brings us to the third phase of responsibility and its profound understanding that “I am responsible”! In this we move from ‘you’ are responsible and ‘we’ are responsible to complete self- responsibility, which is truly the beginning of authentic spiritual growth. At this point we acknowledge our creatorhood and view how we are indeed completely responsible for our personal realties, our environment and our world. We can call this karma- and understand that what we have chosen to learn & experience is what we meet as outer effects- we are the cause; we can view it through energy-and understand that our energy field is what attracts likewise toward it- we are the point of power; we can view it through the concept of mirroring and understand that everything is but a reflection of self - it is our subconscious aspects of self that reflects outside for us to better see and address consciously! At this point we would truly observe the boyfriend, dentist, government as a reflection of self, and blamelessly seek to redress the outside by addressing it within. In Mahatma Gandhi’s words- be the change you want to see in the world! Thus true self-empowerment leads to the profound understanding that there is no other! There is no one other than self! Yes, most certainly this eureka has many ramifications in your day-to-day life! At first you go through a certain sense of consternation because there is no one to blame- no person, event or thing; nor karma nor fate nor God that you can hold responsible for your life events, because everything comes back full circle to you. But it soon dawns on you that if you are wholly responsible for creating your life then you are completely empowered to enhance it too. You are not hostage to situations, people, and things outside your self; the point of power is within you and in the now! Blame, judgment, non-forgiveness, fluctuations between feeling the aggressor or victim all start to recede rapidly as you begin to view self as the source of everything outside you. You even understand what Christ meant when he said ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’ because with true self-empowerment there is no need for the false power of controlling the ‘outside’! Once we have truly imbibed self-responsibility and it becomes as natural a response in our personal lives as the former two- we take a large & seemingly contradictory leap! Having moved from ‘you’ are responsible, to ‘we’ are responsible, to ‘I’ am responsible- we then begin to get a glimmer of ‘No one’ is responsible! This deeper truth is yet intellectual for most, and yet where anyone on the journey to Self is headed. There is a dawning that ‘no one’ is responsible because there are no separate selves - all seeming individuations are only part of the One… Whole… call it the One Self, Universe or God! This is not a shelving of responsibility as it may appear initially but a deep acceptance of the Oneness pervading all; and the perfection of its functioning! Indeed what might at first amaze us in its intricacy amazes us as it further unravels, in its utter simplicity! When personal consciousness dissolves into its universal impersonal state there is no separate self left to track a separate chain of cause & effect and you awaken from the delusion of karma and enter the causeless ness of the cosmic play! Similarly k a separate chain of cause & effect; in this you enter the causelessness of the cosmic play! when there is no separate ‘you’ there can't be a reflection of ‘you’ either- and thus do you go beyond even the 'mirror' concept - the world reflects not 'you' but the cosmic play! And mirroring (a most valid concept on the path towards claiming self responsibility & expanding ones consciousness) is also moved away from… for it is the unconscious self which needed the mirrors and as you move into supra consciousness only its cosmic beingness is reflected! And even as all of this is unraveling and becoming increasingly apparent to our waking consciousness we take one more leap – to the eureka that there is nothing to be responsible for! Eastern concepts like Maya and western concepts like Shakespeare’s ‘The world is but a stage’ (indeed even quantum physics theory of the ‘Now moment’) have tried to ‘describe’ this deepest of understandings but truly, can only point towards it. It is a real-ization and I break the words in two to emphasize that this stage cannot be an intellectual understanding but must be as experientially ‘real’ as the former experiences we have journeyed along! We realize the playfulness of creation; we tap into the causeless ness of any play; we accept that life and existence has never rally happened- like a story of a movie or a dream…! Once we truly live this it expands into the deeper gnosis that ‘No one is responsible’- as all is happening as it must- events happen but there is no doer thereof- it’s all part of the cosmic play! (This is not abdication of responsibility as it might appear to a layman not at this stage -but moving into a deep acceptance and surrender at the perfection of Divine will)! Analogies are the only way to grasp this: You would not call the police on awakening from a dream of being burgled; you would not need to figure out how to save your country if it were being attacked in the story line of movie; you would not hold responsible and penalize the friend who jails you while playing monopoly! Once the dream, the movie, the game are over –what is there to be responsible about- for all its seeming events never happened! Yes, for most of humanity the first two stages of responsibility are completely experiential and the last two perhaps completely intellectual- with most traversing along at different levels of the middle phase of claiming complete Self responsibility! But once critical mass humanity claims this as their experiential truth- as ‘real’ as the former two- once that empowering tilt happens will we as a race move into the latter two being as natural a part of our human experience! Will we then live life as the cosmic play- and paradoxically, move into the highest potentials of the human experience! And yet, each step along the journey is been important towards this unraveling… this surrender… of self to Self! The saint knows
that the spiritual path
is a sublime chess game with God
and that the Beloved
has just made a fantastic move
that the saint is now continually
tripping over joy
and bursting out in Laughter
and saying, "I surrender!"
Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think
you have a thousand moves.
~Hafiz~ EDITED VERSION –PUBLISHED IN TIMES OF INDIA SPEAKING TREE JUNE 2007 Self-responsibility is the very corner stone of self-realization and yet to reach here, is an ongoing process, like any journey to self intrinsically is. We all begin by placing responsibility outside self, feeling and saying: “You are responsible”. This is easily identifiable for us all - we hold the dentist responsible for a treatment going awry; the boy friend responsible for the break-up; the government, the judicial system, the police, the plumber even, for our myriad problems. These are but examples of how we hold the ‘other’ responsible and I invite you at this point to view your own so that this does not remain merely an academic understanding. Then at some point in life, this sense of responsibility expands to an acceptance that we too play a part- that both the other and self are responsible and we thus move to feeling or saying: “We are responsible.” Initially this is more easily discernable in personal relationships and our understanding of their dynamics being a two-way thing! But as we take it wider we perhaps realize that the dentistry did not pan out ideally because we had carelessly delayed vital appointments! Or that the plumber did not perform, as we had not paid him on time or how vital a part we play in corruption by willingly encouraging bribes to meet our ends! Once more I invite you to move beyond the merely intellectual and become aware of your personal experiences at this level of responsibility. Which brings us to the third phase of responsibility, and its profound understanding that “I am responsible”! In this we move from ‘you’ are responsible, to ‘we’ are responsible to complete self- responsibility, which is truly the beginning of authentic spiritual growth. At this point we acknowledge our Creatorhood and view how we are indeed completely responsible for our personal realties, our environment and our world; we view self as the cause of outer effects; we view self as the energy field that draws likewise around us. Most of us are at varying stages of this self-empowering responsibility- from it being wholly intellectual to it being a larger and larger part of our beingness. Thus at this point we would truly observe the boyfriend, dentist, government as a reflection of self, and blamelessly seek to redress the outside by addressing it within! Once we have truly imbibed this self-responsibility and it becomes as natural a response in our personal lives as the former two, we must expand it further: having moved from you are responsible, to we are responsible, to I am responsible- we then need to stretch to ‘No one is responsible’! This deeper truth is yet intellectual for most, and yet where anyone on the journey to Self is headed. There is a dawning that no ‘one’ is responsible because everything is happening for the larger whole- call it larger self, universe or God! This is not a shelving of responsibility as it may appear, but a deep acceptance of the Oneness pervading all; and the perfection of its functioning! Indeed what might at first amaze us in its intricacy amazes us as it further unravels, in its utter simplicity! And as these inner workings of Self become increasingly apparent and unambiguously clearer to our waking consciousness we take one more leap – to the eureka that there is nothing to be responsible for! Eastern and western concepts like Maya- the play of creation, Shakespeare’s ‘the world is but a stage’ and even quantum physics theory of the ‘Now moment’ have tried to ‘describe’ this deepest of understandings but truly, can only point towards it. It is a real-ization and I break the words in two to emphasize that this stage cannot be an intellectual understanding but must be as experientially ‘real’ as the former experiences we have journeyed along! Analogies may help: you would not invade a country on awakening from a dream of being attacked! Nor would you penalize the friend who jails you while playing monopoly! For most of humanity, the first two stages of responsibility are completely experiential and the last two perhaps completely intellectual- with most being poised somewhere along the middle! But this centrifugal point of complete self-responsibility is what critical mass humanity must expand into as their experiential truth as ‘real’ as the former two! For once that empowering tilt happens, will we as a race be able to make the latter as natural a part of our human experience too. | 
