Freedom Through Self-responsibility

[Salaam]

There is a lot of freedom to be found in self-responsibility... in some cases taking on that responsibility is the only way to move towards being free. Has anyone else noticed that in their lives?

I've been through a lot of things in my life and carry a lot of scars on my soul, but I am not a victim and I am not bound and chained by the pain and circumstance. I own my pain and I own my challenges, getting to work, to grow and become more capable so I can face and handle them and move forward along my chosen path. 

And when I out-grow those challenges and take on something new, the capacities and adaptations stay with me and I have more within me to exercise and express. It's how I've out-grown things like depression and other stuff that used to keep me down. 

Facing challenge = more capability = more choice.

Much better than wallowing and giving up responsibility which = less choice and less capability. 

I feel like life is as much about fitness of spirit as it is physical and mental fitness. The weight, the intensity, the pain, they can all be lifted and changed if faced, while holding firmly the reins of the power we have to do something about it.

[Nahm]

Reaction becomes creation. Happy for you.

The better it gets, the better it gets.

You will be shocked at what reality is if you continue in that direction.

 

 

@Salaam

[Salaam]

@Nahm

Lol, well I've been living this way for over a decade so the shock has waned, but thanks

[SOUL]

I am not going to say you are wrong or attempt to disprove your perspective in any way but just will present an alternative view to it and I am doing so because I saw you say "the only way" to be free ......

Another way could be to take no responsibility, I didn't pick my life circumstances prior to being born into them and being subjected to all sorts of conditioning before I even had a single moment to consider I existed as a conscious being with the ability to choose whether to take responsibility or not.

So all the resulting thoughts, feelings, ideas, concepts, beliefs and attachments are not of my own doing or choosing so I can now choose to not identify with any of it and take no responsibility in dealing with them.

It is a warehouse of lost baggage given to me and what obligation do I have to unpack and pick through it all? None at all, I can discard it.

So in addition to all the choice you suggest would be gained through taking responsibility there is another choice that can be made, dis-identify with and dis-own it all.

There is always more than one way to the mountain top.

Just something to consider.....

[Salaam]

@SOUL

Well, I can't condone or recommend disassociation as a healthy or effective response for the cultivation of freedom. It doesn't make a person more capable or expand their capacities. Please keep in mind, freedom is not just about being unbound, it's about the expansion of potential, which requires certain levels of development for access.

If I am laying on the ground and there is someone on top of me punching me in the face, disassociation is not going to work and not going to get me out or free me from that situation. For the sake of argument it might make me uncaring as I passively watch the damage being done to my flesh and bones, but I doubt that it would even do that, because it would have to over-ride the natural function of our nervous system for the signaling of trauma and the resultant cascade of bodily processes that release in order to heal and help me survive.

Anyways, in order to get that person off of me, I will have to take control of my body and act to protect it. Choosing to be the primary cause in the rescue of my life. That is the definition of responsibility. "Having control over or care for someone... being the primary cause of something". 

I don't know about you, but the more I grow and the more abundance, capability, and freedom I have the more responsible I feel and become. Not just for me, but the whole world. That's how people naturally grow into authentic leaders and caretakers of this world and larger universe.

Personally I enjoy being the primary influence over my life and taking the reigns of freedom and choice while handling the consequences that arise from it.

[SOUL]

@Salaam

Oh, so it's just your own way of viewing it that is "healthy and effective"?

How convenient that is to justify your own belief system and all you think is required!

Then you go about contriving hypothetical scenarios illustrating the misconceptions you have about another's path and that defends the ideas you believe in.

Does it comfort your sense of self to think this way?

You think you not only have control over your self, you can control and be a caretaker to the world? The universe?

It's amazing to me that you think you have freedom through control, especially over things out of one's control, over others, the world and the universe.

This is where the path of personal development differs from spiritual enlightenment, personal development seeks to control, spiritual enlightenment seeks to let go.

All paths have influence and effect on the practitioner in different ways and to different degrees but all of them are exercised in the same way, though our intention in the present moment.

That's all we have, the present moment, not the past and not the future, just the present moment.

Whether someone claims responsibility for it all, part of it or none of it has no effect at all on the present moment other than on the mind.

What we are presently being right now is the only influence that is exerted, the rest is just imagination in the mind.

So why should I take the responsibility of carrying the past with me and have an expectation of controlling the future? Is that really freedom?

Free from the burdens of the past and expectations of control for the future is the most responsible thing I can presently be.

You can choose to view it any way you do.

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2017 by SOUL

[Salaam]

Sure, view life how you want with the strategies you want. But, why the anger and the assumptions about me? I gave you my opinion about disassociation as a life strategy, that was a respectful disagreement I believe. I said nothing directly about you. 

I have no knowledge of the type of life you've lived and how sheltered or naive about things you may or may not be, but my example was not just some contrived hypothetical. It's a real possibility, brutality is a facet of nature. It sucks, but it's a reality that illustrates the importance of taking action for yourself. I've lived a life that's witnessed acts much worse than a fistfight and I care about putting in effort so the world around me doesn't have to have those things happen to as great a degree. But, regardless of all that how would you handle that scenario with the life strategy you've described in your posts? How does it handle the grittier parts of life?

Anyways, you seem to assume I approach this from some place of desiring total control, based from a single sentence in my last post. I guess that's understandable, but really how I approach making things better is through communication, harmony, and the influence that comes with creating a better and more attractive alternative for myself and the people around me. I have a high degree of "control" within my body and outside it because I have a high degree of cooperation and mutuality. And the more of that you can create and share with people the better things become. At least in my experience.

And a couple quick things about "control" over the past and future. First thing is that choices can have a compounding affect over time. There are structures and capabilities inside us that shift and evolve based on the influence of those compounding choices. So a person can guide the direction of their future and have a sense of responsibility for it, if they wish. Second thing, while the past is fixed the vibration of its incorporations within us, its meaning, can change in tenor. If we  wish we can make what can feel like a burden or stress an energizer or anchor for precious feelings and motivations. 

But anyways, it's just how I see things. I enjoy it immensely, you seem pretty happy with your way. Let's both take this as an opportunity to handle differences gracefully and move forward ?

 

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by Salaam

[SOUL]

Anger? Haha... why are you projecting emotions onto me?

All I did was provide an alternative way when you said there was an "only way", I didn't mean to offend you by it.

Although the way you responded to it and characterized my alternative didn't show much respect towards someone being that way.

Is that how "authentic leaders and caretakers of this world" react when confronted with a differing view?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by SOUL

[Salaam]

Yup, a person should be able to disagree with a life strategy they think is unhealthy and ineffective and have little respect for, while still being respectful towards the person espousing that view. Even while the other person in the face of rejection of their view, doesn't maintain that same level of respect.

It's not that hard man.

 

[SOUL]

Well, when you falsely characterize another's way while citing a word like disassociation that is used for a psychosis by mental health professionals then project your own emotions on them because they offer an alternative view to your own is the type of thing that is found with self righteous bigotry thinking that only their own way is the right, good and true way to live and others are wrong, bad and false, that's not a leader or caretaker of the world.

This is what's ails the world, not heals it and you may be too identified with your beliefs to see through your illusion.

 

Edited May 12, 2017 by SOUL

[Salaam]

@SOUL

Lol, dude you used the words disown and dis-identify which is a severance of connection or association and consequently can be properly inferred as a disassociation (the state of being disconnected).

So, I'm a self-righteous bigot now because I reject the strategy of disowning and disassociating from self-responsibility?

I never said my way was the only way. I said I can't condone or accept your presented strategy for the reasons I cited in earlier posts.

Do you notice how I keep my critiques centered on the life strategy and don't go calling you names and making assumptions about your character? How about you try to behave in a similar way regardless of the actual content of discussion? If you can't meet that standard that please kindly see your way out of my thread.

 

[SOUL]

@Salaam So you mischaracterize what I said about not owning things that were given to us and not of our own choosing into something that it's not..

Making explicitly negative misrepresentations about a way different from your own but you are offended by supposed "name calling"?

As someone who suffered many forms of abuse as a child, none of that which happened to me was mine and me not owning it or any of the thoughts and pain that plagued my young life from it allowed me to transcend it to be at peace, joyful and free.

I am not responsible for the abuse of my childhood and have no obligation to take responsibility for the thoughts and pain from it, I release them, they aren't me or mine.

I choose this present moment, the now to be what I am and what I intend for my experience, not let things I didn't choose be me or mine.

I was not calling your way wrong or trying to disprove it but how you react to a differing way is evidence of intolerance.

It seems your methods are failing you if you cannot handle a different view without casting aspersions, my presence in this thread may be exactly what it needs.

 

 

[Soulbass]

Taking 100% responsibility on a quantum level, I wonder what would happen

I tried few times to "embody" reality as an entire creation of the mind, which is exhausting. It ended with positive results, it seems.

Edited May 12, 2017 by Soulbass