Taking Personal Responsibility for our Actions

Who's really responsible for our behavior? Is it other people? Society? Capitalism? Parents? Religion?

When it's all said and done; we are responsible for all of our actions -- good, bad, or otherwise.

Whenever we accomplish something wonderful, something that we're really happy about, we are the ones who did the work.

Sometimes we attribute our accomplishments to a higher spiritual authority.

We are always present in all of our actions.

Nevertheless, we all must admit that in the final analysis, regardless to where our inspiration and motivation comes from, we still must take the necessary actions.

Many of us are taught from early childhood some types of moral and spiritual principles to govern our behavior.

Whether it's the Decalogue, parental folklore, the Vedas, the Gita, or some other principles, we are taught that we're personally responsible for our actions.

We are always present in all of our actions.

Some of things we're taught are that it's wrong to steal, lie, cheat, murder, disrespect our parents, mistreat others, commit adultery, use drugs and alcohol, and so forth. If we do these things, then we will be punished by society or by our religious and spiritual beliefs.

Unfortunately, most of us do break one or two of the moral and spiritual principles. And when we do, we seek solace in our beliefs to assist us with forgiveness.

We need something or someone to tell us that we are forgiven for murdering a helpless person, stealing the automobile, and using excessive amounts of drugs and alcohol.

We are always present in all of our actions.

It's really not our fault. We were doomed by birth to act the way we do. Someone misled us. Our parents whipped us too much. The school teachers picked on us. We were poor and lived on the wrong side of the tracks. Our skin color resigned us to societal inferiority.

After awhile, it becomes easy for us to not accept personal responsibility for our actions. It's always someones fault other than our own. And to further absolve ourselves of any responsibility, all we have to do is pray for forgiveness and everything is taken care of.

We are always present in all of our actions.

Similarly, we can move on with our lives without ever having to face or understand the beliefs causing the behavior. This allows us to believe that it's always someone else fault, the system, our upbringing, lack of education, and so forth that's really responsible for our actions. And this is probably correct.

What and how we're taught as children affect our actions. Where we live affect our actions. What we believe about ourselves -- skin color, poverty, education, and so on -- affect our actions. We are victimized by our actions.

We always present in all of our actions.

For us to truly understand the meaning of personal responsibility, we must first understand how we were conditioned to live as children. We must be willing to examine our moral and spiritual training without placing blame on others.

To do this, we must believe, and then know, that we have the power to overcome our childhood teachings.

Similarly, we must understand and accept that we're always present in all of our actions. There's nothing that has ever happened to us where we were not present. And we also will be present in all of our future actions, which means we can act differently, if we choose to.

When we reach the awareness of personal responsibility, we are clearly aware that the years we spent developing and cultivating our deleterious behavior did not magically disappear because we wished or prayed it away.

No, we had to overcome the behavior by first understanding its origins and then taking the action to overcome it.

We are always present in all of our actions.

Perhaps there are people who can wish or pray away their behavior. Unfortunately, most of us have to face our behavior, and understand its origins before we're able to begin the lifelong work to overcome it.

By placing blame for our actions on our moral and spiritual beliefs only takes us further from the realm of accepting personal responsibility for our actions.

Whenever we remove ourselves from being responsible for our actions, we create more suffering and victimization in our lives.

Regardless to how others treat us, the impact of their actions can only affect us because of our beliefs and values. It's  our judgments about their actions that give them power over us.

We believe we have been hurt, victimized by others, when in reality we have abdicated our own power by becoming their victims.

We are always present in all of our actions.

Our Creator gave us the power over our own thoughts and actions. This power is absolute, irrevocable. It is ours to use on this journey any time we desire to do so. And we do use it everyday to create actions that have the power to inflict both happiness and suffering on ourselves and others.

For us to move beyond victimization -- holding someone responsible other than ourselves for our actions-- to an awareness of mindfulness, we must relinquish some of the things we have been taught about personal responsibility.

We are always present in all of our actions.


There's no one to mislead us, except us. When we accept blindly what others teach us, we place ourselves in the darkness of their minds. We shut out the light of enlightenment within us.

Enlightenment is within us to keep alive the power of creation.

WE are always present in all of our actions.