Thursday, July 26, 2012

Taking Your Power Back - Claim Your Share of Responsibility

I have been perceiving many things on a planetary level.

What I see is that there are lots of people laying the blame on individuals, or else groups of very few individuals. When all you see is single individuals, that's the only way to explain it. Our ability to navigate these troubling times will depend on being able to see not single persons, but collective ideas, collective beliefs, and collective behaviors.

We have heard it many times that "the people have the power". That is true, but what I see is a collective behavior of the majority of humans giving their power over to others, giving it away for free, although they don't really realize it. If you see a problem in the world, it's so easy to point fingers and blame a person with a name and a face. But can you see how that person became powerful? Can you see the consolidation of power that massive populations of individuals had, but gave away to the few? Every time you blame a small number of people for a planetary problem, you give away your power to those who you blame. And this is collective behavior of 'blaming the few' weakens those who want a better future.

The secret of power is reversal. You are actually much more powerful by claiming your share of the responsibility for all social problems. I embrace my share of responsibility for disease, crime, hunger, toxicity, pollution, violence, abuse, cheating, theft, and hatred. I cannot change others so I work on improving my own character. I am not a perfect being but I strive to be better every day.

This is how you take your power back. This is how you stop freely giving your power over to others. Claim your share of the responsibility, do not blame other individuals. This does not say you are claiming total responsibility. Only your share in the collective. Do not blame others, blame the collective, and the collective includes yourself. You are not a part of the collective, you are the collective. You are also an individual. Embracing this paradox is necessary to navigate these troubled times.

I've said many times that it's necessary to take action. This does not mean you have to solve all the world's problems and carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. It means that you take action to contribute to making the world a better place. Start with yourself, once you have fulfillment, let the goodness overflow. Taking action does not mean complaining about how it's someone else's fault.

Everyone has a piece of the puzzle, no one has the whole solution. What needs to happen is that we all find the 'shape' of our own puzzle piece and find how that fits into the whole, how it locks in to its own perfect place. It also means that no one is excluded. Even those people you now blame, even they have a place in the puzzle. Be sure not to exclude them since you would then exclude yourself as well. Do not say of others, "you do not fit, get out of my puzzle" for then ruins the picture and we are then all incomplete.

Remember also, a puzzle is a game! It's supposed to be fun! Yes, it is a challenge, but it is also a work of great beauty.

This is the task we must accomplish at this time.

-- Stephen Anthony Orzel

No comments:

Post a Comment