It makes clear the absolute uselessness of regrets. Nothing could have ever been any other way, given the circumstances,situations,level of consciousness and conditioning.
That's what is total BS about this line of "reasoning". It's a heavy copout. It's a dissociative con game and abdication of responsibility. We have the ability to make all sorts of choices - and some of those choices are wrong, wrong in that they lead to death or damage to ourselves or others. Such choices are in fact mistakes and many of them could have been chosen differently. I can choose to drive my car to a local bar and get drunk. That is choice I am capable of making or not. Everyone with half an ounce of awareness and enough brains to drive the car knows there is risk in such a choice. Then while driving someone challenges me to a drag race at a red light. The light turns green and I accept the challenge. That is another choice. Again, anyone with enough brains to drive a car, even someone who is inebriated but still capable of walking to their car and putting the keys in the ignition, has the awareness that there is risk involved in such a choice. We are capable of such a personal responsibility choice. We could have chosen differently. I then lose control of my car - at that point not a choice - and I crash head on into a young family and kill them all. If one has no regret for such actions, for the results of such personal decisions, then one is a psychopath. If one thinks that experiencing regret in such a situation is absolute uselessness, then one is either also a sociopath or has been duped by people like this charlatan into self-avoidance pretending to be awareness. So is being duped by such a charlatan a choice or not?!
@@ShamanMirror I understand what you're saying and I'm not entirely sure which side I personally stand on. I'll play devil's advocate though. But I think predetermination and God's plan is what is being referenced here, there are too many outside factors that effect us which gives the impression of choice, when the reality is you never had a choice as you would've always chose what you did, even if you think you chose that. Even the thought of thinking "do I choose? Yes I chose that" was predetermined! If thoughts aren't controlled and just "pop into existence" then it's whoever is putting them into your mind that is truly the controller, you're just an antenna for those thoughts and with enough pushing for it you'll eventually do it. That's what addiction is. That's also what beating addiction is, it's God's plan. I don't know why? But I suppose it's teaching us experience and other things with life, that without that we'd have just chilled out, done nothing and sat around. It's the struggles, the difficulties and the joys that teach us the most. Hence why he would be doing it. It's also quite sad to think we have zero freedom, except acceptance or resistance and that's all we ever get for a choice. You could argue like a prisoner would also get. My argument against it is: if you were one of those people that think crazy thoughts over and over again, like thoughts about killing your family or something like that, then how would you explain when that person gets help and doesn't do what the thoughts tell them to do? I'd say that's choice no? That's what he is saying I believe, not saying it's true but it's a good argument to be made and I'm on the fence myself.
@@inFAMOUSBlastshards it's a good question. I struggled with that for years, wondering if I was being led by the desires of my ego or the desires of my true authentic Self. Eventually, it did not matter, when the ego dissolves into the Self, there is no difference, and no questioning of desire, for all of it is what is, and what was, needed.
I would draw your attention to this comment by Catherine Suraya Prem - " It makes clear the absolute uselessness of regrets. Nothing could have ever been any other way, given the circumstances,situations,level of consciousness and conditioning." It's not about determinism either, it is just an acceptance of the situation of where any of us are at any given time, a way of moving through it without losing sight of the Self.
It is the most absurd thing. Normally we think we need the will to be more responsible, focused, make less mistakes, do what is right etc. Yet in my life I never fulfill that ideal more than when I do not try to control any of it and just get closer to my true nature. More thinking and sense of self there is just produces self-blaming, stress and the worse my work, my relationships and my life gets for me and frankly for everyone around me. Yet we foolishly think "oh I cannot give up my free will, my ego, my identity, the world would just fall apart!"
How immensely helpful is the reminder about our belief in a separate self. Instead of considering thousands of reasons for our misfortunes...he just directs you towards a root cause
Wow!!! I first came across this in Sikh scripture and thought about such a freeing and shedding of guilt and shame. Then my mind came to the conclusion that RS explained with Hitler's example and that totally just went full circle for me. Thank you Universe for bringing peace to me through RS. I will need to explore the Sikh Scripture further for such profound and unique way of being.
The more I look at this stuff the more I see the holes in reality. It feels like were all being lied to constantly by society and our own minds, but there are huge gaping holes in reality that we simply ignore or our own hubris covers up from us
These insights apply to those who are advanced in doing the inner work, & who were lucky enough to be born into families that were loving families, in general. For someone who is abusive because of abusive trauma from childhood (a parent who compulsively hits their kids, for example; Rupert uses Hitler as an example, & Hitler was beaten so badly that bones were broken when he was a baby) a period of time of feeling guilty, & feeling personally responsible, & doing one's best to make amends, may be of use on the path to growth, healing, wholeness. Taking personal responsibility may be necessary steps before one can have access to non-dual experiences.
@AlexandriaqpI wrote "in general" on purpose. I am very glad for you. I stand by my comments. "In general" makes them accurate. And good for you that you have overcome so much. My own personal teacher was in Auschwitz at the age of 2. She swore anonymity to her teachers. Like you, she overcame outrageous odds.
"Understanding this doesn't make us behave in irresponsible ways. It's when we believe their is personal responsibility that we find ourselves behaving in irresponsible ways". That sounds right to me.
OMG, I have passed over this video many times thinking I wouldn't get anything from it. I should have known better. There is no such thing, when it comes to your videos. I have yet to watch one and not get something profound through it. Thank you as always, Rupert for your amazing ability to explain what so many try, but can't seem to put in the simple way that you communicate it.
Concise and powerful, the thought that arises after reflecting on this is trust. Trusting that the nature of god/consciousness is good. The problem is as I'm writing this in 2021 trust has almost become a foolish concept. The level of cynicism in society will make the spread of this teaching im impossible.
Oh I get it... He's saying "personal" exists only if you think you are separate... If we are not separate, we are all connected, then there is no "personal"
@@markbrad123 QP is a fabricated idea by the body-mind. It is a concept. Albeit one that actually reflects direct experience, compared to all the garbage and fake science and ideologies.
Rumi writes, "we are given free will that we might choose to freely surrender our free will." Thus acknowledging it never was. It's like allowing a child to think something is their idea when the parent has been telling them the same thing all along.
@@ManchmalGaming - As the cat of the house I was told that I was "free" to run about inside the house, or even the yard, but NOT outside. The limit was good for me, because I won't get run over by the passing cars and it was also good for the squirrels on the trees in the neighbor's yard. Freewill within a limit. If my owner didn't limit me, then he didn't care about me or the squirrels. (Reposted)
@@Pfuetzenspringer That was 4 years ago??? Wow, I don't like how fast my life is moving! I'm still learning. Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Beauty pulls me toward itself. Love is the ocean, I am the salt doll walking into the crashing waves at the shore. I want to kiss her again.
No One is thinking the thoughts. They are arising, like passing clouds. We aren't controlling our thoughts. There's no one there. Yet awareness seems to be able to question the thoughts that arise. Yet again, it's all just happening... very hard to explain
I think it is all a matter of point of view. I believe all the true masters are just guiding us to the same place, and they have to consider our limited perception as they do so. And in my view this is the reason why the teachings are contradictory, because they are dealing with our ilusions and limited understanding of life. Looking from unity consciousness, or whatever we may call it, there are no such concerns. These considerations are only ways of trying to awaken us from the dream.
"It is when we think there is personal responsibility that we find ourselves behaving in irresponsible ways." This is what I have been thinking for a long time now, although the way I would say it is that all of my character flaws are a result of ego defenses. The Bible refers to the fall of man as eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Could the knowledge of good and evil also be thought of as "personal responsibility"?
The point is that the self appears with the environment, they are always together as one thing. Harm the environment and the self reacts - they are one thing.
Well i dont know about this. I remember feeling absolutely depressed about life yesterday. At around 8 pm i said to myself that the reason I'm sad is that I dont allow myself to feel pleasure. I consciously slowed my thoughts down and decided to feel more pleasure, took a nice long bath and listened to music. It seemed like i had some degree of control. I find that I am coping with my depression much better. My stifled upbringing caused me to shut myself in and now I am stepping out of that shell consciously. I speak up for myself etc. I feel like a different person. So i dont know if i agree with Rupert. I also once had the experience of coming back from meditation and my husband trying to pick a fight with me. Because of the meditative state, i was able to choose my reaction. So i think we do have some control over our responses and attitude, or so it seems
It is important to understand the context he is talking in . He is talking on a nondual level . In our day to day lives duality exist so there is responsibility .
No there isn't you just literally ignored what he said. Duality is an illusion. So if he is telling you there is no personal responsibility actually question why. I'll give you a clue. It's like you play a video game character on GTA. Kill a whole bunch of people and get put in jail. Is it the video game character's fault that he killed all those people? You do not control your thoughts, or your emotions, you can dissociate from them. But basically your body is a robot, a simulator. The only choice you have is how you program it. You can do that if you awaken.
From what I have understood, the limited self in his mind has responsibility but from awareness there is no responsibility, instead, it will be irresponsible feeling responsible. Right, but the feeling responsible cannot be wrong even when one is self aware because is how the mind works.
I'm going to repeat the same comment I post all the time: it is amazing how Rupert Spira has hit upon such a clear and contemporary way of talking about the human experience of reality.
This means as long as once considers one to be individual, there is bound to be responsibility for one self to get rid of this individuality and act on behalf of totality.
Personal Accountability is at the heart of our creation... we are responsible for what we do. Our next life which is a fact depends on what we do here. Where is the evidence? Right in the nature of our consciousness if we bother to reflect within us... our life is a serious business cos we have free will .. so need to grow up.
I have trouble with this maybe from the absolute view but so many of the non-duality speakers will say that once you are self realized you no longer have karma because their is no one there and the effect of karma will stop like a fan once the power is off but until then you are responsibly for your actions. It's time to have a beer and listen again and you know the whole universe is wanting that beer!!! And since we are all one try not to drink to much of my beer!!! Cheers!
This is fascinating. I love you Rupert Spira. For the poise and kindness that lives you. But experience says that alcoholism is a mind body dysfuction. I wonder if awakening does knock it on the head. Very interesting. I wonder why the universe directed Lynley into AA first instead of straight into non dualism. My suggestion would be that affinity with those genetically wired alike has an important role. Maybe it was to be a gradual awakening hey. From no god to god out there to god in here to i am god. Who knows.
If you listen carefully to what Rupert is saying eventualy you'll contract intelligence.. just like measles. When your thinking structure aligns with his
We CANNOT overcome the mind, with the mind, in true meditation we go beyond the mind! We enter into the Turiya 'state' (forth state) which is that of Thoughtless Awareness!
turyaboy....nope,u lack basic understanding.... watereva state of mind one z in,one thing z consistent ,dat in all of dose states ,dere z always the presence of awareness., regardless of what state it z,waking,sleeping,dreaming,or even samadhi.....Turiya state z given so much importance coz Turiya z first experienced when the Yogi experiences "Nirvikalpa avastha ".....even in dat state of complete cessation of thoughts and perception,,dere z still dat presence of awareness dat knows it.....when diz understanding z brought about,one realises dat "turiyatita'" z real and "Turiya " z false,as one experiences the same underlying presence of awareness and deep bliss in the background of all experiences...so the fourth znt really fourth,itz rather the one and only true awareness,in the background of all activity...!!.
Of course there is an agent that can control the mind and movements of the body. That's why I can use my mind consciously and purposely and the same I can do with my body. Of course there is a cooperation among the conscious agent that I am and the instinctive mind. Of course there are instinctive functions of the body and the mind That are organised by the chitta, a part of the mind, which is responsible of the functioning and coordination of all instinctive functions..
I agree that without the sense of being a separate self Hitler would not have behaved the way he did. But going back to what was pointed to prior to that, could he have behaved any differently given how his life unfolded? How could he not have had the sense of personal responsibility if that is what was present?If he had no personal responsibility than how could any of it be different from what it was? Confused! Please explain.
I think he's saying nothing can be any different from what it is, let alone what it was. But whether you hear this message and whether you respond, is at that same level. If it makes sense to you then you will respond and awaken. But afterwards you will see it wasn't your choice to awaken. What appeared to be real was unreal. I think that's it anyway.
@@tbayley6 nope....when one brings about this understanding in dem,dey realign dier thoughts and emotions wid dis new understanding....Dey have a higher vigilance of dier mental activity and a greater compassion for all thingz sentient!... Hitler z a by product of ignorance and unconsciousness rather dan wisdom and consciousness..!!.
I suffer with this philosophy. Immediate reaction to a bodily urge can be changed by not being a slave to it. I stopped hanging around people who were partaking in foul play and foul language. I payed attention to my language and what was coming out of my mouth When I get injured or radically angry or happy. I don't immediately think to use swear words anymore. I have trained my psychy to not think of a swear word when I am having a radical feeling if any type.
thats weak how he said "fear of your wife cheating" is impossible to be carefree about. I personally have never been married but there HAVE been times i was dating a woman and i knew she cheated and it was MUCH easier for a creative purpose driven person like me to instantly move on than most people. im mentally prepared to let them go in that very moment. so i do on MANY occasions control my thoughts.
Keine persönliche Verantwortung bedeutet nicht, dass man frei von nachfolgenden Ereignissen ist. Ich hatte zufällig einen Körper, der Bier mag. Der Chef hatte mich bei der Arbeit dabei beobachtet, wie ich ein Glas Bier trank. Ich wurde gefeuert. Es gibt miteinander verbundene Ereignisse, die einer Person passieren, und dennoch kann diese Person davon nicht betroffen sein. Liebe Grüße.❤
Just because our experience is conditioned by the rest of the world, doesn't mean we don't have any control at all. Just because our lives are ephemeral doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The entity within is a shadow, but real nonetheless. I totally disagree that there is no personal responsibility, but understand what he means by the problem of sense of separation and the solution of living in non-separation. When we are in love, in being, what can we do wrong.
Where do you find this "entity within" and how is it real? IF you manage to then THAT would be the "person" who shoulders responsibility but if you can't then who or what is responsible?
+Dorie LaRue No. We are life itself. In all its beauty and innocence. Life is not mechanical - it's pure aliveness, pure spontaneity, pure unpredictability, intelligence and creativity. But the notion of a seperate person with a personal free will is nothing but an illusion. There is Will, but it is not personal nor is it seperate from the whole - only the illusion of being a seperate subject in a world full of "others" lets it seem that way. And only this illusion is the cause of all suffering: That you think you can do anything wrong and therefore lose something.
Free will is the biggest smoke screen. See sam harris' book. You should be able to sit for 10 min and clearly see free will for the myth and delusion it is.
Hey Rupert, Nithyananda has spoken extensively about responsibility this year, I think he'd have a thing or two to say about this video lol thanks for sharing.
I like Rubert & appreciate his fabulous effort he puts to put it simple... But, its true we don't have control over thought, but I believe we do have some power/control (not much) Example: I rarely masturbate, but its very powerful, because I choose a person & then the fantasy starts, I know its not thought, but images. It really unfolds how I imagine it to be. I have total control, just for a minute or 2 Cheers!
Dorie LaRue You ask or you think I am puritan? Anyway You don't know my past life and you don't know from where I begun and where I am now. When you listen something before you make conclusions is better to enquire or investigate deeply enough, if you are interested to become a real human being. Moreover these fatalist ideas of no responsibilty make a lot of havoc in humanity. We have billions of unconscious people who create a lot of havoc and suffering on earth and unfortunately we have irresponsible spiritual instructors who confuse the people with these erroneous ideas.
Killer CD I had great difficulties with lust,,and because of it I investigated lust profoundly for 25 years and I used various methods and technics to dissolve the passionate energy of sexual lust. Everything I say about lust is my own experience, not a theory. People with a lusty mind cannot understand what really is lust. All problems and suffering of earthlings are based on sexual lust directly or indirectly.
I'm with you open-minded skeptic. You don't have to follow a thought, a feeling, a sensation or desire. Consciousness isn't totally dictated by these biological responses. If you are aware then there comes a choice as to whether you are going to follow that option. Consciousness discerning between all of this. You can be incredibly deep within desire to do something and not follow it if there is awareness. And also the opposite is true, you can not want to do something, but if you view it objectively, you can still do it. If everything becomes more automatic and you are forced to follow whatever comes along, then we are back to being unconscious aren't we? Now, even that can be causal, unless consciousness or awareness is in fact outside of time. In any case would it matter? In any case you as a human being would have far better control over your choices. Also, there is sense of responsibility that arises with understanding. Even if there isn't free will and you didn't create it, its still there. Because quite simply you know. Doesn't have to be totally self-created for these things to exist.
But that every act of non-following is a action in of itself. A path you have taken. The you whom we all don't even know exists, as far as being a other than a ego structure.
In other video Rupert says "as the separate self you haven't got a will, but as awareness you are totally free". This makes me confused, but when I tried not to control my life, everything went smooth as the river flowing, life is just flowing without effort.
So if say we get a person who has been having extreme thoughts telling her to kill her children. She obviously gets scared and worried about it and after years of battling it, getting mental health help she is now able to "ignore" those thoughts or maybe allow them without acting on them. Isn't that choice? She's resisted the thoughts, she's decided to just allow the thoughts to flow and not follow them. I'd call that choice. As difficult as it might be for her to get to that point she's still won and resisted. It might've been the only thought she ever resisted and it took a hell of a battle, but she still resisted. So isn't that choice? That is choice. We have choice. We can either choose to resist or not resist. Resistance might often result in failure and giving in, but often times we are able to resist and not do what our thoughts want us to do. It could be as simple as "go on, have the cigarette!" and you decide against the thought. If this predeterminationism is true then we are pretty much slaves to God, possibly even being toyed with, given thoughts of awful things and then thoughts of resisting those awful things. Either way I like the theory and exploring it.
The resisting itself is just another arising in consciousness. Whether it comes up or doesn't is not in our control. Same for decisions. For a decision to be made it is necessary to like one option better than the other; and those personal preferences are - again - not in our control. In other words: In order to resist, the urge to resist has to be strong enough. Is this up to anyone? I, myself, get my responsibility from the fact that I can't know what will happen next and that cause and effect have an impact. Therefore I try to give things my best effort. But as soon as I look backwards, I see the past as chain of events I had no control over. This taught me more compassion towards others and to see life more like a playground.
If you cannot perform moral actions without feeling that there is free will, then use your sense of free will to be moral. When one can directly experience the truth that there is no free will, that person will be moral by nature. Until then, the illusion of free will is useful. God himself puts this feeling in us for that purpose. I myself feel free will, but know intellectually that it is an illusion. It will go away when I am ready.
@@Refulgent_Rascal My pleasure. There is no concept of free will in Indian philosophy for more than 3000 years (although it is still an unresolved issue in western philosophy). It is considered a part of predestination that we will feel free will, question it, and realise real freedom (moksha). If you really want to know more, please read Vivekananda or Ramakrishna. It is best to drink directly from the stream. The complete works of Vivekananda and a day-by-day account of Ramakrishna's life (Katha-amrita) are available for free online.
If there's no person, then it's easy to say there's no personal responsibility. But I think responsibility exists, still, as he says you do act that way once you understand you are part of the whole. You can say, responsibility = response ability, but there never has to be judgment involved, though there always is intelligence.
No personal responsibility is not shielded from consequences of behavior. I work with criminals and addicts (yes, labels) they are in prison...yet those that awaken to the fact that I am not a separate self can easily make choices that are wise. Why will he do that? Because he cannot control his thinking , even new thinking. Actions come from thoughts. Good actions come from good thoughts. Good meaning...not destructive but upbuilding, peaceful
we use words like control freek to describe someone who believes they're doing their thoughts, and so can control they're destiny by choosing to think certain thoughts over others - its common to for the average person to view new age, self help people as crazy for having the above sentiments - practically all of us know on some level that we can't control what thoughts we have. Honestly I think people that have had some sort of mystical experience and talk about conventional reality/conventional beliefs, as if they were fundamentally different from what they're experiencing have just forgotten what conventional reality is like, or else have filled themselves up with garbage information about how they've realised something that all the poor unelightened people are completely oblivious to as they go about their daily lives, and this just isn't the case!
I think I did listen to this video a thousand times. Still feel that I don't get it lol...at least in the end. But even if I do really love Rupert, I still am very confused. What he says here, confuses me because, basically if I understood correctly, says, we have no choice and if we have addictive behavior, this is it, we can't do anything, which clearly is sooo scary... how to be ok with your addictive behavior? i mean...who is ok with his darkness? or if we have addictive things we do, sooner or later we try to get rid of, isn't it? in this video, he is basically saying that we are helpless :) Anyone who has any insights, feel free to share it:) thank you.
I think what I understood from the video is that we really do not have any free will, take the examples of serial killers for example, when you're young in the early stages of development, the conditioning you get at that time stays with you for the rest of your life, I mean who chooses to kill people in the right senses? It's like they have always been like this even before the conditioning, nobody can explain such behaviors, I had a very difficult childhood, when I started my personal development journey and chose to have conscious control over my thoughts, alot of things in my life did get better, but there are alot of things I still do when I first started doing them in my childhood as survival mechanisms, I still lie alot, I still manipulate people, I'm an avoidant, despite being aware of it that I'm avoidant and doing my best to not make it an obstacle in personal relationships, I just cannot maintain relationships and friendships, I still doubt myself alot, and despite working on myself excessively I still have inferiority complex, I still find myself doing things I absolutely disgust about myself,even tho I have next level self discipline, I just cannot seem to get rid of all those flaws, I literally had to make peace with all these uglier aspects of my being to be finally able to live a normal life, I'm literally convinced we do not have much control over our lives even tho I wish it wasn't true.
Rather than calling it thought We do call it tendency towards food or whisky, and till the time you get rid out of it you cant look more deep inward...
This may be the most subversive video I've seen so far this year! Society has relentlessly pounded into my brain the notion of personal responsibility. It always struck me that in so doing, society lets itself off the hook when it creates monsters, as (for example) when gang wars break out in inner American cities. The assertion that personal responsibility is not a complete, one-size-fits-all answer to humanity's woes ... that's going to make a lot of people uncomfortable. Bravo for that!
They look evil because of that strong sense of separated self and strong belief that he is right. This relates for many people who have that sense of separate self, for example Hitler or Putin.
@@Silensio Well said. I'm so ready to witness/encounter people who understand and experience the sense of oneness. It's heartbreaking (heart burdening) to/for me. Seriously (I actually had an "abnormal" ECG/EKG a couple of weeks ago and the physician had a look on her face that showed great concern (the ECG/EKG that I had before came back just fine) when she asked me if heart disease ran in my family. Not that I know of.) To often see so many people treating each other so unkindly, as adversaries/enemies/competitors or mere tools or things to be used and discarded (especially their own family members, so-called 'friends" and "romantic" mates), is tiring. I'm desiring/wishing for more loving interactions for you, CGCx and for all of humanity...and SOON.
@@lemostjoyousrenegade Enlightened people say that the humanity moves/evolves towards the "awareness era" which means - in the end everyone, all the people will recognize their true nature and become totally aware or in simple words, all the people will become enlightened.
We have personal responsibility to some degree. We can choose to eat the healthy food or the less healthy food that is in our fridge-free will, and responsibility. It’s somewhat ludicrous and frankly irresponsible to suggest we don’t have personal responsibility.
The personality is just an illusion, so in the sense in our daily lives, its more reliable to say I have free will and I am the body, yes you are but remember that character is just a story. Its like Superman said I am real, he is only real on that particular movie.
I love Rupert but I have to disagree. It’s a scientific fact that we can change our conditioning. Someone with alcoholic behavior, for example, can take control of their life and shift their habits, reprogram their mind. Tell anyone who has overcome a very serious problem that they should’ve just let their life unravel into misery, and they would tell you you’re wrong. Personal responsibility is very important, even as an awoken spiritual being!
@@sweetdream9896 Okay, yes, but Rupert does not deny the fact of everyday experience. I think you missed my point. I understand what he means by there is literally no personal responsibility, but also... on a certain level, there is. If you’re watching a terrible movie (think of his screen metaphor), you can simply turn it off and put on a new movie for the screen to project. This is what we, as consciousness, can do if we’re experiencing an unnecessarily miserable “movie”.
@@cashglobe Completely agree. My son was (he'd say "is") an addict who has been clean/sober for 12 years. He had to make a choice to get there, otherwise that unraveling you referred to.
W have a police force to keep peoples` egos in check..... if we don't behave in a way that is good for the collective consciousness , we have to be constrained and our egos brought into line. To solve the human condition we need to understand more about our egos and how to keep them in check. Maybe Rupert can create an algorithm so egos can be re-configured and consciousness evolution can proceed
That's just rhethorics, because of ignoring the fact, that man acts always as One, even when someone is defining man as a "separate one" and a defines his reactions as a result of His conditionings. Who has learned and accepted these conditionings? And who decides to take the bottle of Whisky? Who is able to observe, what the "separate self" is doing? So claiming, that there is no entity in the body to be responsible for behaviour is just a theoretical assumption. If that would be so, there would Not be any reason, why that guy should talk to another guy, because there would be No reason to think about our conciousnes and about being itself..
Of course there is individual.responsibility. That's why we have to pay karma as a result of what we do in this world. If we are not responsible of what we do then there is no reason to pay any karma.
I have heard it said by some much wiser than myself that there is no karma for the enlightened one. Karma is for the body and the mind only. It is just a word pointing to the fact of unintended consequences.
The title of this clip is extremely misleading. He's saying that when you feel connected to everything, and you know that you are one with the universe, you will act with love and compassion. It's only when we feel disconnected and separate that we act out, supposedly on our own. But we are not on our own. That's an illusion and causes us to falter. The idea of no personal responsibility is not part of this philosophy, at least not to me. We are together responsible and whole.
@kberken would you say a character in a play is responsible for let´s say commiting murder? Him/her committing murder is a part of the script. How could you hold that character responsible? "We together a responsible and whole". There is no "we" (the "we" we take ourselves to be), so there can be no resposibility. I don´t find the title of the clip misleading but the way Rupert explains is not very clear.
Our physiology needs to function in an orderly fashion and this is the reason why we have this robot-like Automaton that handles the multitude of chemical functions etc going on within our Biology. Our corruptible thinking Minds cannot even multitask driving our car whilst operating a cell phone. *Our Biological Activity vs our Physical Activity are almost worlds apart, they are two completely different things.* The former comes totally under the auspices of the Still & Silent Omnipresent Consciousness, the latter comes thru The Mind. Whereas we cannot will our pancreas to produce more insulin or will our neurons to stop firing across our synaptic clefts, we CAN will our index finger to point at something specific. Whereas we don't control the hundreds of minute biological details required to carry out the action *we do have will* at the level of carrying out the resultant physical activity. When we walk we do not will the specific muscular co-ordination required to actually do the job, we simply physically walk AT WILL. Mind-body coherence is critical to efficiently convert a willed choice into actual physical activity. _Without proper Mind-body coherence the simplest tasks become onerous or downright impossible._ The need to "be in control" of every aspect of our existence is the wish of the ego, this special guy who uses even "spiritual practice" in terms of his own state of health. Whereas we cannot stop or control thought flow, we can choose which thought we operate on to make decisions in our social lives. The mere fact that people can come from very similar experiences and still make very different choices and have very different outcomes as a result of *different perceptions of the situation itself* demonstrate that whilst our will to act and influence IS limited to physical activity, _it is simultaneously totally nonexistent relative to the deep & highly intricate inner activities of our own biology..._
I WOULD NOT PICK THE THOUGHT THAT IT IS OKAY IF MY LOVED ONE GO WITH ANOTHER MAN IF I COULD. YOU HAVE RESPOBSIBILITY OF OFCOURSE. AND FREE WILL. YOU CAN CHOOSE WHAT YOU THINK NEXT. JUST CHOOSE........
Dominic F. Yes. I think it’s because we then panic and want to do everything right, so we contract, become anxious control freaks and in turn ironically do everything wrong. Like a trained professional athlete who creates too much pressure for himself mentally, consequently loses his inner calm and completely effs up his performance. It’s when we are “in the zone”, when we are not present as a separate self and not thinking that we are at our most calm and successful, natural way of living.
@@depressionbeard9882 I can relate to this entirely. I went through this phase where I was obsessed with being good and felt like I had to constantly be driving through limitations in the name of goodness, I put so much pressure on myself it crushed me, I caved in and ended up completely drained and gave up and let all kinds of irresponsible bad shit happen and ended up hating myself for slipping which amplified the problem. I made it through that though and found another way. Self kindness and love works so much better.
It makes clear the absolute uselessness of regrets. Nothing could have ever been any other way, given the circumstances,situations,level of consciousness and conditioning.
Catherine Suraya Prem very well said
That's what is total BS about this line of "reasoning". It's a heavy copout. It's a dissociative con game and abdication of responsibility. We have the ability to make all sorts of choices - and some of those choices are wrong, wrong in that they lead to death or damage to ourselves or others. Such choices are in fact mistakes and many of them could have been chosen differently. I can choose to drive my car to a local bar and get drunk. That is choice I am capable of making or not. Everyone with half an ounce of awareness and enough brains to drive the car knows there is risk in such a choice. Then while driving someone challenges me to a drag race at a red light. The light turns green and I accept the challenge. That is another choice. Again, anyone with enough brains to drive a car, even someone who is inebriated but still capable of walking to their car and putting the keys in the ignition, has the awareness that there is risk involved in such a choice. We are capable of such a personal responsibility choice. We could have chosen differently. I then lose control of my car - at that point not a choice - and I crash head on into a young family and kill them all. If one has no regret for such actions, for the results of such personal decisions, then one is a psychopath. If one thinks that experiencing regret in such a situation is absolute uselessness, then one is either also a sociopath or has been duped by people like this charlatan into self-avoidance pretending to be awareness.
So is being duped by such a charlatan a choice or not?!
@@ShamanMirror I understand what you're saying and I'm not entirely sure which side I personally stand on. I'll play devil's advocate though.
But I think predetermination and God's plan is what is being referenced here, there are too many outside factors that effect us which gives the impression of choice, when the reality is you never had a choice as you would've always chose what you did, even if you think you chose that. Even the thought of thinking "do I choose? Yes I chose that" was predetermined!
If thoughts aren't controlled and just "pop into existence" then it's whoever is putting them into your mind that is truly the controller, you're just an antenna for those thoughts and with enough pushing for it you'll eventually do it. That's what addiction is. That's also what beating addiction is, it's God's plan. I don't know why? But I suppose it's teaching us experience and other things with life, that without that we'd have just chilled out, done nothing and sat around. It's the struggles, the difficulties and the joys that teach us the most. Hence why he would be doing it. It's also quite sad to think we have zero freedom, except acceptance or resistance and that's all we ever get for a choice. You could argue like a prisoner would also get.
My argument against it is: if you were one of those people that think crazy thoughts over and over again, like thoughts about killing your family or something like that, then how would you explain when that person gets help and doesn't do what the thoughts tell them to do? I'd say that's choice no?
That's what he is saying I believe, not saying it's true but it's a good argument to be made and I'm on the fence myself.
Shaman Mirror if your interested look at some of his other videos about thought.
@@ShamanMirror You did not watch the whole video. Watch the whole video
The seeming separate ‘I’ or ‘person’ goes nuts when hearing this. It starts defending and criticizing.
it also "lol"s. we presume
@@othernewsid2 sure. Why not? It’s LOLing at itself. 😆
Most people 'only' see themselves as separate from others and the world. That is why this statement is so delicate.
"Everything that you need will be provided." Sounds lovely.
Yup. So don’t forget to ask
Adrian Mark what if we don’t know what we need? What if our ego thinks we need such and such?
@@inFAMOUSBlastshards it's a good question. I struggled with that for years, wondering if I was being led by the desires of my ego or the desires of my true authentic Self. Eventually, it did not matter, when the ego dissolves into the Self, there is no difference, and no questioning of desire, for all of it is what is, and what was, needed.
I would draw your attention to this comment by Catherine Suraya Prem - " It makes clear the absolute uselessness of regrets. Nothing could have ever been any other way, given the circumstances,situations,level of consciousness and conditioning."
It's not about determinism either, it is just an acceptance of the situation of where any of us are at any given time, a way of moving through it without losing sight of the Self.
God that knowing changes everything...trusting 🙏
It is the most absurd thing. Normally we think we need the will to be more responsible, focused, make less mistakes, do what is right etc. Yet in my life I never fulfill that ideal more than when I do not try to control any of it and just get closer to my true nature. More thinking and sense of self there is just produces self-blaming, stress and the worse my work, my relationships and my life gets for me and frankly for everyone around me.
Yet we foolishly think "oh I cannot give up my free will, my ego, my identity, the world would just fall apart!"
How immensely helpful is the reminder about our belief in a separate self. Instead of considering thousands of reasons for our misfortunes...he just directs you towards a root cause
Wow!!! I first came across this in Sikh scripture and thought about such a freeing and shedding of guilt and shame. Then my mind came to the conclusion that RS explained with Hitler's example and that totally just went full circle for me. Thank you Universe for bringing peace to me through RS. I will need to explore the Sikh Scripture further for such profound and unique way of being.
The more I look at this stuff the more I see the holes in reality. It feels like were all being lied to constantly by society and our own minds, but there are huge gaping holes in reality that we simply ignore or our own hubris covers up from us
Well said. I feel like society is the an extension of the mind. And therefore, an extension of the lies and holes that you speak of.
You listen to society?
That’s a great realization! Not everyone is able to come up with that and pay attetion to what you pay attention.
These insights apply to those who are advanced in doing the inner work, & who were lucky enough to be born into families that were loving families, in general. For someone who is abusive because of abusive trauma from childhood (a parent who compulsively hits their kids, for example; Rupert uses Hitler as an example, & Hitler was beaten so badly that bones were broken when he was a baby) a period of time of feeling guilty, & feeling personally responsible, & doing one's best to make amends, may be of use on the path to growth, healing, wholeness. Taking personal responsibility may be necessary steps before one can have access to non-dual experiences.
@AlexandriaqpI wrote "in general" on purpose. I am very glad for you.
I stand by my comments. "In general" makes them accurate.
And good for you that you have overcome so much.
My own personal teacher was in Auschwitz at the age of 2. She swore anonymity to her teachers. Like you, she overcame outrageous odds.
"Hatred doesn't necessarily leads to violence. It is unacknowledged hatred that leads to violence."
- Alan Watts
"Understanding this doesn't make us behave in irresponsible ways. It's when we believe their is personal responsibility that we find ourselves behaving in irresponsible ways". That sounds right to me.
May you have all the grace on the world rupert spira,you are a great man.
OMG, I have passed over this video many times thinking I wouldn't get anything from it. I should have known better. There is no such thing, when it comes to your videos. I have yet to watch one and not get something profound through it. Thank you as always, Rupert for your amazing ability to explain what so many try, but can't seem to put in the simple way that you communicate it.
Concise and powerful, the thought that arises after reflecting on this is trust. Trusting that the nature of god/consciousness is good. The problem is as I'm writing this in 2021 trust has almost become a foolish concept. The level of cynicism in society will make the spread of this teaching im impossible.
Oh I get it... He's saying "personal" exists only if you think you are separate... If we are not separate, we are all connected, then there is no "personal"
Your connected whether you think you are or not thats just Quantum Physics.
Yes.
But/And - Who is this "I" that "got it"?
@@markbrad123 QP is a fabricated idea by the body-mind. It is a concept. Albeit one that actually reflects direct experience, compared to all the garbage and fake science and ideologies.
We are not connected, we are one.
Thank you so very much Rupert for all your sharing. They Resonate and confirms my being.. Thank you.
Rumi writes, "we are given free will that we might choose to freely surrender our free will." Thus acknowledging it never was. It's like allowing a child to think something is their idea when the parent has been telling them the same thing all along.
If it never was, it wasn't given. What are you surrendering?
@@autumnicleaf You decide.
@@ManchmalGaming - As the cat of the house I was told that I was "free" to run about inside the house, or even the yard, but NOT outside.
The limit was good for me, because I won't get run over by the passing cars and it was also good for the squirrels on the trees in the neighbor's yard.
Freewill within a limit. If my owner didn't limit me, then he didn't care about me or the squirrels.
(Reposted)
This video is a treasure💎and it is truth♥️ person a.k.a ego does not exist at all🤪😃💛
What a beautiful talk. Thank you so much. Just the act of listening to LOVE, allows the TRUTH to be seen.
Superb!
Love you Sir
Ghanshyam Khemani
So much can be misunderstood, on so many levels.
Karl Jacobs yes in fact I don't think words ever get us there.
Do not look at the words, they are only the pointer...
You don’t look on the finger that is pointing to something.
This aspect of the teaching is one I understand completely. Cross it off my list!
Well done Ego, hihi :-)
@@Pfuetzenspringer That was 4 years ago???
Wow, I don't like how fast my life is moving! I'm still learning. Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Beauty pulls me toward itself. Love is the ocean, I am the salt doll walking into the crashing waves at the shore. I want to kiss her again.
Haha, cross it off the list!
No One is thinking the thoughts. They are arising, like passing clouds. We aren't controlling our thoughts. There's no one there. Yet awareness seems to be able to question the thoughts that arise. Yet again, it's all just happening... very hard to explain
I think it is all a matter of point of view. I believe all the true masters are just guiding us to the same place, and they have to consider our limited perception as they do so. And in my view this is the reason why the teachings are contradictory, because they are dealing with our ilusions and limited understanding of life. Looking from unity consciousness, or whatever we may call it, there are no such concerns. These considerations are only ways of trying to awaken us from the dream.
I control my thoughts with my will and the input I have given it, the ideas I learned and build upon.
That was pre-planned. The thoughts that arose in you and made you take the actions were not chosen by you. They appeared in you.
"It is when we think there is personal responsibility that we find ourselves behaving in irresponsible ways." This is what I have been thinking for a long time now, although the way I would say it is that all of my character flaws are a result of ego defenses. The Bible refers to the fall of man as eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Could the knowledge of good and evil also be thought of as "personal responsibility"?
Spontaneity! Got it!
The point is that the self appears with the environment, they are always together as one thing. Harm the environment and the self reacts - they are one thing.
Well i dont know about this. I remember feeling absolutely depressed about life yesterday. At around 8 pm i said to myself that the reason I'm sad is that I dont allow myself to feel pleasure. I consciously slowed my thoughts down and decided to feel more pleasure, took a nice long bath and listened to music. It seemed like i had some degree of control. I find that I am coping with my depression much better. My stifled upbringing caused me to shut myself in and now I am stepping out of that shell consciously. I speak up for myself etc. I feel like a different person. So i dont know if i agree with Rupert.
I also once had the experience of coming back from meditation and my husband trying to pick a fight with me. Because of the meditative state, i was able to choose my reaction. So i think we do have some control over our responses and attitude, or so it seems
It is important to understand the context he is talking in . He is talking on a nondual level . In our day to day lives duality exist so there is responsibility .
No there isn't you just literally ignored what he said. Duality is an illusion. So if he is telling you there is no personal responsibility actually question why. I'll give you a clue. It's like you play a video game character on GTA. Kill a whole bunch of people and get put in jail. Is it the video game character's fault that he killed all those people? You do not control your thoughts, or your emotions, you can dissociate from them. But basically your body is a robot, a simulator. The only choice you have is how you program it. You can do that if you awaken.
From what I have understood, the limited self in his mind has responsibility but from awareness there is no responsibility, instead, it will be irresponsible feeling responsible. Right, but the feeling responsible cannot be wrong even when one is self aware because is how the mind works.
I'm going to repeat the same comment I post all the time: it is amazing how Rupert Spira has hit upon such a clear and contemporary way of talking about the human experience of reality.
OF COURSE YOU CAN RUPERT
Brilliant. Most teachers won’t tread there.
This means as long as once considers one to be individual, there is bound to be responsibility for one self to get rid of this individuality and act on behalf of totality.
Personal Accountability is at the heart of our creation... we are responsible for what we do. Our next life which is a fact depends on what we do here. Where is the evidence? Right in the nature of our consciousness if we bother to reflect within us... our life is a serious business cos we have free will .. so need to grow up.
Once again Mr Spira - wow!🙏🏻
I have trouble with this maybe from the absolute view but so many of the non-duality speakers will say that once you are self realized you no longer have karma because their is no one there and the effect of karma will stop like a fan once the power is off but until then you are responsibly for your actions. It's time to have a beer and listen again and you know the whole universe is wanting that beer!!! And since we are all one try not to drink to much of my beer!!! Cheers!
this man is amazing
This is fascinating. I love you Rupert Spira. For the poise and kindness that lives you. But experience says that alcoholism is a mind body dysfuction. I wonder if awakening does knock it on the head. Very interesting. I wonder why the universe directed Lynley into AA first instead of straight into non dualism. My suggestion would be that affinity with those genetically wired alike has an important role. Maybe it was to be a gradual awakening hey. From no god to god out there to god in here to i am god. Who knows.
Thank you 💖
If you listen carefully to what Rupert is saying eventualy you'll contract intelligence.. just like measles. When your thinking structure aligns with his
We CANNOT overcome the mind, with the mind, in true meditation we go beyond the mind! We enter into the Turiya 'state' (forth state) which is that of Thoughtless Awareness!
Welkome Home turyaboy🙏🏻💎☺
turyaboy....nope,u lack basic understanding.... watereva state of mind one z in,one thing z consistent ,dat in all of dose states ,dere z always the presence of awareness., regardless of what state it z,waking,sleeping,dreaming,or even samadhi.....Turiya state z given so much importance coz Turiya z first experienced when the Yogi experiences "Nirvikalpa avastha ".....even in dat state of complete cessation of thoughts and perception,,dere z still dat presence of awareness dat knows it.....when diz understanding z brought about,one realises dat "turiyatita'" z real and "Turiya " z false,as one experiences the same underlying presence of awareness and deep bliss in the background of all experiences...so the fourth znt really fourth,itz rather the one and only true awareness,in the background of all activity...!!.
Constipated Bowels lmao
Dear Sir, who acts if there is no separate personal self responsible
Of course there is an agent that can control the mind and movements of the body.
That's why I can use my mind consciously and purposely and the same I can do with my body. Of course there is a cooperation among the conscious agent that I am and the instinctive mind.
Of course there are instinctive functions of the body and the mind That are organised by the chitta, a part of the mind, which is responsible of the functioning and coordination of all instinctive functions..
Gracias ☺ 😊 💖
I agree that without the sense of being a separate self Hitler would not have behaved the way he did. But going back to what was pointed to prior to that, could he have behaved any differently given how his life unfolded? How could he not have had the sense of personal responsibility if that is what was present?If he had no personal responsibility than how could any of it be different from what it was? Confused! Please explain.
I think he's saying nothing can be any different from what it is, let alone what it was. But whether you hear this message and whether you respond, is at that same level. If it makes sense to you then you will respond and awaken. But afterwards you will see it wasn't your choice to awaken. What appeared to be real was unreal. I think that's it anyway.
That's why it's important to have Vedantic Knowledge.
@@tbayley6 nope....when one brings about this understanding in dem,dey realign dier thoughts and emotions wid dis new understanding....Dey have a higher vigilance of dier mental activity and a greater compassion for all thingz sentient!... Hitler z a by product of ignorance and unconsciousness rather dan wisdom and consciousness..!!.
@@constipatedbowels3473 You're full of shit
[Joke!]
I suffer with this philosophy. Immediate reaction to a bodily urge can be changed by not being a slave to it.
I stopped hanging around people who were partaking in foul play and foul language. I payed attention to my language and what was coming out of my mouth
When I get injured or radically angry or happy. I don't immediately think to use swear words anymore. I have trained my psychy to not think of a swear word when I am having a radical feeling if any type.
thats weak how he said "fear of your wife cheating" is impossible to be carefree about. I personally have never been married but there HAVE been times i was dating a woman and i knew she cheated and it was MUCH easier for a creative purpose driven person like me to instantly move on than most people. im mentally prepared to let them go in that very moment. so i do on MANY occasions control my thoughts.
Keine persönliche Verantwortung bedeutet nicht, dass man frei von nachfolgenden Ereignissen ist. Ich hatte zufällig einen Körper, der Bier mag. Der Chef hatte mich bei der Arbeit dabei beobachtet, wie ich ein Glas Bier trank. Ich wurde gefeuert. Es gibt miteinander verbundene Ereignisse, die einer Person passieren, und dennoch kann diese Person davon nicht betroffen sein. Liebe Grüße.❤
Of.course it is in our capacity to control.our thoughts but this wants practice and training for many years because of the power of habits.
My advise to you Rupert is to stop manipulating people the way you do when you talk to people.
Jan Martin Ulvåg Rupert is contributing the most important thing to humanity.
Just because our experience is conditioned by the rest of the world, doesn't mean we don't have any control at all. Just because our lives are ephemeral doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The entity within is a shadow, but real nonetheless. I totally disagree that there is no personal responsibility, but understand what he means by the problem of sense of separation and the solution of living in non-separation. When we are in love, in being, what can we do wrong.
Where do you find this "entity within" and how is it real? IF you manage to then THAT would be the "person" who shoulders responsibility but if you can't then who or what is responsible?
Profound.
We have a free will.
+Annabel
There is no self in any one of us, let alone our collective, that could exist to have a "free" will.
+◯ Advaita But who is us? Are we thinking robots?
+Dorie LaRue No. We are life itself. In all its beauty and innocence. Life is not mechanical - it's pure aliveness, pure spontaneity, pure unpredictability, intelligence and creativity.
But the notion of a seperate person with a personal free will is nothing but an illusion. There is Will, but it is not personal nor is it seperate from the whole - only the illusion of being a seperate subject in a world full of "others" lets it seem that way. And only this illusion is the cause of all suffering: That you think you can do anything wrong and therefore lose something.
Free will is the biggest smoke screen. See sam harris' book. You should be able to sit for 10 min and clearly see free will for the myth and delusion it is.
If this is true the nature of the world is even crazier that we think .
Hey Rupert, Nithyananda has spoken extensively about responsibility this year, I think he'd have a thing or two to say about this video lol thanks for sharing.
I like Rubert & appreciate his fabulous effort he puts to put it simple... But, its true we don't have control over thought, but I believe we do have some power/control (not much) Example: I rarely masturbate, but its very powerful, because I choose a person & then the fantasy starts, I know its not thought, but images. It really unfolds how I imagine it to be. I have total control, just for a minute or 2 Cheers!
+Eudaimonia cat too much information
Puritan much?
Dorie LaRue You ask or you think I am puritan? Anyway You don't know my past life and you don't know from where I begun and where I am now.
When you listen something before you make conclusions is better to enquire or investigate deeply enough, if you are interested to become a real human being.
Moreover these fatalist ideas of no responsibilty make a lot of havoc in humanity.
We have billions of unconscious people who create a lot of havoc and suffering on earth and unfortunately we have irresponsible spiritual instructors who confuse the people with these erroneous ideas.
+AeonTV you are correct about lust
Killer CD I had great difficulties with lust,,and because of it I investigated lust profoundly for 25 years and I used various methods and technics to dissolve the passionate energy of sexual lust. Everything I say about lust is my own experience, not a theory. People with a lusty mind cannot understand what really is lust. All problems and suffering of earthlings are based on sexual lust directly or indirectly.
I'm with you open-minded skeptic. You don't have to follow a thought, a feeling, a sensation or desire. Consciousness isn't totally dictated by these biological responses. If you are aware then there comes a choice as to whether you are going to follow that option. Consciousness discerning between all of this. You can be incredibly deep within desire to do something and not follow it if there is awareness. And also the opposite is true, you can not want to do something, but if you view it objectively, you can still do it. If everything becomes more automatic and you are forced to follow whatever comes along, then we are back to being unconscious aren't we? Now, even that can be causal, unless consciousness or awareness is in fact outside of time. In any case would it matter? In any case you as a human being would have far better control over your choices. Also, there is sense of responsibility that arises with understanding. Even if there isn't free will and you didn't create it, its still there. Because quite simply you know. Doesn't have to be totally self-created for these things to exist.
But that every act of non-following is a action in of itself. A path you have taken. The you whom we all don't even know exists, as far as being a other than a ego structure.
In other video Rupert says "as the separate self you haven't got a will, but as awareness you are totally free". This makes me confused, but when I tried not to control my life, everything went smooth as the river flowing, life is just flowing without effort.
I know it's very hard to accept, but if no person can be separated from the Universe, it's obvious that there is no personal responsibility.
So if say we get a person who has been having extreme thoughts telling her to kill her children. She obviously gets scared and worried about it and after years of battling it, getting mental health help she is now able to "ignore" those thoughts or maybe allow them without acting on them.
Isn't that choice? She's resisted the thoughts, she's decided to just allow the thoughts to flow and not follow them. I'd call that choice. As difficult as it might be for her to get to that point she's still won and resisted. It might've been the only thought she ever resisted and it took a hell of a battle, but she still resisted. So isn't that choice? That is choice.
We have choice. We can either choose to resist or not resist. Resistance might often result in failure and giving in, but often times we are able to resist and not do what our thoughts want us to do.
It could be as simple as "go on, have the cigarette!" and you decide against the thought. If this predeterminationism is true then we are pretty much slaves to God, possibly even being toyed with, given thoughts of awful things and then thoughts of resisting those awful things.
Either way I like the theory and exploring it.
The resisting itself is just another arising in consciousness. Whether it comes up or doesn't is not in our control. Same for decisions. For a decision to be made it is necessary to like one option better than the other; and those personal preferences are - again - not in our control.
In other words: In order to resist, the urge to resist has to be strong enough. Is this up to anyone?
I, myself, get my responsibility from the fact that I can't know what will happen next and that cause and effect have an impact. Therefore I try to give things my best effort. But as soon as I look backwards, I see the past as chain of events I had no control over.
This taught me more compassion towards others and to see life more like a playground.
If you cannot perform moral actions without feeling that there is free will, then use your sense of free will to be moral. When one can directly experience the truth that there is no free will, that person will be moral by nature. Until then, the illusion of free will is useful. God himself puts this feeling in us for that purpose. I myself feel free will, but know intellectually that it is an illusion. It will go away when I am ready.
@@kyabe5813 very interesting point of view! Thank you for sharing it.
Can you expand more on your viewpoint?
@@Refulgent_Rascal My pleasure. There is no concept of free will in Indian philosophy for more than 3000 years (although it is still an unresolved issue in western philosophy). It is considered a part of predestination that we will feel free will, question it, and realise real freedom (moksha). If you really want to know more, please read Vivekananda or Ramakrishna. It is best to drink directly from the stream. The complete works of Vivekananda and a day-by-day account of Ramakrishna's life (Katha-amrita) are available for free online.
2+2=4. There, I controlled my thoughts.
But how do you sense we are connected?
If there's no person, then it's easy to say there's no personal responsibility.
But I think responsibility exists, still, as he says you do act that way once you understand you are part of the whole.
You can say, responsibility = response ability, but there never has to be judgment involved, though there always is intelligence.
beyond good and evil. dharma-adharma-mayo-hum
you actually have freedom before the action takes place, but it won't happen if your ego structure is too strong.
Do the characters in your dreams have free will? Consider this
No personal responsibility is not shielded from consequences of behavior. I work with criminals and addicts (yes, labels) they are in prison...yet those that awaken to the fact that I am not a separate self can easily make choices that are wise. Why will he do that? Because he cannot control his thinking , even new thinking. Actions come from thoughts. Good actions come from good thoughts. Good meaning...not destructive but upbuilding, peaceful
But individual take responsibility and then go towards inner journey
we use words like control freek to describe someone who believes they're doing their thoughts, and so can control they're destiny by choosing to think certain thoughts over others - its common to for the average person to view new age, self help people as crazy for having the above sentiments - practically all of us know on some level that we can't control what thoughts we have. Honestly I think people that have had some sort of mystical experience and talk about conventional reality/conventional beliefs, as if they were fundamentally different from what they're experiencing have just forgotten what conventional reality is like, or else have filled themselves up with garbage information about how they've realised something that all the poor unelightened people are completely oblivious to as they go about their daily lives, and this just isn't the case!
"whatever God places in your lap ...
Rupert! I'm the best!
I think I did listen to this video a thousand times. Still feel that I don't get it lol...at least in the end. But even if I do really love Rupert, I still am very confused. What he says here, confuses me because, basically if I understood correctly, says, we have no choice and if we have addictive behavior, this is it, we can't do anything, which clearly is sooo scary... how to be ok with your addictive behavior? i mean...who is ok with his darkness? or if we have addictive things we do, sooner or later we try to get rid of, isn't it? in this video, he is basically saying that we are helpless :) Anyone who has any insights, feel free to share it:) thank you.
I think what I understood from the video is that we really do not have any free will, take the examples of serial killers for example, when you're young in the early stages of development, the conditioning you get at that time stays with you for the rest of your life, I mean who chooses to kill people in the right senses? It's like they have always been like this even before the conditioning, nobody can explain such behaviors, I had a very difficult childhood, when I started my personal development journey and chose to have conscious control over my thoughts, alot of things in my life did get better, but there are alot of things I still do when I first started doing them in my childhood as survival mechanisms, I still lie alot, I still manipulate people, I'm an avoidant, despite being aware of it that I'm avoidant and doing my best to not make it an obstacle in personal relationships, I just cannot maintain relationships and friendships, I still doubt myself alot, and despite working on myself excessively I still have inferiority complex, I still find myself doing things I absolutely disgust about myself,even tho I have next level self discipline, I just cannot seem to get rid of all those flaws, I literally had to make peace with all these uglier aspects of my being to be finally able to live a normal life, I'm literally convinced we do not have much control over our lives even tho I wish it wasn't true.
A car has a lot of processes per second. The car hasn’t responsibility but the driver. Question...is consciousness the driver ?
I guess it's the Tao
Conciousness is the driver or God if you will
Rather than calling it thought
We do call it tendency towards food or whisky, and till the time you get rid out of it you cant look more deep inward...
If they are automatic functions, doesn't mean something is not controlling them, outside of our consciousness
Glad that the chemicals and everything that make up me, brought me to this realization through the insightful video
This may be the most subversive video I've seen so far this year! Society has relentlessly pounded into my brain the notion of personal responsibility. It always struck me that in so doing, society lets itself off the hook when it creates monsters, as (for example) when gang wars break out in inner American cities.
The assertion that personal responsibility is not a complete, one-size-fits-all answer to humanity's woes ... that's going to make a lot of people uncomfortable.
Bravo for that!
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Anybody knows if Mr. Spira has an explaination for the existence of so many evil individuals in this life?
They look evil because of that strong sense of separated self and strong belief that he is right. This relates for many people who have that sense of separate self, for example Hitler or Putin.
When those people starts to understand and experience the sense of oneness, totality, unity, they stop behaving like that.
@@Silensio Well said. I'm so ready to witness/encounter people who understand and experience the sense of oneness. It's heartbreaking (heart burdening) to/for me. Seriously (I actually had an "abnormal" ECG/EKG a couple of weeks ago and the physician had a look on her face that showed great concern (the ECG/EKG that I had before came back just fine) when she asked me if heart disease ran in my family. Not that I know of.) To often see so many people treating each other so unkindly, as adversaries/enemies/competitors or mere tools or things to be used and discarded (especially their own family members, so-called 'friends" and "romantic" mates), is tiring.
I'm desiring/wishing for more loving interactions for you, CGCx and for all of humanity...and SOON.
@@lemostjoyousrenegade Enlightened people say that the humanity moves/evolves towards the "awareness era" which means - in the end everyone, all the people will recognize their true nature and become totally aware or in simple words, all the people will become enlightened.
@@lemostjoyousrenegade but I agree with you that there is a big desire and wish to see that in this lifetime
We have personal responsibility to some degree. We can choose to eat the healthy food or the less healthy food that is in our fridge-free will, and responsibility. It’s somewhat ludicrous and frankly irresponsible to suggest we don’t have personal responsibility.
I love this
The personality is just an illusion, so in the sense in our daily lives, its more reliable to say I have free will and I am the body, yes you are but remember that character is just a story. Its like Superman said I am real, he is only real on that particular movie.
Emotions?
I love Rupert but I have to disagree. It’s a scientific fact that we can change our conditioning. Someone with alcoholic behavior, for example, can take control of their life and shift their habits, reprogram their mind. Tell anyone who has overcome a very serious problem that they should’ve just let their life unravel into misery, and they would tell you you’re wrong. Personal responsibility is very important, even as an awoken spiritual being!
There is no person changing anything. No person inside fixing and shaping life to their liking. Consciousness is all there is, that's the point.
@@sweetdream9896 Okay, yes, but Rupert does not deny the fact of everyday experience. I think you missed my point. I understand what he means by there is literally no personal responsibility, but also... on a certain level, there is. If you’re watching a terrible movie (think of his screen metaphor), you can simply turn it off and put on a new movie for the screen to project. This is what we, as consciousness, can do if we’re experiencing an unnecessarily miserable “movie”.
@@cashglobe Completely agree. My son was (he'd say "is") an addict who has been clean/sober for 12 years. He had to make a choice to get there, otherwise that unraveling you referred to.
W have a police force to keep peoples` egos in check..... if we don't behave in a way that is good for the collective consciousness , we have to be constrained and our egos brought into line. To solve the human condition we need to understand more about our egos and how to keep them in check. Maybe Rupert can create an algorithm so egos can be re-configured and consciousness evolution can proceed
Is this what is meant by "I am not the doer" ?
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That's just rhethorics, because of ignoring the fact, that man acts always as One, even when someone is defining man as a "separate one" and a defines his reactions as a result of His conditionings.
Who has learned and accepted these conditionings? And who decides to take the bottle of Whisky?
Who is able to observe, what the "separate self" is doing?
So claiming, that there is no entity in the body to be responsible for behaviour is just a theoretical assumption.
If that would be so, there would Not be any reason, why that guy should talk to another guy, because there would be No reason to think about our conciousnes and about being itself..
Yoy can make decisions based on your effort.
So helpfull comment... Wow... So true.
why are you making videos and satsangs if there is no personal resp??????
Is he not simply talking about causality acutally and how it is also responsible for our inner world?
Of course there is individual.responsibility. That's why we have to pay karma as a result of what we do in this world.
If we are not responsible of what we do then there is no reason to pay any karma.
I have heard it said by some much wiser than myself that there is no karma for the enlightened one. Karma is for the body and the mind only. It is just a word pointing to the fact of unintended consequences.
@@claudelebel49 For the rest there is Karma
I can control my breathing arms legs eyes etc, maybe even my kids if I had any lol.
The title of this clip is extremely misleading. He's saying that when you feel connected to everything, and you know that you are one with the universe, you will act with love and compassion. It's only when we feel disconnected and separate that we act out, supposedly on our own. But we are not on our own. That's an illusion and causes us to falter.
The idea of no personal responsibility is not part of this philosophy, at least not to me. We are together responsible and whole.
@kberken would you say a character in a play is responsible for let´s say commiting murder? Him/her committing murder is a part of the script. How could you hold that character responsible? "We together a responsible and whole". There is no "we" (the "we" we take ourselves to be), so there can be no resposibility. I don´t find the title of the clip misleading but the way Rupert explains is not very clear.
Our physiology needs to function in an orderly fashion and this is the reason why we have this robot-like Automaton that handles the multitude of chemical functions etc going on within our Biology. Our corruptible thinking Minds cannot even multitask driving our car whilst operating a cell phone. *Our Biological Activity vs our Physical Activity are almost worlds apart, they are two completely different things.* The former comes totally under the auspices of the Still & Silent Omnipresent Consciousness, the latter comes thru The Mind.
Whereas we cannot will our pancreas to produce more insulin or will our neurons to stop firing across our synaptic clefts, we CAN will our index finger to point at something specific. Whereas we don't control the hundreds of minute biological details required to carry out the action *we do have will* at the level of carrying out the resultant physical activity. When we walk we do not will the specific muscular co-ordination required to actually do the job, we simply physically walk AT WILL. Mind-body coherence is critical to efficiently convert a willed choice into actual physical activity. _Without proper Mind-body coherence the simplest tasks become onerous or downright impossible._
The need to "be in control" of every aspect of our existence is the wish of the ego, this special guy who uses even "spiritual practice" in terms of his own state of health. Whereas we cannot stop or control thought flow, we can choose which thought we operate on to make decisions in our social lives. The mere fact that people can come from very similar experiences and still make very different choices and have very different outcomes as a result of *different perceptions of the situation itself* demonstrate that whilst our will to act and influence IS limited to physical activity, _it is simultaneously totally nonexistent relative to the deep & highly intricate inner activities of our own biology..._
I WOULD NOT PICK THE THOUGHT THAT IT IS OKAY IF MY LOVED ONE GO WITH ANOTHER MAN IF I COULD. YOU HAVE RESPOBSIBILITY OF OFCOURSE. AND FREE WILL. YOU CAN CHOOSE WHAT YOU THINK NEXT. JUST CHOOSE........
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Hmm, so when we believe we have responsibility, thats what enables us to act in irresponsible ways?
Dominic F. Yes. I think it’s because we then panic and want to do everything right, so we contract, become anxious control freaks and in turn ironically do everything wrong. Like a trained professional athlete who creates too much pressure for himself mentally, consequently loses his inner calm and completely effs up his performance. It’s when we are “in the zone”, when we are not present as a separate self and not thinking that we are at our most calm and successful, natural way of living.
@@depressionbeard9882 I can relate to this entirely. I went through this phase where I was obsessed with being good and felt like I had to constantly be driving through limitations in the name of goodness, I put so much pressure on myself it crushed me, I caved in and ended up completely drained and gave up and let all kinds of irresponsible bad shit happen and ended up hating myself for slipping which amplified the problem. I made it through that though and found another way. Self kindness and love works so much better.