Responsibility to us means something that we need to do or must do. It is implied in our specific position or role. We take this word for granted, it is so widely used, that we are sure we understand it well. I once heard someone break it down to analyze what it really means.

Responsibility= Response + ability = Ability to respond     

In the usual day to day context, it would mean the ability of a person to respond to a situation, event, or person, immediately and appropriately. Responsibility is not a duty, but an awareness, to act in the most suitable and fitting way in any instant. A series of such moments may paint a picture of someone being apparently responsible or irresponsible.

The immediate response in a moment, if appropriate to that moment is adequate. It is natural, spontaneous, arising from our complete presence and awareness of everything relevant, in that moment.

It does not extend in past or in future. It is complete within that moment, it arises, meets the needs of the moment and then dissolves completely. Acting responsibly in a moment, leaves behind no residues or regrets.

Most of us do not meet each moment in life with full awareness. We do not often meet a moment honestly and completely, seeing it as it is. We drag in our memories and projections of past and future, we do not see the moment for itself.

We often miss the raw energy of the moment, losing it in vague, unreal, mental projections, when we respond to a new moment in the ‘now’. We merely react to some image in our mind, pulled out from a memory,

We often do not look at each new moment with fresh eyes, to grasp its complete truth. We receive it with a personal bias, seeing only a fraction of the whole situation, through shades of our prior experiences and conditioning.

We therefore, fail to address the real needs of the immediate moment. We do not respond appropriately, and do not act responsibly.

Most of us have a poor ‘response-ability’. We do not respond to each moment sincerely from truth and our whole wisdom, not respecting each moment for itself. We bundle it up with past or future, lumping it up, dumping it upon this huge pile of continuity, which we are too lazy to resolve into its momentary, transient, fresh and fleeting units.

All the moments which we miss, contain real life, which goes on slipping from us. the only thing of value is lost, in the constant flood of commotion created by uncontrolled thoughts.

‘Responsibility’ in this enlightened sense of the word, means to be able to respond to life as and when, in whatever form, shape, or name, it comes to meet us.

It is that quality we can often notice in other living creatures. For example the easy calm awareness, an alert attention of a deer or elk in the wild, ready to respond in a moment, to any perceived challenge from surroundings.

By honouring life in all its diverse forms, admiring, and welcoming it, being open to it- this is how we can be more responsible! It happens spontaneously as we grow in awareness.

We remember more often, to focus only on the moment that presents itself. Trying to remain ‘here and now’ consciously, so we may be able to respond appropriately to the situation from our complete presence and attention, in each moment.

Then, we act from our whole wisdom, rather than from a distorted whim of our self-centred ego. An action originating from the complete awareness and presence in the moment, is a responsible action.

Then we need not worry about the right or wrong action, or what is expected from us. We can abandon all formal protocols and rules, to act spontaneously from our absolute freedom, in each moment.

We are efficient and sufficient, to embrace life in each moment, to naturally, effortlessly respond to it. In moments of awareness, we are responsible, in the best and only possible way! This is the real responsibility.