What motivates you, beloveds? For the most part, what motivates you? Ego or love? Fear or love? Anger or love? Love is love, and yet it is also wisdom. Is it not wise to love? Love is unlimited. Ego is quite limited. With ego, there is the strong urge to put yourself in bright light. With love, you care about bright light shining beyond the sphere of yourself. Funny, without ego, you love yourself more and what you include as yourself covers a far greater range. With love, you are also all the others in the world.
You are not guilty about anything, yet you are responsible.
Sense of guilt is a kind of stewing in place. Sense of responsibility gets up and moves. Responsibility does not suck its thumb. The difference between sense of guilt and responsibility is huge. Forget guilt. Take up responsibility.
Responsibility does not brood. It takes action. Responsibility does not say: “I should have done this. I should have done that.” Responsibility gets up and takes care of the situation. Responsibility is not ahead nor is it behind. Responsibility is right now.
Responsibility is not commiserating. Responsibility is doing something. Responsibility does not say, “Tut tut.” Responsibility says: “Here, let me help you. Here, let me. Allow me.” Responsibility fills a need. Responsibility does what it can, and then moves on. Responsibility does not look for credit. Responsibility does not look forward nor does it look back. Responsibility does not say: “I could have done more.” Responsibility does not think that way. Responsibility is not so much a thinker as a doer. Responsibility does not cogitate. Responsibility does not sit in a rocking chair. Responsibility does not lament. Responsibility does not protract. Responsibility is love.
Ego holds up a picture of yourself. It wants to advance a picture of yourself. It wants you in a better pose. It wants to show you off. Ego wants you to get acclaim and bask under it.
Love says: “Let me embrace. Let me take a step towards making life better for another, or many others.” In this way, love also takes care of you. Love doesn’t say: “Forget yourself.” Love knows that in serving, you are served. Love is not self-serving, and yet love is not self-neglecting. Love feeds itself. It does not starve. Love feeds you, and it feeds the world.
We are talking about the difference of self and Self. We are talking about the difference of you and You, We are talking about the difference between ignorance and awareness. Ignorance is quite dumb. Awareness is quite astute.
You are responsible for yourself and your Self, yet responsibility is not selfish. Responsibility is forward-moving. It is like a snow plow, and it picks up ego in its path. Responsibility does not kill ego. It drops it to the side. Responsibility has too much to do to be detoured to ego. Responsibility offers ego no apologies. It does nothing to ego but drop it off. “There you go, ego.” Responsibility cannot carry ego any longer. Besides, responsibility is filled with love. There isn’t room for ego.
Responsibility is not self-effacing. It is ego-effacing. Responsibility is like the hero in a Western who doesn’t say much yet he is there coming to the rescue when he’s needed, and then he silently rides off, perhaps with a wave of his hat. Responsibility does not strut. He rides off into the setting sun and says, if he says anything, “Hasta la vista.”
Ego, on the other hand, would dance a little jig. Nothing wrong with a jig, yet ego is dancing for itself, for it feels aggrandized. Ego says, “Look at me, fellas. Look at me.” Yet ego is all smoke.