Freedom and Responsibility

[malakaix]

Almost four years ago now i had an experience with DMT that was really a signature turning point in my life; it created an enormous shift in my entire perception of everything but although this shift allowed for change it also put me course with what would be years of re-integration of self and reality, perhaps some of the hardest years of my life..

The moment that created that shift was realizing through the collapse of duality; that freedom and responsibility were synonymous. I experienced freedom through acknowledging that i am responsible for everything, it brought me into an existential crisis. My initial reaction to this was an intense mixture of fear and relief, but it was not without lingering trauma that i felt i never really resolved until just recently where life experience's and situations combined to create an environment where the very issue of freedom and responsibility was brought into center focus.

For a second time i experienced this freedom, strangely enough it came to me through accepting responsibility at work. Choosing to make sure everything was done before leaving to go home, valuing responsibility for the job over my desire for freedom was freeing in itself.

Hopefully i'm making sense; i've struggled with responsibility and escapism all my life and now it feels like the two worlds are becoming one.

Im curious about others views on this? Do you feel that freedom and responsibility are synonymous from an existential point of view? What is your experience/understanding?

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

I don't believe in free will, so the question is meaningless. What you said sounds nice though.

 

[Psyduck]

cf. the famous work of Schelling:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Inquiries_into_the_Essence_of_Human_Freedom

Either Evil is unreal or God is its cause. Schelling's solution to this perennial problem is to view God's freedom as the possibility of evil and human freedom as responsible for the actuality of evil.

 

[Seeking Where?]

Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statement. ‘Life’ does not mean something vague, but something real and concrete, just as life’s tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and realise assets in this way. Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate.... Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand.

When a man finds that it is his destiny to suffer, he will have to accept his suffering as his task; his single and unique task. He will have to acknowledge the fact that even in suffering he is unique and alone in the universe. No one can relieve him of his suffering or suffer in his place. His unique opportunity lies in the way in which he bears his burden.

- Viktor E. Frankel, Man’s Search for Meaning (London: Rider, 2011) org. 1959, pp. 62-63