The Law of Responsibility

[Diana]

I'm not denying anything its own path, I'm asking if there isn't a moral imperative to live as fully activated as one knows how?

I don't think there is a moral imperative at all: that's what free will is.

From my perspective, I think the word "moral" is obscuring this concept. The idea of morality is a human-based judgment dependent upon the modality of the time. A "moral imperative," while in my mind is very close to the truth, misses the mark. The way I see it is that there is an underlying force in this universe that compels life to evolve. This manifests in humans (to simplify and address aspects other than physical evolution) as a desire to better one's self. There is no human that does not experience this in one way or another. In addition, "moral imperative" assumes one knows what is "right." Now we have two concepts which are based on judgment.

The idea of stagnation (stagnant waters becoming toxic), and complicating this, the resistance to forward movement which seems to a be tendency of this existence, is what in my view creates conflict in one's self. For example, if one becomes aware of empathy and the heart opens because of this, to then deny this knowledge because it's painful or just too much responsibility goes against this natural tendency to evolve; it denies what the self knows "is." 

So responsibility then is a claiming of awareness, an acceptance of what one has become aware of. And I will take this further because I for one feel the urge to strive always to reach potential (which evolves like everything else as we reach for it), and as peregrine put it: 

...do we not have an inherent responsibility to live as much as we can in the space of the fullest self we know?

I think we do. It has to do with awareness. If any part of our conscious awareness is denied, then we are not living up to our potential, and this creates a conflict within self, which takes energy to suppress, energy to seek validation for, and energy seeking to find others who agree with the stance of denying the awareness.

What sometimes gets in the way of the idea of being of service to others is focusing on others. Though this seems paradoxical or counterintuitive, I think this idea is really to focus on self, in that we reach for and accept our highest potential awareness at any given point, whether one tends toward STO or STS, and this is all that is needed. Because if one tends toward STO or STS all one's actions/thoughts/desires will flow from that, and be rooted in the underlying awareness of who one is with no denying, justifying, validation, or need to understand why. 

Taking responsibility for self, being accountable to self, is a complex endeavor in this world, because there are so many things—the veil, mass consciousness, belief systems, separation from nature, etc.—muddying the waters. However, we all "know" when something doesn't fit with our awareness, because we get a little twinge inside (assuming we aren't talking about being totally asleep and closed off). As an example, there have been many replies on these forums I did not post because I felt that twinge at a certain point when writing them. I don't analyze why I get the twinge because that is mind stuff (that I have found just usually wastes time), I just follow the prompt. In this way, I acknowledge my "knowing" (sorry for the new agey term), my resonsibility, and my accountability to my highest potential at that moment.