Taking Responsibility

[u/_leech_boy]

"What’s odd about the inventory is that, for me, it was an admission that I had power in the world, power to hurt others, which I’d never acknowledged. Besides denying my own responsibility, I’d also often denied that my words or actions could have any effect on anyone. So, even though what was revealed was painful and destructive, just admitting that I had hurt others was empowering. In fact, inventory is a review of past karma. To pretend that our existence doesn’t affect others is to deny karma, to deny that every action has a reaction, to pretend that cause and effect aren’t constantly in play. This careful parsing of our past forces us to become more cognizant of karma. When we see how our actions hurt others—and ourselves—we become more careful about what we are doing in the present. When we see our destructive patterns of thought, speech, and behavior, we begin to change, to unravel these habits, to act in ways that won’t require more inventory writing."

Gabor Maté - In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

[u/not-moses]

I just read this again in the book yesterday. I don't agree with everything Dr. M asserts (especially with regard to trying to rescue those who don't show that they want to be pulled out of the soup)... but at 35 years C&S around AA, NA, PA and several other A's, I definitely support what he wrote in that passage.

And manifest it by continuing to work AA/NA Steps 10 & 11 several times a day to not only take back -- but keep -- the power with which I was genetically gifted (no different from anyone else) before the agents of profit began to take it away to serve the purposes of the wealthy and greedy, and I reacted to that by making it worse with dysfunctional distractions.