Responsibility, we see as the actions of me or you. Then we try to work out who is right or wrong. We measure the actions, morally, politically, legally, etc. We are thinking it is a way of acting or speaking individually and want to know the strength of this, the virtue of it. This is an abstract responsibility of an individual, or a group, and is not seen as the immediate responsibility of the actor or speaker. Responsibility can only be what I, you, are doing right now. So, I have to ask, what am I thinking, and is responsibility a way of thinking? Can I see my inner state of mind, and ask is this thinking from awareness of responsibility, or is the thinking, the conditioned thinking, all this cleverness, is the acting from thought, and this is irresponsible?
Gotta say both of these statements sound plausible.
I believe K once said something to the effect that doubt is essential but that it need be kept on a leash, lest it itself become conviction.
When the house is on fire, thereās no doubt and thereās no discussion. If you see the flames, feel the heat, smell the smoke, and see how stupified everyone is, what do you do?
What if what you see is that you are utterly incapable of seeing the house on fire because you are a pathological liar. Then in that instant perhaps the house would be on fire in the manner you describe. Just a thought.
I think that this, seeing this, the truth of this, is what can happen at the moment of physical deathā¦but then itās too late. Too late to āstep out of that streamā. There has to be this dying now. Isn;t that whatās being talked about here? The flash of insight that can come with the āshockā of death might ālight upā the whole farce for what it is, but itās too late then to 'step out of the stream? There has to be this ādyingā now, a psychological dying to all the āaccumulationā process, or this whole situation will just continue to repeat? Weāve accepted the conflicts between us as ānormalā but isnāt it all symptom of what is wrong with us? K. said at the moment of physical death one just has to āstep overāā¦I think we have to do that now. We canāt keep putting it off.
If I see that all Iām seeing is the blizzard of lies I create, Iām not āutterly incapableā of seeing.
Yes, we have to do that now, but we canāt. Now what?
The issue lies in trusting what we see to be gospel. Even seeing that we lie.
If indeed there were a realization that any form of retrieval from the conditioned brain not only distorts reality but also is the source of untold violence and suffering, that would be a different order of seeing altogether it seems to me. One that would naturally precipitate the metaphorical āhouse on fireā state of mind.
The natural āsnakeā response to which would be to consider whether the movement of time-conditioned-thought can end. There is obviously no answer possible to this question, as any answer would involve reason, reflection, study etc, that is more conditioning. As no answer can be forthcoming to a question that covers the entire scope of the human mind, the seeing and the doing would be indistinguishable, for there would nothing being done apart from the natural flow of proactive awareness.
This type of meditation is rather arduous. One that can only be maintained for short periods, for most of us anyway.
If one reads the stories of Near Death Experiences, we may see that there is no more chance of freedom at death than at any other time. The self is living out its usual struggles at that point as much as it usually does.
The only way one could argue for freedom at death is to argue for nihilism - in the sense that after one is dead, the nothingness not experienced by anything is some form of freedom.
What are you referring to here?
I thought to start a new topic about āthe house is burningā and hope those who are interested in it would go into it.
The absence of conflict.
That was the point I wanted to make, that the necessity for this psychological ādyingā or āemptyingā cannot wait for when one is in the throes of physical death but must happen now. Through awareness / negation of the self-accumulation. Dying / awakening, in the moment. The brain is mired in the inertia of the self, as you said, āaka habitā. If we carry on like that until the physical end, we will, as someone put it ādie like a dogā.
In the absence of conflict, from what then does the difficulty stem?
How do you cultivate this in your life?
It doesnāt feel like something that is being cultivated (the ācultivatorā is included) more like a remembering to be aware of what is taking place. I donāt think awareness can be cultivated, maybe āallowedā is a better word? Or maybe awareness is not being ignored as usual? Being heeded? Could you say that it is everywhere always but not heeded?
Are you saying that you have moments of āmindfulnessā (awareness, freedom from the self) that arrive spontaneously throughout the day ? And this would be due to your interest in the teaching? No experience of daily āformalā meditation?
Yes thatās as good a way to put it as any.
No. Iāve been exposed to a number of āteachingsā some of which had sitting quietly and such. I even back in the day, paid good money to get a āmantraā via the Maharishi in NYC. 
Me on the crosstown subway with a white handkerchief and a piece of fruit! ā¦Hey, who knew?
Sounds exciting! (Please feel free to explain a bit more about this)
But now that you are older and wiser you donāt want to give this meditation thing another chance? Free from all the mystical mumbo jumbo. Is the idea of setting aside some time daily for meditation scary or boring?
No not at allā¦actually most of my day these days is spent that way and none of it is scary or boring. Though Iāve been through both of those. Iām fortunate to live in nature and the orderliness of it impresses me everyday.