Consciousness and Responsibility
By Juliana Costa
What exactly is responsibility? What will the relationship between this and Consciousness be? Does Consciousness produce responsibility or does responsibility produce Consciousness?
It doesn’t seem very difficult. After a long reflection upon the subject, to understand that there is a Human being’s responsibility towards everything they are directly related to even before they are aware of it. After all, their actions tend to generate commitments that, in turn, generate their responsibilities.
The question that arises from this is: what to do from here?
Once again I find myself in the famous and ever-present answer to the broad and varied list of questions linked to everything in Life: Consciousness!
This is because, when Human Beings awaken their Consciousness, it seems that a new world appears, full of new possibilities, notions, and more reflections. It turns out that the world as it is now is not new nor did it emerge since when consciousness awakens. However, the new possibility of recognizing it as it is may cause that impression.
Among these new notions that become accessible when Human Beings awaken their Consciousness, is the notion of responsibility. This, like the notions of commitment, reality, and freedom, needs to be constructed and developed for its own and proper purposes.
This notion concerning responsibility, when well developed, makes it possible for Human Beings to respond to their commitments. These commitments that arise from their relationships with everything that surrounds them, can be configured as great and good opportunities for even greater achievements.
But what happens when Human Beings have no sense of responsibility?
When Human Beings have not yet developed the notion of responsibility, it is soon noticed, as they tend to act in an omissive, lazy, and irresponsible way.
This happens because a weakened or extinguished sense of responsibility does not weaken or extinguish the fact of responsibility and its importance. Importance, not burden, because responsibility is, for Human Beings, like a springboard, which can be used to help them achieve everything that may seem distant.
As Human Beings, we must always do the best we can. This is our sacred responsibility, as is presented in a sentence attributed to Albert Einstein. But it isn’t possible to do the best without having the notion that the best exists and only depends on ourselves, although it will only be available when our Consciousness awakens.
Without Consciousness, it isn’t possible to have a notion of responsibility, which means that Human Being continues to tend to live always justifying everything inaccurate that occurs in their life and pointing out others as guilty of their failures. Without Consciousness Human Beings stay revolted by everything and everyone around them, waiting for a miracle or something else to achieve the resolution of all their problems.
Is it good for any Human Being to continue living like this? Maybe not.
Especially because, even when Consciousness is not awakened, built, and developed to its maximum power, it exists and is always available to Human Beings, requiring them always to do their best, and costing a lot for any inconsequential action that they can still practice.
After all, Consciousness exists and deserves to be, by Human Beings, used as it should, not by privilege, but by innate condition. Because Human Beings can and must bear the responsibility equivalent to the capacity that they have to develop Consciousness, in much greater proportions than any other animal, for example.
From this perspective, if a butterfly can be responsible for causing a typhoon in some distant place due to the flapping of its wings, Human Beings can be responsible for causing damage of even greater proportions through their inconsequential actions.
On the other hand, with awakened Consciousness Human Beings will tend to have the notion of responsibility; this way, they will have the possibility of living and doing even more and better than today; and thus, they will have even more chances to think and act in a good way and be responsible for even greater resolutions and achievements, which can even benefit all of humanity.
All of this is a matter of responsibility.
Mini-Biography Juliana Costa
Conscientiologist, Educator with experience at all levels of Basic Education in Brazil, and Specialist in Teaching and Self-knowledge, Consciousness and Education, Neuropsychology, and Psychopedagogy. Master’s student in Clinical and Counseling Psychology with a focus on Job Satisfaction, Decent Work, Big Five Personality Factors (Big Five), and Mental Health. Teacher of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in face-to-face and distance learning modes. Coordinator of the Support, Accessibility, and Inclusion Center at a Brazilian College. Speaker with international experience in Denmark, Australia, the United States, Mexico, Portugal, and Brazil. Writer of several articles and book chapters, as well as the series “Approaches to Consciousness in its Pragmatism”. Consultant in Education Sciences in several public and private companies.
