What Are We Responsible For?

 In Buddhism, there is often talk of "causes and conditions", and it might incline people to wonder what is truly "theirs" to take responsibility for. When I am experiencing this moment right now, whatever I experience is not at all separate from me. Therefore, I can say that all of this experience I am having is fundamentally my responsibility. While the conditions arise from previous ones, the mind itself is capable of experiencing conditions in different ways. I am not chained to the past, even though I am certainly facing the conditions themselves.
   That having been said, there is no reason to "fight" the conditions of the mind. The point is, what kind of vow am I making in this present moment? Let's say I am in with a group of people who are doing things that are harmful to themselves or to others. Even though I have no reason to be a judge for that person's actions, I can still decide how I want to act in that moment. If I simply conclude that what I am seeing is harmful and to just "go along" with the harmful conditions, then I am forgetting my vows to cultivate peace of mind for the sake of all beings. I believe that the conditions around me are affecting me, but actually I am choosing my present vows, and thus I am not bound to the conditions themselves.
  I always turn to the analogy of meditation as a guide to this principle. While conditions of mind are certainly arising in the ways that are predictable from the past seeds that have been planted in the mind, one is never "imprisoned" to such conditions, any more than the reflections "capture" the mirror surface. To think that I am bound by the conditions is very much like someone mistaking the mirror reflections for "real" things which are embedded in the mirror's surface. If I am sufficiently relaxed and resting in the method of my practice, I wouldn't feel this way at all.
 It's important in all of this never to attach too much importance to conditions in themselves. Favorable conditions are very much like the people you are attracted to in a party: you take them as being fortunate events and might even cling to them, only to realize that those people are going to leave the party without you. Unfavorable conditions, conversely, are similar to unpleasant situations in a party. If I take them as permanent, I will mistakenly add more suffering to the party than is warranted. I believe that those beings are real and to be accounted for, when they are really phenomena.
   This idea suggests that nobody ever forces me to feel unhappy or discouraged. It is simply that I fall for the idea that it is others who force me to feel a certain way. This is just wandering thoughts!