When you think everything is someone else’s fault, you will suffer a lot.

When you realize that everything springs only from yourself, you will learn both peace and joy.

                                                   —Dalai Lama

Someone emailed me this quote, and asked what it meant because it seemed to place “blame” on the individual. I thought this was a great question, because there’s a difference between blaming ourselves, which causes suffering and taking responsibility, which empowers us.

Blame is a human way of thinking of things. Responsibility is what the Dalai Lama is talking about here, which is our divine choice. When we take our power back, own that everything we experience HAS to come from us……where else could it come from if we’re experiencing it? …..then we are powerful, because then we can make a choice. We can then see that we are reacting to something, which is giving your power away. Blaming someone gives your power, your joy, your good feeling away.  When we realize we have the ability to respond, rather than react, the response – ability (responsibility), then we are powerful, then we choose not to suffer, because then we can make a choice of how we want to feel about something. Only if we recognize we are responsible for how we react/respond to everything around us can we not suffer. Pain is a part of life; the suffering is optional. But we have to continually (like 500 or 5000 times a day) choose to be in our power and make a choice about how we want to respond. Takes a lot of practice, but so worth it.