Please come and sit near to the shrine for the meditation, still everybody on their own, only small children near to one parent. - It is much easier to communicate when we sit more close to each other, but still in a respectful distance. – Then there is a sense of ‘being held’ in shared awareness. (wait)

Please make yourself at ease here, and find a way to sit upright and relaxed.

And please stop talking and, slowly, close your eyes.

Bring your awareness gently back to the SENSE OF SELF inside, sensing your breath going in and out , aware of your feelings around the heart area. --- Do you have a clear sense with closed eyes of what is inside of your body, and what is outside? ---

Now, take a deep in-breath, hold the in-breath for a moment, and then breathe out again as long as you can. ---. Try it again, even longer. --- And now again, really, as long as possible! ---
Ok, now breathe normally, and find yourself at ease with your breathing. ---

With an exercise like this, making the breath as long as possible, you have to be cautious – because you can really make yourself dizzy and feel bad, when you overdo it. Especially when you like competition and excitement, you can easily strain yourself. ---

So knowing what is good for yourself and what is not – that is very important. You know by listening inwards: “WHAT makes me feel at ease, clear, balanced? And WHAT is causing me pain or confusion ?” – Why is it important to know what is good for yourself? – Because only YOU can know. Because YOU ARE THE OWNER OF YOUR KAMMA, you have to live with how it feels when you do something!
And because of that, only YOU can take responsibility for that what you are doing.

So I would like to reflect with you on “RESPONSIBILITY”. Some of you may not like this word. – Why? Take your feelings seriously! --- Does it remind you of things you SHOULD do, of DUTY, of things you DON’T LIKE to do? --- Isn’t that interesting?

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But what does ‘responsibility’ really mean? – How is it to RESPOND to something or to somebody? --- To be responsive, to be in connection, to be in touch with. TO BE ABLE TO BE RESPONSIVE = RESPONSI-BILITY --- to me that is something completely different than to perform a duty.

It is like being a flower opening to the sunlight …, like a leaf dancing in the wind …, like a baby smiling when recognizing her mother’s face…, or like a man closing the window when the rain starts falling … -

When I am in touch with myself, I can feel my heart resonating, responding to what happens around me. And ideally, my actions flow from that, naturally. Responsibility is our inner sense of WHAT FEELS RIGHT which makes us feel responsible, able to respond, alive.

And when our hearts are open, and we don’t cut ourselves off from others, our hearts would even respond to their needs, with a natural wish to support them. – Is that right? That is true for the Summer Camp too: I have seen a child being stung by a wasp, and immediately some other children coming to help and comfort her. That, for me, is responsibility, responding to somebody’s pain; and I find it beautiful.

But why is it that sometimes it doesn’t work like that? – Like, you know you have a ROTA for washing up, you know it’s your turn now, and you decide not to turn up and keep on playing instead. Where does your heart respond to, in this situation? – Does it seem as if you had two hearts: One feels that you want to stay with your friends, right? You don’t want to miss the game. That’s true. And yet, you may have noticed that there is a nagging sense of something that doesn’t feel right. That’s the ‘other’ heart, which connects more to the whole community. So there is conflict in your heart. – Do you know that?

--- So, what could you do in a situation like this, when you want to be responsive from your whole heart? --- Can you speak with your friends about this: Say, that you feel torn? --- Tell them that you would like to continue with the play, you don’t want to miss it? Can you ask them if they could wait for you, so that you can do the dishes? --- How would that feel? --- So, you could go washing the dishes, and feel good about that. And then you could go to your friends and play again, and feel double good? --- And, on top of that, congratulate yourself that you have not abandoned your heart, that you have won full responsi-ability? ---

Do you really want to understand that you are the owner of your kamma, that it is up to you whether you are living with an open heart, responsive to your full truth? Or whether you close your heart and lose touch with yourself? --- If you decide to stay responsive, you will more and more be able to notice the feelings and voices in your heart, and take them seriously. Then you don’t need anybody to tell you what you should have done. Because you know better. And if the voices of your heart are seem to be in conflict - if you learn to trust these voices, you will always find new solutions, because you are in touch with the wisdom of your heart, the INNER SAGE.

And you may notice: When you abandon half of your inner wisdom, this half will pop up from the outside – sometimes as regret you can feel for yourself later, or it turns up as people who want to tell you what you SHOULD have done, what you did WRONG! --- May be you can investigate for yourself, which conflicts with the outside world you could avoid in the future if you would stay responsive to your inner conflict and find new ways to solve it. --- No reason to feel guilty or blame ourselves for what happened in the past. - Sometimes we simply have to learn it this way, learning from outer conflicts, from missed opportunities, where we missed to respond to our hearts. ---

What is your heart’s reaction to all this now? --- Just listen for a while in silence, and don’t forget to breathe. -----

- Bell -

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