164. Power And Responsibility

We know that great power means great responsibility. But in truth, our responsibility is always great, regardless of our power. If we are attentive and aware, we understand that we are responsible for all of the suffering that exists. We must be responsible, for if we are not then no one is. The suffering of an individual does not arise in isolation. One person’s suffering is connected to the suffering of every other, and we cannot completely eliminate our own suffering without helping others eliminate theirs, as well.

Seeing our responsibility and the need to eliminate suffering, we also see the necessity of acting from compassion towards ourselves and others. This means we use whatever power we have towards compassionate ends. The specific actions we take must reflect the power we have and the means available to us. To devote only a small fraction of our power to compassion would be to unnecessarily perpetuate suffering. When we are aware, the reach of our compassion grows as our power and means grow.

But when awareness is limited, there is a strong tendency for the opposite to happen. We instead use our power to hide from our responsibility, to isolate ourselves from the suffering of others, and to cower in the false safety of material security. We think this will protect us and the people close to us, but in reality we do ourselves enormous harm.

By guaranteeing the suffering of others continues, we also guarantee our own further suffering. Others will continue to produce suffering for us precisely because we have abandoned them to suffering. We secure our own personal safety at the cost of destroying any possibility of joy. For joy arises through compassion, through the effort of helping others meet their needs and become more aware so that they can eliminate their own suffering.

We might think the burden of compassion is too much for a single powerful person to bear. But there is a simple solution to this problem: the burden can be lessened by empowering others. By spreading our power to others so that they can work with us, we also spread the task of compassionate action. And since the responsibility is shared by all of us, it also makes sense for the power, the means, and the effort to be equally shared.