Once again, thank you for reading the dictionary definition of the word responsibility.

Now, at the risk of embarrassing you, pretend that a student asks you, "What does responsibility mean?" You now must explain exactly what you just read to the student. Keep in mind that it may be the clearest explanation he/she will ever get. It will serve as the point of view from which to communicate about the results they produce, for life, especially during an argument/divorce ["She never . . .," "He won't . . .," "He cheated on me ..." All blaming make-wrong statements.] Please do that now . . . in your mind. Well, I think you get my point. BTW: The ideal way to handle a student who asks for a definition is; "Here's a dictionary. Come back and let me know its definition."

Here's another definition of the word responsibility:

First, an introduction to prepare you for reading this other definition.

In communication jargon this introduction is referred to as creating a context, a basket into which content is communicated.

For example:

"I have something to tell you and I'm afraid you will get upset." (this creates a basket)

When you preface a message with this sentence the other person's mind, to be right, will do its best to not get upset. This works even when the other knows they are being controlled/manipulated.

It's possible that the following definition will cause you to shut down, to pooh pooh it. That's OK. If there's any truth in it the subject of responsibility will surface again, quite often within hours or days of reading this definition.

When the mind is confronted with something that threatens its reality, its survival, it usually shuts down automatically. It's tricky getting past the mind, to the naturally knowing self, using the mind. This is why experiential (hands on, in person) communication workshops are preferable to reading this material. Once you have agreed to be in a workshop your integrity supports you in keeping the workshop agreement, ". . . to stay through to completion and experience the upsets, to stay past the point where you would normally shut down while reading or in a conversation and not let something in that might conflict with your belief system, your way of thinking, your paradigm."

I got the following definition from Werner Erhard. Werner is the founder of est, (Erhard Seminars Training), The Hunger Project, and The Forum.

The story goes that Werner looked up the definition of responsibility in several dictionaries and found inconsistencies. More importantly, none communicated to him in a way that he could easily understand. So he composed the following definition; it is not a direct quote nor is it "the" definition, merely one of several. What I like about it is that it communicates to me. More so, because most everyone who reads it can relate its essence to others; magically, it triggers upset for a person who has become stuck blaming someone or some thing—it gives one the option of more denial or of telling the truth as to his/her cause for an outcome.