Second, adapting to conditions. As mortals, we’re ruled by conditions, not by ourselves. All the suffering and joy we experience depend upon conditions. If we should be blessed by some great reward such as fame or fortune, it’s the fruit of a seed planted by us in the past. When conditions change, it ends. Why delight in its existence? But while success and failure depend on conditions, the mind neither waxes nor wanes. Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the Path."

There is a fundamental understanding that in the Buddhist view all things come about through causes and conditions. There is no actor in acting, no do-er in doing, no thinker of thoughts, no seer in seeing, no hearer in hearing and so on.

All these things come about because of causes and conditions that lie outside of these things. Again it points to the interconnectedness of all things. The notion of self-and-other flies in the face of this proposition.

Therefore it follows that ‘I’ cannot take ownership for things including successes and failures.

At first glance it might seem to contradict the first practice which asks us to take responsibility for what comes our way. Surely ownership goes with responsibility and vice versa?

Again this comes down to two very different ways of seeing. If that seeing is ‘I’ related then of course they go together. However if the seeing is even a little bit emptied of ‘I’ and there is already space for others then despite the fact that there is no ownership by ‘I’ there is responsibility because of the impact upon all beings of actions of body, speech and mind. If that sense of interconnectedness is there, empathy for all beings is also there and this provides the motivational basis for actions. Acting in this way also strengthens this latter way of seeing. So we can see how this practice also provides an entry point for the Path.