What is sin?

[Guest guest]

Q: What is sin? Is it a condition we have no chance to overcome

without

intervention on our behalf by someone who is ordained? Are we

sinners, or are we

divine? I am confused.

 

A: Jesus said, " As you sow, so shall you reap. " In the East, this

same process

is stated with one word, " karma, " which means action and its

consequences,

including latent impressions accumulated deep inside us over multiple

lifetimes.

 

With yoga practices, we stimulate the nervous system's natural

abilities to

dissolve the many latent impressions of karma stored deep inside. We

experience

these impressions as limitations and tendencies in our thoughts,

feelings and

actions. These impressions are obstructions to our experience of the

truth

within us. As we clean them out, we come to know the divine truth

within and we

are set free from the binding influences of our past actions. Then we

are

naturally inclined to conduct ourselves in ways that do not build up

obstructions that will limit us in the future – acting more and more

as a

channel of divine love. So, yoga has a direct impact on this whole

process of

sowing, reaping, and the latent impressions of karma.

 

None of this directly answers your questions about sin. I wanted to

lay out the

practical aspects of yoga's role first. Action, results of action,

and the means

for dissolving the binding results of action. That is how yoga fits

in.

 

What is sin? If you look it up in the dictionary, you will see it

focuses on the

negative aspects of " As you sow, so shall you reap, " and " karma. "

 

Sin is defined as, " An offense against religious or moral law, an

offense

against God. "

 

Sowing and reaping is one thing, a process of nature, really. It just

happens as

we act in ways that are either in the direction of or away from

purifying our

nervous system and expressing divine love. What we put in is what we

get out. If

we do yoga practices and favor opening over closing, we give

ourselves a big

advantage in this process.

 

Sin is a step outside the natural process of " as you sow... " and

karma. It is

an " offense. " An offense to who? Sin is colored with human judgement.

If you do

thus-and-so, you commit sin. You are doing bad. You are offending

God. Who

decides this? Most often, it is we who decide it through our guilt

and shame

over our actions. Maybe we have been conditioned by others since

childhood to

feel that way about ourselves. In our still-limited state of

awareness we tend

to act in ways that bind us, and in our conscience (the divine

morality in us)

we feel remorse. If we do not judge ourselves, others will certainly

be there to

do it for us. In doing so, they place themselves in the position of

intermediary

between us and our salvation. And there you have it, the

psychological structure

that holds most of the world's organized religions together.

 

The concept of sin is a human coloring of natural law. Sin is a spin

on a

process of nature. It rises out of our guilt and/or someone else's

judgment.

Overindulgence in the concept of sin can lead to a sense of

hopelessness, and an

unhealthy dependence on others for our salvation, when, in truth,

there is only

one place we will ever find it, within ourselves.

 

Expecting someone else, ordained or not, to relieve us of our sins is

a formula

for failure. Real religion is not a business transaction where we

give this and

get that. It does not happen like that.

 

Surrendering to a high ideal is something else. It is a private

matter in our

heart, not subject to anyone else's scrutiny or judgement. As long as

we are

letting go for a higher ideal deep in our heart, our bhakti will have

great

purifying power, and draw us to spiritual practices.

 

If we have been trained to see ourselves as hopeless sinners, it will

be wise to

reconsider it carefully. For if we do not believe in our own

divinity, it will

be difficult to find the desire necessary to make the journey home.

Our identity

as sinners is a label we put on ourselves, while our identity as

divine beings

is a demonstrable human condition we can claim as our own.

 

Saints and saviors over thousands of years have demonstrated again

and again the

ability we all have for human spiritual transformation.

 

Sitting to meditate for the first time can shatter the illusory grip

of sin. It

won't free us completely from all obstructions in us on the first

day, but it is

the beginning of a road we can travel that will reveal increasing

divine light

as we purify and open our nervous system further each day.

 

The guru is in you.