I don’t like the word sin. It implies that I am being judged and found
guilty.
I can understand that. Over the centuries, many erroneous views and
interpretations have accumulated around words such as sin, due to
ignorance, misunderstanding, or a desire to control, but they contain
an essential core of truth. If you are unable to look beyond such
interpretations and so cannot recognize the reality to which the word
points, then don’t use it. Don’t get stuck on the level of words. A word
is no more than a means to an end. It’s an abstraction. Not unlike a
signpost, it points beyond itself. The word honey isn’t honey. You can
study and talk about honey for as long as you like, but you won’t
really know it until you taste it. After you have tasted it, the word
becomes less important to you. You won’t be attached to it anymore.
Similarly, you can talk or think about God continuously for the rest of
your life, but does that mean you know or have even glimpsed the
reality to which the word points? It really is no more than an
obsessive attachment to a signpost, a mental idol.
The reverse also applies: If, for whatever reason, you disliked the
word honey, that might prevent you from ever tasting it. If you had a
strong aversion to the word God, which is a negative form of
attachment, you may be denying not just the word but also the reality
to which it points. You would be cutting yourself off from the
possibility of experiencing that reality. All this is, of course,
intrinsically connected with being identified with your mind.
So, if a word doesn’t work for you anymore, then drop it and replace it
with one that does work. If you don’t like the word sin, then call it
unconsciousness or insanity. That may get you closer to the truth, the
reality behind the word, than a long-misused word like sin, and leaves
little room for guilt.
I don’t like those words either. They imply that there is something
wrong with me. I am being judged.
Of course there is something wrong with you — and you are not being
judged.
I don’t mean to offend you personally, but do you not belong to the
human race that killed over one hundred million members of its own
species in the twentieth century alone?
You mean guilt by association?
It is not a question of guilt. But as long as you are run by the egoic
mind, you are part of the collective insanity. Perhaps you haven’t
looked very deeply into the human condition in its state of dominance
by the egoic mind. Open your eyes and see the fear, the despair, the
greed, and the violence that are all-pervasive. See the heinous cruelty
and suffering on an unimaginable scale that humans have inflicted
and continue to inflict on each other as well as on other life forms on
the planet. You don’t need to condemn. Just observe. That is sin. That
is insanity. That is unconsciousness. Above all, don’t forget to observe
your own mind. Seek out the root of the insanity there.