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.