I wanted to say a few words about sin and how Jesus understands it.
Sin is sickness. Jesus says, "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Mark 2:17) He makes it very clear that sin is an illness, and he is a physician. Yes, he is also a judge, and sin is also guilt, but not in the way we have come to understand these things. His judgment is a medicine, and it can be bitter. But it is not intended to punish us. Rather, to awaken us from delusion. Before we can turn wholly to God, we need to recognize the truth of our condition. The man who knows he is ill will seek a remedy, and the man who knows he is deathly ill will seek extreme measures.
The problem is that we're all sinners, we're all sick. We are surrounded by sin and sickness, and it has become normal to us. We no longer know what spiritual health is; what true goodness is. We think it's something reserved for great individuals; historical figures; saints. We don't realize that we're sick, and that there is healing, so we don't realize our full potential. The truth is, nobody is a saint. Nobody is born a saint, and nobody makes him or herself into a saint. Only God can make a saint. And God is always looking, waiting, and feeling for opportunities to come into our lives, to make us saints. He is knocking on the door, and only wants us to let Him in. The extent of your free will consists in this:
That you can open the door.The subject of Karma is touched on directly in the following passage:
"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." (John 9:1-3)
This man did nothing to "deserve" his affliction. Nor is he inheriting the sins of his parents (or the "original sin" of Adam and Eve). Rather, he is afflicted "that the works of God should be made manifest in him". I don't think this means that God makes us sick just so He can heal us and show off how great He is. Rather, I think it means what the Zen masters mean when they say: "It is what it is." Everything is the work of God, and everything is what it is simply because God is. God is unfolding. God is all being. Universes collapsing and concrescing. So much infinite power. Holocausts, crucifixions, atomic explotions... but also redemption and illumination.
It is said that the sorrows of this realm cannot compare to the riches of the higher realms. That we may spend thousands of lifetimes caught in this lower energy, but when we ascend, it's all forgotten. I don't know if this is a healthy way of looking at it. I don't think we need to balance good against evil, or try to prove that there is more good than evil. That's irrelevant. First, we must understand that God is.
THIS is. For better or worse. And we can rage against it, we can ask "why" and speculate on reasons, -- or, we can just get down to the business of salvation. And I think that's what Christ is about.
Forgive the crassness of the analogy, but its about not spitting into the wind. It doesn't matter if there's a reason for the wind, or a reason why we have to turn away from the wind when we spit. And it's not about commandments, or laws, either. You can spit into the wind all you want. If you want to get spit in your own face, go right ahead. You have carte blanche. Call it "free will".
You see what I'm saying?
Speaking of the commandments...
Paul has some very profound ideas about this. It's difficult, and maybe impossible, to know if he's just explaining and elaborating on what Christ taught, or if he's developing the teaching in a more original way. In either case, he is watering the seed planted by Christ. But here is what he says:
There are two laws. Well, no, wait.. let me put it differently. There is one law, but there are two basic ways of seeing it. Often, things are said in scripture that describe states of awareness, and not hard facts. This is difficult to describe, but I'll try. When Paul says that salvation is through faith, he is not saying that, when we believe in Jesus, God forgives our sins -- not literally. He's saying that, when we believe we are forgiven, we naturally receive consolation, and this heals our spiritual malady on the deepest levels. When we believe Christ took our sins upon him, we no longer take them upon ourselves. It's not about Christ doing anything, really, but it is about Christ convincing us of something. We are being led to reflect upon, and, ultimately, to identify with, the purity of Jesus Christ, which is inside of us, and is our foundation, before the fall; before we got distracted. It is said "we covet what we see", so, we are being directed to look upon the glory of God, and to covet goodness. Not only do we covet what we see, but, we become what we covet. Like moths to a flame -- but not moths; sparks, rather, that somehow are drawn to the flame and eventually merge with it.
But I was going to talk about the law...
There is the Law of Moses, as expressed through The Ten Commandments, which sets forth particular rules of conduct. These are not laws imposed on us, but revealed to us. For instance, the laws of men are imposed, but the laws of nature already exist; by hearing and learning about them, we are in a better position to cope with the natural world. Spiritual laws are much the same. They are meant to rule us, not as a king rules, but as a ruler measures; they measure our progress, or our spiritual health, and show us how we're doing. It's through awareness of the Law of Moses that we come to discover our sinfulness, our weakness, or our illness. But if we focus only on this law and on our sinfulness, we miss the higher reality and our oneness with God. When the Law is used to judge, to punish or reward, to divide and classify people, then it has been corrupted. The fact is, the more we focus on this Law, the more we fall short of it, the more guilty we feel, and the harder it becomes to follow a path of righteousness.
This basically sums up the history of Judaism before Christ.
The stage is set.
Now, enter Jesus and The Law of Grace...
In comes this guy with a radical notion. In order to cleanse ourselves, we must believe that we are cleansed. In order to commune with God, we need to identify with God. It is a state of awareness, which becomes a reality, and IS a reality for the one who is fully present to it, as Christ was. What he is saying is revolutionary and is so offensive to the authorities of the time, because it looks a lot like he's giving a free pass to all the wicked people and saying that nobody is responsible for themselves. The words of Paul in the Epistle to the Romans are even more explicit about this and even more shocking. The idea is that we are not responsible for our condition or for our sin because we are not what we appear to be on the surface. We have been deluded into identifying with the surface, and we have, in a sense, become what we are not.
Romans 7 is worth reading in its entirety, --
(just ignore the tribal prejudices in the first few verses) ;)
http://www.justbible.com/bychapter.aspx?B=45&C=007&V=015
There's a lot in there, but, basically, it sounds like he's saying, "The devil made me do it." And we've all been told that this is the biggest cop-out. It's no wonder there was so much resistance to this teaching, and that it remains so misunderstood. Jean-Paul Sartre writes: "[No man knowingly does evil. In order for me to do that which is evil for me, it is necessary that I simultaneously approve and disapprove of my action. This is impossible.]" Well, it is and it isn't. Paul goes deeper than Sartre when he admits that the will is divided; that there is a deep, inner awareness of evil, and, yet, an unwillingness or inability to conform outwardly with that understanding. In fact, they are essentially saying the same thing, but, while Sartre emphasizes the unconsciousness of evil, and the denial of evil, Paul places emphasis on the emerging awareness. Paul has become aware of the split between his higher and lower natures. He wants to do good, but he "sees himself" doing evil. He begins to identify with a will which is not his own (in an outward sense), but, yet, which is closer to his heart than the very work of his hands.
He speaks of not identifying with works. "Works" comes to mean everything in the world of appearances, but, more specifically, it is what we do. And, even more specifically, it's what we do without God, or apart from God. In a very spiritual sense, it is an illusion, for we are nothing if not united in God;
in the depths of our hearts, we are all heart. Paul has touched this truth. He has made contact with his heart, and with the Holy Spirit that dwells and moves within him.
"So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." This is the very definition of hypocrisy, and, yet, it's also the spiritual condition of the person who has honestly recognized and refused to camouflage his predicament, however incongruous it may be. We're generally told that we have the power to do good, and that, if we do not do what we know is good, it is our own fault. But Paul is saying something else entirely. He is admitting his powerlessness and dependence on God, and on the truth which he knows in his heart, and which he wants desperately to conform himself with. He is torn apart. The wheat is separated from the chaff. He dies to the old self, to the outward, egoic consciousness, and is reborn, "born again", or "resurrected" with the inner Christ.
Seeing the Christ in himself, and in others, removes any tendency to judgment or self-righteousness. It allows him to step out of his flesh, out of his sins, and into the light of God where healing begins in full force. It is said that the lower prayer is recognition of man's sin, but the higher prayer dwells on the righteousness of God. Evidently, the former is a necessary step to the latter. Certainly, Paul thinks so, when he says that, "I had not known sin, but by the law," and he thanks the law for showing him what sin is, even though sin, "taking occasion by the commandment" (that is, twisting the law to it's own purposes), renders him full of guilt and more bound up in his depravity.
But, then, it's always darkest before the dawn. There is a wonderful quote by Francois Fenelon which I was unable to locate, but it essentially says that, when we first perceive our sinfulness, it's like seeing thousands of insects, serpents, rats, and all sorts of filthy, ravenous creatures issuing forth from the cave of our soul. It repulses us to discover what has been lurking within us -- but, at the same time, it is also a purging of the evil that has been concealed within us. This is like the revelation of the Law, which Paul says is good, and without which he would never have known good from evil. But dwelling on this, and making this Law supreme can only result in being more entangled in the web of sin. What is clear, more than anything else, is that when Paul ceases to identify with his sin, or his illness, it begins to wither and fall away.
"So is it with this calamity: it does not touch me: some thing which I fancied was a part of me, which could not be torn away without tearing me, nor enlarged without enriching me, falls off from me, and leaves no scar. It was caducous." ~ Emerson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghFgceo0d60
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWF8E0miEks
