9th Deadly Sin!?
April 15, 2019
No holy book adequately covers ‘judgement’. In addition to the enemies of the soul called Envy, Wrath, Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, and Pride, and the 8th deadly sin, called ‘Acedia’, many variations of those both verbal and negative action and or wrongs are left unrecognized as ‘deadly sins’. Acedia, as an unfamiliar addition to the ‘7’, and is an outlook of gloom and despair, chronic hopelessness and a sense of ‘what difference does it make’.
In the Bible in Romans 2:1 is God’s righteous judgment: You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
No where is it mentioned clearly that ‘initiating a personal negative judgment’ is not unlike a physical sucker punch, that sets up the perpetrator for consequences. In reality, most personal judgements initiated unexpectedly are verbal or some action, and set the stage for a same or greater reaction if thought to be a safe situation. Always it’s who starts the negative expression who is at fault and not the reactor! Never be an initiator of personal judgments!
Ignoring or using a sense of light humor is often the best antidote to an initiated personal judgment. However, always give consideration to using ‘skillful means’ before both when considering and initiating judgement or responding to one. I am not sure exactly what happened back in medieval times to trim the Eight Deadlies to Seven — probably a sense that seven was a more perfect and memorable number. And keeping a sharp eye peeled for known spiritual dangers is an important part of maintaining soul health. It does occur to me with the idea that the list of deadly sins is not fixed.
In my meditation live-in centers over the years, especially as time has gone on as well as through trial and error, I found that a lot of rules were apparently too complicated and once read, ignored. I settled on one word which covers all the ‘deadly sins’. That word is SENSITIVITY! Nothing works well as it could with out that. There may be other words to use in place of sensitivity as in ‘carpentry and it’s need to be precise in building anything’, in driving, in cooking, in talking, and everything. The universe with its days, nights, seasons, and all is perfectly in harmonious position and sensitive to life. Love is sensitivity! Love grows with sensitivity in all ways. The world needs a greater awareness and more sensitivity You live every day, You only die once
Arhata~
