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    On the Meaning of Sin
    On the Meaning of Sin
    On the Meaning of Sin
    Ebook85 pages59 minutes

    On the Meaning of Sin

    By Christopher Stewart

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Growing up is hard work. As we architect our lives, responding to the requirements of our path is demanding enough as it is without having to address additional annoyances that get in the way of our personal development. Still, what if all those irritations were actually the results of our own errors, and as such as many clues inviting us to reform and to regain the itinerary we have selected for ourselves ?

    On the Meaning of Sin proposes a different take on the mechanics of sin and rebirth in hell, coming from the perspective of an unorthodox trajectory in the worlds of arts, science, and Oriental philosophy.

    In this alternative view, the cosmos provides a course-correction mechanism wherein whenever we miss the mark, we are redirected towards the enjoyment of tranquil progress towards our goals. It supplies a metaphor facilitating the elimination of error, and thus benevolently assists and fosters the achievement of our objectives, allowing us to cultivate a gradually less corrupt mind that gives rise to increasingly satisfying hereafters, in an ever refining continuum.

    Any individual can attain liberation, or elimination of error, at any time, and so can society as a whole.

    Heaven truly exists, and it is constantly beckoning us towards it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChristopher Stewart
    Release dateFeb 8, 2012
    ISBN9781476340432
    On the Meaning of Sin
    Author

    Christopher Stewart

    Christopher Stewart explores various artisticdisciplines and works freelance. He has penned thescience fiction novel 2206 : Window Onto A New World,the essays On the Meaning of Sin and Takers Economy :An Inquiry into Illegal File Sharing, and a number ofpoems, song lyrics, and various shortform creativepieces.Primarily interested in music, he has composedover 250 pieces, founded the currently hibernatingprogressive rock band Poligraf, worked as busker andemcee, and pursues his ideal of creating meaningfulmusic in the context of a rock ensemble.His one-of-a-kind trajectory has also led him towork in various fields including audio engineering,video production, graphic design, website development,blogging, online music store management, softwareengineering, systems architecture, social work, andcinema.He has practised Buddhism dead-seriously sincethe mid-nineties, until he finally awakened to the factthat it teaches living happiness.You're welcome to contact Christopher via hisonline headquarters at stewart-explorations.net.

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      Book preview

      On the Meaning of Sin - Christopher Stewart

      On the Meaning of Sin

      An Essay By

      Christopher Stewart

      Smashwords Edition – February 2012

      §

      On the Meaning of Sin by Christopher Stewart

      is licensed under a

      Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

      Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here

      §

      « Everything has mind in the lead, has mind in the forefront, is made by mind. If one speaks or acts with a corrupt mind, misery will follow as the wheel of a cart follows the foot of the ox.

      Everything has mind in the lead, has mind in the forefront, is made by mind. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness will follow, like a shadow that never leaves. »

      - Dhammapada, Chapter I, « Couplets, » verses 1 and 2.

      §

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      A Bit of Personal History

      Sin, You Say ?

      Mind-Killers

      Sin in Buddhist Culture

      Sin in Christian Culture

      Bullseye

      Footprints

      Summary

      Verses

      Links

      Credits

      About the Author

      Disclaimer

      §

      1. Introduction

      Liberation

      In the week preceding my decision to tackle this essay, upon interpreting one of the daily tarot readings using which I confirm my direction and evaluate my progress, I discovered the extended description of the Liberty card from the William Blake Tarot of the Creative Imagination, including the following excerpt :

      « For Blake, Judgment, or human liberation, occurs whenever error is eliminated, and this can happen at any time, individually or societally. »

      [source : Facade]

      In many tarot decks, the equivalent of the Liberty card is the Judgment card, typically depicting trumpet-blowing angels waking up the dead from out of their graves. The imagery in Blake's version is very similar, but it prominently features a butterfly rising up to embrace the entire universe, after having completed its metamorphosis.

      While the mystic ideal of unification with the divine represented in the artwork has its appeal, the question remains nonetheless pragmatic in its essence, as far as I am concerned anyhow. In short, the enigmatic part of the endeavour consists in identifying error. Once this is done, ridding oneself of it gets, if not necessarily easy, at least achievable. And thus, finally tasting the sweet nectar of liberation gradually becomes less of a farfetched aspiration, and more of a distinct possibility, until it eventually turns into an unavoidable fate.

      Phrased in more prosaic terms, the above simply means that as long as what provokes undesirable occurrences is unknown, those unwanted hindrances are bound to happen again. And once one begins to eliminate those causes, the process grows increasingly self-refining, as mistakes and their effects become more and more evident, up to the point when it is quite clear that only such and such a deed could have brought on such and such an outcome.

      Like Blake, I believe that liberation can be attained at any time, by anyone. I trust that heaven and hell are coextensive, and that both realms can thus be experienced in one and the same location, and in fact regardless of the location, as a function of one's state of mind.

      Motivation

      In publishing this essay, I don't aim to convert nor to convince, but I attempt to share knowledge I have acquired along my journey. I readily acknowledge that realities are defined subjectively, and as such that our respective worlds are essentially unique, and thus that the contents suggested therein might not accommodate everyone, nor apply to all. Nevertheless, I hope the document will be of aid to some of those who will consider it.

      I obviously assume that most living beings, if not all, would prefer to enjoy an existence wherein they can revel in the activities of their choosing, free of the pains that come with the disagreeable setbacks that life sometimes proposes. Responding to the requirements of one's path is demanding enough as it is without having to address additional annoyances that get in the way of personal development.

      Growing up is hard work already, who wants otherwise friendly and dependable people who incomprehensibly start to behave in an antagonistic or detrimental manner ? Who likes devices that stop operating without warning just when they're most needed ? Who strives for public expositions of their limitations ? Who relishes doorways that disappear before one can make it pass their threshold, especially after having toiled forever and a day to witness them materialize from out of the clear blue sky ?

      Still, what if all those insufferable deterrents and myriad other similar irritations were actually the results of one's own faults, and as such as many clues inviting one to reform and to regain the itinerary they have selected for themselves ?

      It is with attention to those concerns that I feel impelled to prepare the present text, confident that my perspective on the question will benefit at least some of the readers.

      Mission

      In the following sections, I will undertake

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