Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Missing the point about sin

I continue to be fascinated with the Church's traditional view of "sin". My view has changed a fair amount, so that I no longer view it as a specific set "do not do's" that somewhow "offend" an egocentric God if you happen to do them.

I have just started to read an exceptional book by Eckhart Tolle titled, "A New Earth". Tolle is also the author of the book, "The Power of Now", which I have tried to work through on three separate occasions and have failed. (I will try again...)

"A New Earth" seems to be much more accessible. Tolle succeeded in quickly drawing me into his new book with some of his thoughts on the concept of Sin. Let me share this with you...

Tolle says: "According to Christian teachings, the normal collective state of humanity is one of 'original sin.' Sin is a word that has been greatly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Literally translated from the ancient Greek in which the New Testament was written, to sin means to miss the mark, as an archer who misses the target, so to sin means to miss the point of human existence. It means to live unskillfully, blindly, and thus to suffer and cause suffering. Again, the term, stripped of its cultural baggage and misinterpretations,points to the dysfunction inherent in the human condition."