The Seven Deadly Sins

Sins are not forbidden because they hurt others,
they are harmful because they hurt ourselves.

The seven deadly sins are deadly to spiritual awakening, to finding the kingdom of God inside, because the are expressions of the ignorance that nagative feelings defend us against others when they really only harm our own well being.

They are:

pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, sloth.

In his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita Paramahansa Yogananda sif faults of the materially identified ego which need to be conquered to acquire knowledge of his true soul nature.

Lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride, envy or material attachment.

He explains: “In sum, the principal evil that comes along with ego consciousness and its six faults is the increasing compulsion to forget one's Self - the soul - and its expression, manifestation, and requirements; and to become stubbornly inclined to engage oneself in pursuing the insatiable “necessities” of the ego.”

“The Bhagavad Gita, Royal Science of God-Realization,” by Paramahansa Yogananda

Re: The Seven Deadly Sins

hi, i am new here, so i thought i would just jump in on the hard stuff and sink or swim.  I agree with most of what is said in that piece, but, i always wonder why they include Lust in that list…the others do seem negative,and some aspects of lust, like blood lust or lust for possessions or power are negative, but physical lust can sometimes lead to love, and intimacy and a whole range of deeply felt emotions…i guess maybe there should be a distinction between what i consider the good kind of lust and the bad kind of lust.

there is also a deep division line in the pleasure of the body as being negative, and those who feel strongly its a huge gift that should be felt an appreicated instead of controlled..

as for sins….or as i like to call them challenges—they do tend to hurt us–but they also make us grow when we evaluate our actions, understand where we could have done better and seek forgiveness from others and ultimately ourselves.

just my two cents :)

ali

Re: The Seven Deadly Sins

I think you are right, dear goddess, that all “moral” teachings have been abused and confused many times by religious organizations and others who strive for control of people rather than individual empowerment. Sex and pleasure are natural and important powers of uniting in love and appreciation and if anybody thinks that's wrong then that's his problem.

On the other hand for me it was quite a revelation to understand that “sins” can actually be destructive to myself when I am not in charge of using my powers and pleasures consciensciously. So I am considering the sinful aspect of these sins to be addictions or unconscious habits of reaction, and then they are certainly deadly to all growth in self awareness and healing of mind and spirit.  

I throw them into the discussion especially because life today is so materialistic and addictive, that I need to question myself often if I am in control of my mind and emotions or if my desires and emotions are controlling me.

Yogananda explains hiw views this way:
“Lust applies to the abuse of any or all the senses in the pursuit of pleasure or gratification. Through ther sense of sight man may lust after material objects; through the sense of hearing, he craves the sweet, slow poison of flattery, and vibratory sounds  as of voices and music that rouse his material nature; through the lustful pleasure of smell he is enticed toward wrong environments and actions; lust for food and drink causes him to please his taste at the expense of health; through the sense of touch he lusts after inordinate physical comfort and abuses the creative sex impulse. Lust also seeks gratification in wealth, status, powewr, domination - all that satisfies the “I, me, mine,” in the egotistical man. … lust loves to destroy one's happiness, health, brain power, clarity of thought, memory, and discriminative judgment.” Chap.1, Verse 9.