“The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.”
– George Eliot (1819 – 1880) British novelist
What is the great “sin” today’s Zonr Pod is referencing and how does the concept of “stealing another’s bottom” factor into this dilemma?
It’s A Sin – Pet Shop Boys (5:20)
Everyday People discuss … What is sin? (3:14)
Timeless Quotes from The Buddha (3:14)
Revenge of Fox :
Once a hungry fox entered a village. He went near a field with large juicy pumpkins. He looked around and saw no one around. So he quickly bit into a pumpkin. Just as he finished eating it, the farmer whose field it was, rushed to him and said, “How dare you eat my pumpkin?”
“Please sir, I was hungry and I ate just one of them.” But the angry farmer took a piece of cloth and dipped it in kerosene oil. Then he tied the oily cloth around the fox’s tail and lit a match to it. The fox’s tail was on fire and he was in pain. Now the fox was angry, “You are punishing me for just one pumpkin. Now it’s my time to take revenge.”
The fox went to the wheat field that belonged to the same farmer. The ripe wheat was standing to be harvested. The fox jumped around the field with his burning tail. Immediately the crops caught fire and soon turned to ashes.
The farmer thought, “If I had forgiven the fox’s small sin, he would not have caused such a huge damage to me.”
Well, I am not sure about stealing another person’s bottom, but I think the sin itself is referring to avoidance…in other words avoiding our own areas of needed growth, by focusing on the processes of others. (10)
When I get stuck on a Step I realize that I am afraid to grow. After all, when we “grew up” we had to leave home (or got to leave home). Maybe my fear is that I must leave the love and protection of my Higher Power if I “Grow Up.” And maybe that is the beauty of 12-Step Programs – I don’t have to worry about having no more lessons to learn – no more fun to be had – no more Higher Power loving and protecting me. Maybe I simply get to continue to Grow. “Sought through prayer and meditation…” Maybe I get to keep doing this for the rest of my life…Namaste
“Keeping my side of the street clean’, as they say, keeps my conscious clear. I don’t even think I’ve thought in terms of “sin” per se, in years.
Wow! So many really heavy topics in the quotations today: growth, sin, awareness and surrender. I was raised with a definite idea of what constituted “sin.” There were even categories of sin: mortal sin, venial sin, etc. Some sent me to hell, and others only to purgatory. Then I heard of “sins of relationship” in the story of the Prodigal Son – whoa, here was a sin of which I was unaware. Now, in Al-Anon, I learn that I suffer from a disease of relationships. Get the hell out of the way and let myself and others heal – recover. How do I reconcile myself to a Higher Power more loving than I know – both in my life and the lives of others? Let go and let God – a simple plan I sometimes make harder than necessary. Progress not perfection.