13 OFF THE MARK

"I invite you to focus on holding a space of Love for yourself as we talk about sin, Richard. Watch what surfaces and be aware of your present moment realities.

"Most of us have bought into sin as something terrible and awful. It is something we have been taught to feel guilty and bad about. Sin was originally meant to be positive feedback. The English translation of the Aramaic word, khata, is 'sin.' It is an archery term. When you fired at a target and missed the bull's eye, the scorekeeper yelled, 'Sin!' It meant, 'You are off the mark,' which, in practical terms, means improper for your energy system or less than your highest and best. It does not mean you are evil, damned or should be groveling in the dirt. The simple implication is to adjust your aim, it's time to take another shot, time to do something differently in your life!

"The human energy system is based on Love and created in the image and likeness of Love. When you put an energy that is less than what is proper into that system, you defile or destroy it. In the interest of self-preservation, it is good to have accurate feedback and know when you have sinned!!"

"That sure puts things in a different light," Richard said.

"Yes, and it is also interesting to see that the Aramaic understanding of life is reinforced and proven by the latest in physics. If we could ask Albert Einstein about the world we call physical, he would tell us it does not exist. He would tell us that matter is energy that appears as a solid.

"The Aramaic Scriptures refer to the world of 'appearances,' cautioning not to judge by them. If we think the world is physical, we have judged by its appearance—not the fact of what it is. Is it possible that the world is energy, void of solid form and organized into the appearance of form? If all is energy, the body—in Aramaic the 'temple'—is energy. Recall that relative to every energy system, there are basically two qualities: that which builds the system up, integrative energy, and that which burdens or tears the system down— disintegrative energy."

Richard grinned. "So, sin doesn't refer to me as a person? It is just information, just feedback? If someone of integrity told me I had sinned, he would simply be informing me of an error?"

"Yes. In ancient Aramaic times, if someone did not understand the intricacies of the human energy system, that person might go to a specialist for advice. That specialist would point out one's violations of the laws of the human energy system by calling them 'sins' and invite healing."

"It still feels like the old guilt trip. Or, how do you say it, michael? The reality of guilt is surfacing in my mind again?"

"That sounds like a more accurate and responsible way to say it, Richard. Guilt is a human invention designed to change human behavior. Unfortunately, its effect is more often the reverse—it keeps people locked into their errors rather than prompting release from them.

"Have you noticed that guilt usually precedes an act? It is an emotional energy that keeps error in the forefront of the mind. People tend to be attracted to the behaviors that connect them to the most energy . Programmed guilt perpetuates behaviors that seem to 'cause' guilt."

"You mean that guilt causes the behavior rather than the behavior causing the guilt?!" He seemed shocked by the idea. "Are you saying that guilt is purposely instilled to control people?"

"Perhaps. A false 'specialist,' one who didn't know any better or wanted to control those who consult him, might connect sin with 'guilt, bad and wrong,' and use those energies to bind someone to servitude. Guilt is a connection in a mind between error and self-condemnation for that error. The specialist with integrity would use the same opportunity, the same 'sin, ' to teach the inquiring mind how to forgive and release itself from its errors, its guilt and 'sins.'

"It would be accurate to call the integrative form of energy 'holy,' rooted in the word whole, that which supports or builds the human system. The disintegrative, we might call 'evil.' Evil is 'bisha' in Aramaic and is another archery term. Sin is missing the bull's eye, and evil means 'off target,' missing the target altogether.

"An evil life in Aramaic is a life where one continuously engages in disintegrative energies—thus defiling one's own temple—creating dis-ease and self-destruction. In Aramaic, there was no moral component to the instruction, ' Stay away from an 'evil' person.' It was pure pragmatism. If you associate with those who engage in disintegrative, self-destructive, 'evil ' acts, their actions will soon appear normal. Making a behavior appear normal is the first step in persuading others to do the same."

Richard looked relieved. "When I was a kid, they always threatened me with death because I had sinned. What about that part of the Bible?"

"The reason you were told about sin in a threatening way was projection. Those who promote that type of interpretation are caught in their own sin—fear. Fear clouds the minds and destroys the bodies of those who engage in it. That is why in the Aramaic Scriptures we were told that the First Law was Love .

"In the Aramaic understanding, the Law and its Prophets hang upon the condition of Love in a mind, not on fear which produces unconsciousness and error. Without the condition of Love continuously present, the searching mind will project its own errors into what it studies and whatever or whomever it sees.

"Only a mind connected to Love has healed its capacity to project and can hold a true Spiritual perspective on life—only that mind can understand the Law and the Prophets. All others will distort their mind's view of the Scriptures by projecting their own pain, fear, hate and/or rage in to them. This produces a mind so insane that it can conceive of punishment, torture, and murder in the name Love as a 'logical,' 'reasonable' and 'holy' thing to do.

"Richard, 'the wages of sin is death' loses its threatening component when it is translated into the Aramaic language. It is not even a religious concept. It is a statement of simple physiology and a caution to be aware of the energies in which you engage. When you focus on energies that are inappropriate to your health, prosperity and wholeness you are living in 'sin.' Bring enough disintegrative energy into any system and it will fall apart and 'die.' The result of error is self-destruction.

"In Aramaic, energies of hate, fear, anger, envy, guilt, jealousy and the like are understood to be dis-integrative. They defile, or violate, the integrity of the 'temple' and eventually produce death in the person who engages in them. If you entertain those energies in your mind—no matter how justified you may seem— you are the one who receives the original of that destructive energy, the person you project it on gets only a carbon copy. That is what the Scriptures were attempting to teach.

KEY THOUGHT—The vessel in which negativity is stored always suffers more damage than the object upon which that negativity is poured.

"The world," I offered, "didn't get the message. The way fear is promoted in the media and in the world is almost like worship. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week we can tune into an information system that gives us the details, from anywhere on the planet, of the most terrible acts of humanity. It could be construed that fear has been purposely used to keep people in confusion, fear and overwhelm in order to control them."

Richard was engrossed in his thoughts. "It is almost like I've kept myself in prison by living in ignorance of this and allowing myself to be indoctrinated by fear and manipulation. It's a pretty sobering thought to realize I have been a manipulator and have purposely used that tactic by inspiring fear in people with whom I live. From what I had been taught, it seemed like a normal way to act.

"I see why it is important to be informed about these issues and why it is beneficial to be able to distinguish between integrative and disintegrative energies. I'm beginning to understand that we are responsible for what we set up in life."

"Exactly, Richard. In the Aramaic, fear was not promoted nor worshipped. It was treated as a 'demon' and 'cast out,' it was Forgiven. To emphasize condemnation, and abuse and batter people with fear, rather than encourage the expression and experience of Love and the Forgiveness of fear is error—sin. It is a signal that a person does not understand the Aramaic teaching nor the effects of a particular behavior on their own physiology. He or she does not understand how focusing on disintegrative energy produces dis-ease in themselves.

"Threat, fear, guilt, manipulation, confusion and overwhelm are dis-integrative energies that are at the root of most dis-ease processes. The fact that there is a time delay between engaging in destructive behavior and the dis-eases that are sure to follow, hides the cause-effect relationship between the two. It is then easy to blame our dis-eases on outside forces like bacteria, viruses and the like. More blame and projection."

"I can hear myself making excuses for my diseases, 'I caught the latest bug, it couldn't possibly be anything I have done!'" Richard reflected, tongue in cheek.

KEY THOUGHT—It is your mind energy that is responsible for the condition of the tissue in your body. Louis Pasteur's final conclusion on disease: The germ is nothing, the terrain is all!

"Seriously though, I think I'm really starting to hear what you're saying," he said as he paused and contemplated how to put his new found insights into words. "See if this fits. I'm the one who has been there every time I've experienced anger, fear or guilt. I cannot feel those things unless they are inside of me and, if they are there, they are a burden to my system. They are my dis-ease!" As he spoke his hands were as animated as his face. He was obviously delighted with the depth of his understanding.

The man sitting beside me now looked much lighter and more relaxed than the one who arrived earlier in the day. "The way you present Spiritual teachings, michael, makes them sound simple, straightforward and workable. They seem almost necessary to life," he said with surprise. "It never occurred to me that Spirituality was so fundamental to living. I rejected Spirituality and religion totally due to the bitterness of my early experiences.

"It seems like I've been carrying the burden of rejecting my religion for an eternity. No wonder I'm exhausted. For years, without knowing what I was doing, I've been hiding a lot of pain from myself as I bought into the label of 'sinner.' It sounds like it's time for me to forgive my distorted realities about religion." The sincerity in Richard's voice indicated to me that a profound shift was happening for him, perhaps the most important of his life.

KEY THOUGHT—Truth is always safe. Not sometimes, not most of the time, but all the time.