One Apple A Day #219
“A sin is anything you do which goes against yourself” — Miguel Ruiz
This quote kept running through my mind since I read this morning in “The Four agreement” book.
Having grown up in a countryside Catholic environment, I’ve always connected sins with religion. What I thought was that “to sin is to say or do something against the law of God”. But this definition has a lot of issues for me. Things like “which God?”, “what laws?”, “who wrote those laws?” and so on. If I’m doing something against the law of God but that I feel in my gut is the right thing to do, am I a sinner?
A long time ago, I decided that yes, I was a sinner and I didn’t care. In the end, whatever I did, somewhere in the world there was for sure someone’s God saying I was against the law.
Reading this line this morning gave me a new perspective. It is not about an external entity. It is about me. Whenever I lie, I hurt myself before anyone else. When I surrender to anger or fear, or I don’t take care of my body, or I’m envious or hateful, I hurt myself.
This awareness changes everything. There are no laws to obey but a single intimate question I can ask myself anytime I’m in doubt.
Is it this — word or action — going against myself?