Responsibility for "Sin"

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Responsibility is a complex rather than simple concept. As human beings, human minds, and human activities are quite complex, this is really no surprise.

Responsibility might never be an "all or nothing" proposition. In view of the incredible complexity of the human brainervousystem, it might be foolish for us to seek "black and white," "yes or no" simplistic answers to such an involved and complicated question. For one activity, a person might be 93% responsible, and for another, 27%.

Due to genetic, karmic, environmental, and neurological factors, as well as others, it might be that few human beings are responsible one hundred percent for their activities.

I agree fully, and very practically, that a person who does an evil deed towards another needs to be held both legally and morally responsible. The universe itself is designed along the lines of this moral reciprocation. That is, in fact, the meaning of karma.

Older Western (Christian and Jewish) theologians distinguished between what they called a "deliberate" and an "indeliberate sin." This is a valuable and useful distinction.

The language of the Christian Scriptures, in their ancient form, was called koine Greek. (This implies that Greek was the "common" language of the time.)

In that language, the word that we translate as "sin" was amartyrion.
This was a term borrowed from archery, and it meant "missing a target."
The meaning of this word implies that much, or all, of "sin" is error, miscalculation, mismanagement, or mistake, rather than a deliberate action. In many cases, then, "sin" is not a deliberate, fully aware, intentional action.

It was because of this fact that Jesus forgave sins so easily, and immediately, telling people, "All your sins are forgiven." And early Christians called it the "good news" (Greek, evaggelion) that "all our sins are forgiven."

Jesus prophesied, in Mark 3:27,28, the following astonishing condition:
"Every sin and every blasphemy, no matter how serious, will be forgiven."
And it is true that, in the larger life, that of the Soul, we are allowed to gain a deep spiritual education that allows our hearts to accept forgiveness. This is the famous "grace" (Love) of God in a practical sense.

So, a person is held responsible karmically, and in eternity, for any action that is deliberate, voluntary, a matter of choice or intention.

But the justice of the cosmos is purer and more perfect than any human mind can match. And people are not held responsible for an "indeliberate" action-- one that was not voluntarily willed or intended.

They are, instead, covered by the infinite forgiveness of the tender and infinitely loving Mind of God.

This article could, and perhaps should, go on for several more pages in order completely to address this most important question. But it is better to have mercy on your mind, your heart, and your time, and bring it to an end. But if, of course, you have any further feedback, it will be a delight to discuss it with you, as it is precisely such profound spiritual inquiries that give life its "flavor" and deeper meaning.:)
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Karma and Grace

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The dance between karma and grace is a complex one. Every sentient
(selfaware) creature that exists, on this and every other planet, already exists in perfect grace (forgiveness from God or Love). But creatures vary in their capacities to receive grace. Just as a man can starve within a few meters of food, if he does not know that it is there, so our ignorance of grace can serve as an effective block to its reception. The problem is not in the food, but in the mind. (It is ignorance.)

So, although everyone exists in one hundred percent grace (forgiveness, zero karma), karma teaches us how to grow into this realization. So, one might live as if she were only in twenty percent, another fifty percent, grace. They are so limited by only their minds, not by grace, for grace is unlimited. And, as Jesus said, God does not give the Spirit "by measure." God gives one hundred percent of the Spirit to everyone who requests It.

And karma is not a mindless boomerang. There is another kind of karma, called selective karma, which the Soulmind might choose voluntarily in order to accelerate natural growth. A plethora of saintmystics and even masterteachers have suffered various body-limitations, for example, in this kind of karma.

The "boomerang" karma (reflective of previous behaviors) is completely, totally, absolutely erased and deleted by grace. But the elective karma still remains, for it was voluntarily chosen by the Soulmind before incarnation. But this kind of karma is extremely rare, and most people are still suffering, in ignorance, from the "usual," reflective, karma.

God's perspective is grace. Early Christians used the phrase, "All our sins are forgiven," and this was the exact same phrase used by Jesus.

This is an intrinsic or inherent aspect of reality ("truth").

But each Soul (deep part of the Unconscious) must go through spacetime often enough, and long enough, to allow the realization of this grace fully to flower within the heart of Light.
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