Expert: Bodhicitta - 1/20/2005

Question
Hello:

I am currently working on a personal project about the nature of Sin. I am the artist and co-author of a religious, contemporary graphic novel focusing heavily on Sin. I want to include more than just the Christian viewpoint, though that will be the main focus, so am contacting experts of various different religions in order to gain a better understanding of the world view of Sin. I was hoping you could give me a rundown of Sin and your understanding of it, anything you have to offer me is helpful and much appreciated, I am open to absolutely any information concerning the subject, and I thank you in advance.

Alyssa Mogil

Answer
Hi Alyssa
Thanks for your question.

Your question is an interesting one. I suspect the idea
of "Sin", originl "Sin" is deep seated in the Western psyche with its judo-christian roots.

The question really is to understand what Sin means and if it has an equivalent within a Buddhist context. Really to look into this it would be necessary to analyze what
exactly is meant by Sin etc.

There is a project here!  So I would be interested to hear more about your novel and art as it progresses.

Feel free to send me your email address if you wish to correspond in  detail. But here are a few thoughts for you.


Just to recap on Buddhist beliefs....
Buddhism believes that all beings have Buddha nature. An awakened heart of perfect wisdom and compassion. But we are all living in a confused dream world (Samsara) where we have forgotten our true natures. Buddhism offers us a system of training of awakening and reaching enlightnment. Buddha nature is obscured by veils of desire, hate, and ignorance.

People in the confused world act and do bad actions because of confusion and they suffer because they try
and grasp at these dream like appearances as real. People become old, ill, die pass away and
are constantly at sea around us it is tragic.

The Buddhist system offers many methods of training to wake us up - through types of meditation. It calls us to help all beings though space to wake up too and enter the real world which ie behind confusion and free them from suffering.

So what is sin in Buddhism. Well in the words of one Buddhist text:

"Confused sentient beings never did anything wrong!
Buddhas never did anything right!"


Sin in the West is often associated with Guilt or a feeling
of not having any self worth, or thinking that one is unclean or impure.

In Buddhism - we are all Buddhas, we are all pure from the very beginning. We can be confident we have Budda
nature.We have everything we need in our minds that are
deep like the ocean.

In Buddhism the idea of sin or evil is Ego. This is our confused self that is ignorant and thinks the confused world is solid and real , it desires and always wants more,
it is aggressive and pushes away. Buddhist meditation sees
that Ego is a scam it is empty. Once we have seen Ego as empty it disappears in a puff of smoke and we can rest in
our true nature, buddha nature.

Hope this helps a little...Good luck with your novel and art
Bodhicitta