Dorian Gray – on sin …

May 30, 2012 at 9:31 pm · Filed under Authors, Books, Entertainment, Faith, Philosophy, Poetry, Quotations, Quotes, Religion, Spirituality and tagged: Addiction, Art, Astrology, Baptist, Belief, Buddhism, Catholic, Chakra, Chi, Christianity, Church, Energy, Fundamentalist, Gnostic, God, Holy Spirit, Islam, Jesus, Jewish, Judaism, Love, Magic, Meditation, Miracle, Mormon, Muslim, Mysticism, Nature, Overcoming, Pain, Poetry, Prana, Presbyterian, Prose, Protestant, Religion, Samskara, Shaman, Shamanism, Shiite, Sikh, Soul, Spirituality, Suffering, Sunni, Tarot, Unitarian, Wicca, Wonder, Writing, Zen, Zodiac

An interesting quote … one could go SO many directions with this … anyone? 😉

“And yet,” continued Lord Henry, in his low, musical voice, and with that graceful wave of the hand that was always so characteristic of him, and that he had even in his Eton days, “I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream–I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of mediaevalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal– to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also.”

– Lord Henry; from the Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!

There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.

By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

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6 Comments»

Stephanie Jill Rudd wrote @ May 31, 2012 at 4:26 am

Reminding me of Rasputin, who belonged to the religious order that believed one only overcame sin by giving in to it and experiencing it fully for what it was.

Religion4All wrote @ May 31, 2012 at 7:22 am

🙂 … true. I was curious to see what responses this would get. This certainly is not my view on sin (the quote), but I thought it would get the conversation started. 😉

iamzion wrote @ May 31, 2012 at 6:11 am

Unconditional Love leaves no room for sin to remain, but temptation doesn’t require an act of sin, just the enticement to do something we would deny ourselves, and that does have a second option. That option requires patience and discipline, the hard work of training the self to choose Not to do the action but take another path. This will become the path always chosen eventually as a new habit is formed and temptation will dissipate.

For me, alcohol was an escape for 26 years. How long will it take before it is not a temptation? I’m guessing quite awhile. It is not a sin for me to drink, God loves me even if I drink myself into oblivion and waste away my life and time, but it is something I choose to deny myself because I desire to strive now for my potential, and use this life for the beauty and gifts I’ve been given.

Religion4All wrote @ May 31, 2012 at 7:21 am

Awesome … all this is leading up to a posting on the concept of “sin” … and I tend to agree with your take on it. I don’t think it is so black and white as most religious institutions often make it … to me there is being open and connected with God; and following God’s guidance … or there is shutting yourself off from God to do whatever else it is that you want to be doing (i.e. choosing something based in LOVE, or choosing something else). When you shut yourself down you will wind up sinning, when you maintain a constant relationship with God, you won’t. It really is that simple … and that also makes “sin” a subjective thing instead of a cookie cutter stamp to make every person fit into.

Major congrats on overcoming your challenge with alcohol … I know how hard it is to break something like that!

What is SIN? « Religion4All wrote @ May 31, 2012 at 3:20 pm

[…] more than one meditation session to it … they are: “The Absence of Sin“, “Dorian Gray – On Sin“, and […]

What is SIN? | Religion4All wrote @ October 8, 2014 at 8:44 am

[…] I dedicated more than one meditation session to it … they are: “The Absence of Sin“, “Dorian Gray – On Sin“, and […]

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