The word sin and the word unconscious are both but words. We can mean different things when we talk about sins and unconsciousness but I would say that it is the same thing.

In biblical Hebrew, the generic word for sin is het. It means to error, to miss the mark. It does not mean to do evil. (Wikipedia)

In Buddhism and Hinduism, they do not talk about sins. They talk about Karma. Good deeds produce good results bad deeds produce bad results.

Atheists do not use the word sin. They talk about right or wrong. It is wrong to abuse children. It is wrong to exploit poor people. You use the word unconscious. Only unconscious people exploit poor people or abuse children. It is a matter of words. If the bad deed is wrong, bad karma, unconscious or sinful doesn’t really matter, I think.

The belief that awakening is possible to all people, also to those who have done terrible things is not cynical. We have all been unconscious and we have all done bad things. I also believe that awakening is not about an on or off kind of thing. You can wake up to some extent during the day, some days more, some days less. One moment unconscious, the next moment half awake, sometimes wide awake. Enlightenment, the final awakening is for the Buddhas, I think, not for me. Soon we will disappear in the fog of Alzheimer’s disease or some other form of dementia.

Suppose that you were a selfish, nasty and unpleasant person. Suppose that you had caused a lot of misery to a lot of people. Maybe you had been drinking to much and neglected your children, maybe you had abused them when you were drunk. Or suppose you were a big businessman, merciless, cold as ice, and that you had exploited a lot of poor people in poor countries to make yourself richer. It would then be a matter of course that your brain produced a lot of explanations to explain away your wrongdoings. “I create jobs. If they hadn’t worked for me they would have been worse off. They should be grateful, really. Without me, they would have been starving. And I look at all the money I spend on charity. And I go to church on Sunday. I'm a good man”

It is not very probable that such people will ever wake up. It is rare that such people realize fully what they have done and what kind of people they are. But it is possible. All people have the possibility to wake up, here in this life. Your sins are forgiven and your soul is free. This is a wonderful Christian belief, isn’t it?
It is such a pity that almost all churches and Christian sects seem to be corrupt, right wing or downright crazy. They can’t help people in the awakening process. How did that happen?

“Near death experiences can have tremendous effects on the people who have them… Changes in values and beliefs often occur after a near death experience, including changes in personality and outlook on life, such as greater appreciation of life, higher self esteem, greater compassion for others, a heightened sense of purpose and self understanding and a desire to learn…”

Matthew Dowel wrote this. I found it on the Wikipedia when I was goggling for “Near death experiences.”

After Pavlov discovered “the conditioned response”, he tried to find out how to extinguish it. The dogs, who were used to get food when a bell was ringing, never stopped to dribble when they heard the bell, even if they now got food without the sound from the bell and sometimes did not get food when the bell was ringing. When they heard the bell, they always began to dribble. The only way to get rid of the conditioned response was to beat the poor dogs so badly that they were brought very close to death. ´

To get rid of our conditionings we have to be brought very close to death. We have to have a near death experience. We can, if I have it right, experience something like a near death experience if we take certain drugs, DMT or ketamine.

I don’t want to have a near death experience. I will cross that bridge when I come to it. I don’t want to try DMT. I don’t want to fast for forty days in the desert. I accept my conditionings. I accept my conditioned self. I accept myself for what I am. When I hear the bell I begin to drivel. So what? I no longer try to better myself. I don’t try to wake up. I don’t try to stay awake. When I am tired, I go to bed.

It seems to me though, that science has a very limited way of looking at the world. Science believes in the existence of only one world, one universe. I believe that outside our universe there are many, many more. Our universe is like a bubble in an endless foam bath. This belief is according to science meaningless because it is not testable. OK, I accept that. However, I still believe in other universes, other worlds, other possibilities. I think that the idea of only one universe is poor. But I also believe that I will never get to know about these things even if I have a near death experience or eat DMT.

Where, do you think, did I have this thought? You have three guesses.

It is painful to an inveterate smoker to give up smoking. It is in fact extremely painful, at least for some smokers. I read in the paper that those with a specific gene will find it five times harder to give up smoking, compared to those who don’t have this gene.

Anyway, the first week or two without nicotine feels like a terrible flu. The withdrawal symptoms are peaking on the third day. The inner voice is coming up with amazingly negative ideas. The irritation with other people is unbearable. After the third week things are getting better. However, a deep sadness can linger on for months. A new identity is gradually being formed. The smoker can no longer hang out with his old friends at the pub. He feels like a crayfish. When a crayfish grow he has to shed his old shell and wait under a rock until the new shell is formed. He is loosing all meaning to his life. He is loosing his love of other people. Then, suddenly, he finds himself smoking again."Oh Brother! This is life, isn’t it?"

"How the hell did this happen? Why did I start smoking again? What an idiot I am?"
OK, after a few months of heavy chain smoking and self loathing the smoker realizes again that he has to do something or else he will cough his lungs out. So he stops smoking again and suffers the same ordeal again, for the umpteenth time, deeply convinced that this has to be the last time. However, his life can go on like this for years, back and forth, sometimes a smoker, sometimes a non smoker.

All habits are hard to give up, thinking habits, eating habits, drinking habits
inveterate prejudices, deeply ingrained opinions, selfishness, laziness. A habit is not always a problem, though. To eat, drink and be merry can be wonderful for years but eventually the day will come when some doctor tells you that either you change your lifestyle or you will die.

Selfishness is another vice but it is seldom a problem to the selfish person. It is the people he meets who suffers.

To give up prejudices, ingrained opinions and selfishness is probably the most difficult tasks you will ever have to face in your life. They are impossible to give up, I think. It is not even worth trying. The abandonment of a prejudice or a selfish belief will happen by itself or it won’t happen at all. A deeply ingrained belief or prejudice will not be abandoned, until the believer, at the bottom of his heart, realizes that he has been all wrong.

Yes, it is hard to give up ideas. To some people it is extremely hard. Think of all those who eventually realize that the cult they belong to is destructive and evil
Some people are also born into such cults. They need professional help from mind control experts and therapists to start a new life.

What if all of us need help from mind control experts to start a new life? What if all of us belong to different kind of destructive cults? Isn't this a terrible thought?

Whom do you talk to when you are talking to yourself? Who is this person? Mostly the inner voice is directed to someone else. All of us have imagined discussions in our heads. "When I meet her again I shall tell her that..." It is like a rehearsal. But whom are you talking to when you're talking to yourself? Who is listening to your explanations? Have you figured these things out yet? Is he like a schoolteacher
or is he more like a drunkard on a park bench? Is he like a police officer? Is he like a mafia boss? Do you have to spread yourself thin to please him or is he laid back and relaxed? Is it difficult to get him out of bed in the morning? Is it almost impossible to get him out of his god damn couch in the afternoon? Some people have a good old friend, some people have a sergeant.

Are you proud like a soldier when he is decorated by his imagined general, or do you feel more like a dog? Do you wag your inner tail or do you cringe when your master looks at you?

Of course he can be a she. What if she is like a nasty, judgmental and condescending wife of a millionaire. What if she is like a mother singing to herself in the laundry. What if she is like a prostitute with a serious drug problem? Could it be. that you have got hold of the wrong end of the stick? Maybe it is the police officer who is explaining his take on things to his imagined listers. What a mess!
The inner world is truly chaotic.

What does it feel like, do you think, to be possessed by an evil spirit? Or what does it feel like to be possessed by a stupid spirit or a goofy spirit or a lazy spirit? There are wired spirits, cool, calm and collected spirits, selfish spirits, silly spirits, high spirits, low spirits. There are so many possible spirits to be possessed by, but what does it feel like to not be possessed at all? Would you feel like a horse without a rider? Would you feel like a bird without a cage? Would you feel like a slave without a master? Or would you feel like a dog without a home? Is it like not being hypnotized?

I once worked with a guy who was very selfish. He always tried to shirk the harder work and leave it to someone else. He stole what he could and he was always complaining about everything and everybody. Every now and then he informed us that he regularly sent money to a family in India to help them. "It feels good to help poor people", he explained. His charity was clearly just a way to disguise his selfishness, but I never told him my thoughts about it. Isn’t charity always just a cover for selfishness?

Some folks live pure theoretical life‘s. All they talk about and care about is what they have picked up from books. They have theories about everything. They have theories about how life ought to be lived, the true nature of man, the true nature of the soul, how the society should be organized, how science and religion is related
You name it. They live in a theoretical world