LSP20: A New Spin on the Old Seven Deadlies

We've all heard about the seven deadly sins. In the Christian tradition, pride, envy, anger, lust, greed, sloth, and gluttony are the usual contenders for the crown of worst human traits ever. Even if you don't agree with the Church's teachings on why we're sinful, it's pretty hard to argue with the fact that human beings do awful, awful things to themselves, each other, and the planet because of pride, anger, and the rest.

When people behave badly, they often look to religion to explain their behaviour and give them tools to change their behaviour in the future. Sometimes people want to change because they're afraid their souls will end up in hell. Other times people want to change because they're tired of not being able to like themselves or trust themselves. Either way, they're up against the dreaded topic of ethics and morality.

Can you actually be happy or feel your connection with God if you don't try your best to be ethical or moral?

A lot of people have simply given up on the idea of trying to be ethical and trying to live a moral life. They pretend on the surface to care about ethics, and they're quick to express their shock and outrage on Twitter, but when they're asked in their own lives to make moral choices, they don't have the tools to actually do it. What's worse, they don't know why they don't have the tools.

It's almost impossible to tackle a major psychological and spiritual issue if you don't understand at a logical, rational, scientific level why you're doing what you're doing. You need a solid explanation to stand on, so to speak, a solid explanation to help ground you and keep you sane as you struggle to change and make new choices.

As we know, the Church's explanation for why you're being proud, envious, angry, lustful, greedy, slothful, and gluttonous is Sin with a capital "S." Various Eastern and New Age teachings have trumped Christianity's Sin by claiming that all your unloving behaviour is an illusion anyway, an illusion you can escape through your own hard work and discipline.

I offer an entirely different explanation. I suggest (because it's what I've been taught through my mystical connection with God the Mother, God the Father, and other angels in the Core) that almost all human beings are wrestling with the challenges of status addiction. It's status addiction -- not Sin, not karma, and not evil forces -- that's wrecking your life.

Status addiction tricks your brain into thinking you look like this . . .

What is pride? Pride is what you "feel" when the addicted parts of your brain sense your hoard of status points is being threatened.

What is envy? Envy is what you "feel" when the addicted parts of your brain suspect your neighbour has acquired some status points you "rightfully" deserve.

. . . when really, from the point of view of God, your angels, and your own soul, your status-addicted brain looks more like this. Status addiction saps the creativity, intuition, and sense of meaning and purpose from your life. If you want to get closer to God, you need to be honest with yourself about what status addiction is doing to your brain.

What is anger? Anger is what you "feel" when the addicted parts of your brain suspect your neighbour has tried to steal status points from you.

What is lust? Lust is what you "feel" when the addicted parts of your brain justify your plan to invade somebody else's personal boundaries to steal some of their status points.

What is greed? Greed is the addictive high you feel at the very thought of acquiring some new status points.

What is sloth? Sloth is the state of denial about your addiction disorder.

What is gluttony? Gluttony is a secondary addiction disorder (a co-morbid disorder) that easily arises in the brain of a person who's already experiencing another addiction disorder (in this case, the addiction to status).

That's status addiction in a nutshell.

Now here's the big question.

How many people do you know who have managed all on their own, without any help from anyone else, to personally recognize, confront, cope with, and completely heal their own major addiction disorders (e.g. addiction to opioids, pornography, perfectionism)?

I'm guessing not many.

It takes a community to build a culture based on status addiction, and it's going to take a community to confront and heal the catastrophic problems caused by this addiction.

The first step in healing any addiction is self honesty. The second is recognizing a higher power that can give you strength.

God, please help us with this great task!

Amen.


For Further Reflection:

You may have noticed as you read this post that when the seven deadly sins are defined as "shades" or "colours" of status addiction, it's easier to see how these behaviours violate the morality of boundaries, the morality that guides all loving actions in God's universe.

Almost everyone has been in the position of feeling what it's like to have your personal boundaries invaded.

Invasion of personal space can take many forms, from the innocuous (a neighbour who stands an inch or two too close to you) to the violent (a trusted professional who sexually assaults your children). Occasionally, invasions of personal space involve tangible weapons (e.g. knives, guns, or fists) that leave marks on your physical body, marks that other people can see and sympathize with. More often than not, though, the chosen weapons are things that can't be seen with the human eye: cruel remarks that cut you down and make you feel bad about yourself; intentional manipulation that tricks you into lowering your defences so your reputation or money can be stolen from you; denial and deceit that steal your voice; physical intimidation that threatens to steal your livelihood if you refuse to submit to sexual advances; aggressive demands that you obey, even worship, your abusers lest you be ejected from your family or community and left to fend for yourself.

All invasions, however, share a common thread: a sense that someone has stolen a piece of your personal safety.

As with other forms of injury, small cuts and bruises to your sense of personal safety can, and should be, healed in short order. But major assaults, such as attempted murder, rape, or spiritual violations, leave large holes that take years to heal and always leave scars no matter how loving and forgiving you are. Coping with such major injuries can become a full-time job, making it difficult for you to apply your time, energy, and talents to anything but survival.

If it were true, as so many spiritual leaders are currently claiming, that the path to spiritual enlightenment is eradication of boundaries and transcendence of the self, then we would expect to see great benefits accrue to all cultures that oppose boundaries and endorse Oneness. We would expect to see less suffering, greater prosperity, more happiness, and more cultural creativity in dictator-driven Communist societies; totalitarian and fascist regimes; fundamentalist sects; and certain Buddhist and New Age communities -- places that have given us the chance to observe the long term effects of practising Oneness.

We do not, in fact, see such benefits. Instead, we see the opposite.

Cultures and religions that embrace a morality of personal boundaries have done a particularly good job of reducing suffering and maintaining happiness while at the same time offering opportunities for individuation, creative self expression, mutual self respect, and the quest for Meaning.

In order for you to build and maintain your relationship with Mother Father God, you need to begin to examine the ways in which status addiction is punching holes through your personal sense of safety. You're not just looking for situations where other people are trying to steal from you; you're looking for the ways in which your own habits, ideologies, and unchallenged beliefs are deceiving you into stealing from yourself.

This is what all forms of addiction boil down to: allowing some parts of your brain (especially your reward and pleasure pathways) to steal from other parts of your human self (such as your soul-related Meaning networks).

At the start of every spiritual journey, there's a person who doesn't know how to get rid of his or her multifaceted expressions of pride, envy, anger, lust, greed, sloth, and gluttony. But each step towards Humbleness, Divine Love, and Divine Forgiveness will help you gradually shed the burden of status addiction's smelly, toxic, thorn-covered leaves.

The leaves that grow in their place are Peace.

LSP13: How I Met Your Mother: A Divine Love Story

When you're very, very big and very, very smart, it's not easy to be humble.

This is a truth we can see during our lives as human beings. All around us, we lament what happens to our lives when certain individuals and groups decide they're better than other people.

We see what happens when individuals and groups who have more money, more education, more ideas, and more influence refuse to help other people with these gifts, but instead use these gifts to abuse. We see how the fruits of "chosenness" destroy peace in our world. We see how peace isn't possible when it's more important for us to be "better" and "chosen" than "egalitarian" and "humble" toward our neighbours. And we see how hard it is for individuals of great privilege to consider themselves no more important than anybody else on Planet Earth.

This is obvious to us as human beings, but it's not obvious to us at all during our lives as angels, as persons-of-soul, as children of God on the Other Side. So when our beloved Mother and Father tell us their ancient love story -- "How I Met Your Mother" -- there are parts of the story that just don't make any sense to us. Many angels are shocked and baffled by the early part of the story, the part where two "big and smart" people meet in the jungle of pre-Big-Bang energy fields and try very hard to outsmart and outdo each other because neither one knows anything about humbleness or love.

The details of their story are personal and private, of course, as you'd expect when we're talking about our divine parents, but suffice it to say that these two very different consciousnesses found redemption in the joy that comes from being humble.

I call this photo Divine Love. It's another one of the photos I took with a fogged over lens at the Etobicoke conservatory. Divine Love is soft, kind, mysterious, puzzling, a bit hard to put labels on, and much easier to see with your peripheral vision than with the focused vision in the centre of your eye. It's almost as if you're using your eyes to hear God's quiet voice. Photo credit JAT.

Over the years, I've come across a small number of people who understand that God the Mother and God the Father -- far from being aloof, transcendent, and unemotional -- are, in fact, truly humble. They're both very, very big and very, very smart, but they don't think they're "better" than any of their children. Their immense love -- the love that so many humans have felt over the centuries -- is only possible because of their humbleness.

As our human lives teach us, humbleness is not inevitable. It's a choice. It's an exercise of free will -- an exercise of free will that's so brave it's almost beyond comprehension (which is why some of us come here to figure it out). It's a choice to be totally honest about who you are and what you can do (thereby not denying your talents) while at the same time you're deeply grateful for somebody's else's talents. There's no jealousy, no envy, no competition. No power games, no worship, no glory. There's just tons and tons of gratitude.

This is what it's like to live on the Other Side as a person-of-soul. This is what it's like to be a child of God who's loved for who you really are. The feeling of being safe in Divine Love is the feeling of being safe in yourself. No one will judge you or demand that you change because your favourite colour is pink instead of black. There's no fear involved in simply being you. Humbleness is one of the anchoring points of this safety.

Just as we're called to open our hearts to our human neighbours and honour them with the gift of humbleness (thereby participating in the experience of divine redemption), so are we called to offer the same safety and dignity to our blessed Mother and Father. Go ahead and be awed and amazed by the wonder of who they really are -- I'm amazed by them all the time! -- but don't diminish your relationship with them by insisting you're unworthy of their love and trust. They don't see it that way (despite what you've been told by religious leaders). They see you as one of their children, no matter what you did yesterday that wasn't so nice.

Instead of getting on your knees to pray, stand up, hold onto your neighbour's hand, look God right in the eye, and be honest about how much your heart is hurting and how much help you need during your time as a human being on Planet Earth. Be humble. Admit you don't know everything and can't do everything. Ask for help in being the best "frail mortal human being" you can be. Ask for help in being who you really are.

It's all anyone can do.


For Further Reflection:

Have you ever had the feeling that no matter how hard you try to move forward on your spiritual path, you're constantly blocked?

You're not alone. Most people have this feeling. I had it during the early years of my own journey, and I still remember how discouraged and frustrated I felt.

I was sure I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing (that is, what spiritual and religious leaders had told me to do). I logically concluded that the practices themselves were fine -- because so many spiritual leaders agreed on the merits of intercessory prayer, fasting, meditation, self-dissolution, and the like -- so if the practices weren't working . . . the problem must be me!

It didn't occur to me for the longest time that I wasn't the problem. It was the ancient and very popular spiritual practices that were the problem.

Even after my guardian angel told me countless times that I was worthy of God's love and forgiveness, I didn't want to believe him. I assumed I just wasn't trying hard enough to master those ancient spiritual practices, so I redoubled my efforts. Then tripled them.

What I got for all my trouble was a sense of being further away from God.

Divine Love, as it turns out, is not about Oneness. It's about Humbleness. It's about feeling wonder and gratitude for our differences. It's about rejoicing in our unique talents and using them to benefit others. It's about encouraging our loved ones to see themselves as beautiful. It's about having a shared morality based on boundaries -- respectful, mature, courteous boundaries. Without a proper understanding of boundaries, it's too easy for the really big, really smart people to take advantage of those who have different gifts.

A morality of boundaries (Divine Love) is the complete opposite of a morality of Oneness.

Many of the spiritual practices endorsed today evolve directly from a morality of Oneness. The practices make perfect sense if your goal is to achieve a sense of Oneness, a sense of blurred boundaries, a sense of transcending yourself.

But getting closer to God actually means building "new and improved" boundaries, not dissolving your boundaries. To feel Divine Love, to feel God's presence in your life, you need to start from scratch by asking God to help you learn about the spiritual practice of Humbleness.

Just so you know . . . in doing so, you'll be giving up any pretense of chosenness or election or spiritual enlightenment or Ascension. You'll simply be asking to know yourself better and to know your Divine Parents better.

From the tree trunk of Humbleness spring the fruits of deep connection with a humble God.

It's through finding your own Humbleness that you'll share in the Divine Love story of a Mother and Father who love you very much.