powertripping

which of the seven sins do you think is most addicting? Here’s a convenient list to ponder:

• Pride
• Lust
• Avarice
• Envy
• Gluttony
• Wrath
• Sloth

I guess it varies with each person. You know why Pride is the worst sin of all?

It’s because it is the root of all of the other sins. It is the folly of one’s pride (little decision matrix) which surmises that indulging in the above sins is a good idea.

• Lust: of course I deserve more “lovers” because I’m that much better.
• Avarice: rake in all the money I will, I need far more money than anyone else. No one else deserves my fortune but me. I earned it.
• Envy: how in the world could someone have more than me? I deserve more.
• Gluttony: of course I am going to eat more, why have any restraint? I deserve to have ice cream.
• Wrath: I am always right and you are always wrong. Of course I am right, and you deserve to be punished for not being right while I don’t ever need punishment.
• Sloth: There’s no need for me to do anything, others can do it for me. I will laze about all day, I deserve it.

Pride is the most devilish, isn’t it!

And that’s the tragedy: the inability to see the failures of the above actions. Why they’re wrong on a fundamental level. That they’re objectively wrong and yet I still fall for them to this day because of my Pride.

• Lust: No amount of “lovers” work in the long run, make you happy in the long run. It eviscerates meaning in any/all relationships. The punishment of Lust is an inability to feel love.
• Avarice: No amount of money will patch a sour mind, will bridge you closer to a brighter day. It is your mind that determines your reality, not your resources. Look at any lottery winner. The punishment of avarice is no longer experiencing life. You become the accountant til death.
• Envy: Wishing for material things assumes that acquisition of these material things will make you better off, but it misplaces satisfaction outside of you. Joy and everything you need is within you: the punishment of envy is that you will never know that joy.
• Gluttony: There’s food for need and food for pleasure. Most of us eat for pleasure despite all protests otherwise. And the punishment of Gluttony is not only misery but also sickness. A sickness of the Mind as one can no longer feel gratitude for what they eat, and a sickness of the Body as it breaks down.
• Wrath: An ultimate exercise in folly. The punishment of wrath is stress upon yourself. No amount of yelling changes anyone if you participate in enough arguments. This is why revolutions are fruitless in a way: fueled by so much anger against the regime, what you hate you eventually become when you topple it. What you focus on becomes your reality: you become what you hate.
• Sloth: Nature demands Growth or Death. The punishment of Sloth is perpetual hardship, mentally and physically. Mentally one has to fend off a feeling of Stagnation: to be condemned to the same lukewarm banal mildly morose existence unless you change. Physically, opportunity passes and the world moves on without you. On a body-physical level, not moving/stretching will cause much pain later in life. Ultimately, it condenses into a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness. It is anathema to living, if you hope to live.

Amusingly enough, my worst sin, Sloth, was also difficult for me to discern why exactly it is bad. Reading through the wikipedia article, it describes me to a T: most things are not worth the effort. I guess in sloth one loses the ability to reach higher states/love. As long as you plan to stick around, it’ll leave you stuck and riddled with regrets I suppose.

It was hard for me to define because I am not sure what goals are worth having and what to aim for. I know that, without goals, man will be miserable. Maybe a tragedy of sloth is that it closes out potential realities as simply impossible.

We ought to define what are we sinning against: it is the chalice of life. If you wish to live to the fullest then engaging in the above sins will achieve the opposite effect: you will instead live in despair.

Maybe I am too used to the pain of being a Sloth that it is hard to imagine the alternative life. I see most achievements and accolades as tricks to spend your energy incorrectly.

What’s your worst sin?

I guess the trick to get rid of Sloth is to accept that you can rest all you want when death comes.