Repentance

[Starfish]

Wonderful posts. Thank you all.

It helps me to think of repentance as change for the better. Simple as that.

[Mestemia]

Originally Posted by idea

Does anyone else have any experience with Metanoia?

Sure have.
And it led me away from not only Christianity, but all other "organized" religion.

[idea]

Originally Posted by Peace

The following are the steps to repentance in Islam:

• To stop the sin
• to regret sincerely for the sin you committed
• to ask forgiveness from the Forgiver the Merciful, our God
• to take decision and to have a pure intention to never return to that sin again

so confession and restitution where possible are not part of it? I think those are the two hardest steps.

Originally Posted by Mestemia

Sure have.
And it led me away from not only Christianity, but all other "organized" religion.

That is a paradigm shift not Metanoia ...

Originally Posted by Starfish

It helps me to think of repentance as change for the better. Simple as that.

Yes, better to think of where we can go than where we have been.

God remembers our sins no more, but should we remember them? The Israelites are told to remember their bondage...
Ex 13:3 And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.

if we just forget, we might forget what we learned, there would have been no point in going through any of it if it is all forgotten by everyone... what do you think?

[zenzero]

Friend Peace,

Hi zenzero
Tell me have you ever felt a remorse and guilt for doing a "bad" deed?
feeling remorse and guilt for committing a bad deed "sin" is something very normal and so as to get rid of that feeling of guilt one should ask forgiveness and repent.
lying is a sin, stealing, backbiting, insulting people and hurting them are sins, fornication, adultery and in Islam drinking alcohol is a sin, usury, eating pork... so disobeying God in genearl is a sin, for committing the aformentioned sins are forms of disobeying God.
Hope you see how we perceive sin, if not please don't hestitate for more clarification.
Peace

For me all religions are Paths or ways to realoise the self which is not seperate but a small part of that whole which is concpetualised by different names by different religions.
Personally always try to do things with awareness and do not feel bad about doing anything as do not consider anything as bad or sin. I drink occassionaly which i do not consider as a sin. I used to take marijuana, charas, etc which have no more need since over 33 years. Smoking too has dropped as a habit.
do not need to lie as have nothing to loose.
Whatever you mentioned is clear BUt what am trying to communicate is not getting across to you. What you call as sins are not as per your own experience they are borrowed from texts which are not sins by another standard then what can you say?
Love & rgds

[Starfish]

Originally Posted by idea

Yes, better to think of where we can go than where we have been.

God remembers our sins no more, but should we remember them? The Israelites are told to remember their bondage...
Ex 13:3 And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.

if we just forget, we might forget what we learned, there would have been no point in going through any of it if it is all forgotten by everyone... what do you think?

I don't think any of us forget, as God can. But once we've repented, we need for forgive ourselves, as God does. That way we can keep the lessons learned, and move on.

[idea]

Originally Posted by zenzero

Friend Peace,

For me all religions are Paths or ways to realoise the self which is not seperate but a small part of that whole which is concpetualised by different names by different religions.
Personally always try to do things with awareness

if you are trying to do one thing over another, that indicates that you consider one type of being better than another, which leads to good/bad...

What is the point of trying to know yourself to the core, to get rid of passions or desires if not to become a "better" person? If you are not becoming a "better" person, what do you become?

and do not feel bad about doing anything as do not consider anything as bad or sin. I drink occassionaly which i do not consider as a sin. I used to take marijuana, charas, etc which have no more need since over 33 years. Smoking too has dropped as a habit.
do not need to lie as have nothing to loose.
Whatever you mentioned is clear BUt what am trying to communicate is not getting across to you. What you call as sins are not as per your own experience they are borrowed from texts which are not sins by another standard then what can you say?
Love & rgds

many sins are pretty universal though, not from one text or one people, most agree it is wrong to steal, murder, rape, etc.... what standard disagrees with calling the previous sins?

[Peace]

Originally Posted by idea

so confession and restitution where possible are not part of it? I think those are the two hardest steps.

Confession to whom? to the one we wronged?
if I commit a sin and in doing it I wrong only ourselves, so the matter is between me and my Creator and I resort directly to Him knocking at His door asking for forgiveness from the Merciful. I need no mediator between me and my Creator; for in Islam there is no mediator between God and His servants.
if we wronged someone and he knows about it so we can ask forgiveness from God and also from the one we wronged, but if he just doesn't know about it so we just keep it between us and God, for God conceals the defects of His servants, and we ask forgiveness from God and also ask forgiveness for the one we wronged, for asking forgivenss for the latter wipes out his sins and thus doing something good for him.
Restitution; if it's possible yes we should do that but if we can't afford it and its not within our means we should ask forgivenss from those we wronged and of course ask it from the Forgiver who forgives all sins, our Merciful God.

[Peace]

Originally Posted by zenzero

Friend Peace,

For me all religions are Paths or ways to realoise the self which is not seperate but a small part of that whole which is concpetualised by different names by different religions.
Personally always try to do things with awareness and do not feel bad about doing anything as do not consider anything as bad or sin. I drink occassionaly which i do not consider as a sin. I used to take marijuana, charas, etc which have no more need since over 33 years. Smoking too has dropped as a habit.
do not need to lie as have nothing to loose.
Whatever you mentioned is clear BUt what am trying to communicate is not getting across to you. What you call as sins are not as per your own experience they are borrowed from texts which are not sins by another standard then what can you say?
Love & rgds

Dear Zenero, I would say that when there is conscious one feels the sin. The sin is whatever the heart and the mind feel uneasy with, and thus feeling guilt. As idea said stealing, rape, murder ... are universally considered as sins. Don't you consiser those deeds as bad deeds or rather evil deeds?
We are not created in vain with no puropse on this earth as if we are living in jungles with no moral codes to follow. We are created for a noble mission and to let the good morals prevail the earth.