must be punished. If this idea from the world of duality still remained at the level of a concept, everything would be simple, because sin as a concept is not terrible. And if you approach this in a purely materialistic way, the concept of sinfulness may seem like a boring ecclesiastical conjecture, invented to control society. However, at the essential level of our psyche, there is a “mechanism”, some “details” of which fit well into the concept of sin and retribution. And as a result, we ourselves punish and justify ourselves every now and then. What is this mechanism? And how does it work?
Duality of mind
You are probably already familiar with the concept of duality. The essence of this concept is that our mind divides everything into “bad” and “good”, “right” and “wrong”, “bad” and good”. When the mind judges what is happening as “right,” we feel a bit of a reward. When the mind judges something as "wrong," processing of that signal begins until it is understood and accepted as the signal "right." If such processing does not take place, the “wrong” is deposited in long-term memory, forming the subconscious, from where the horde of repressed “wrong” influences the course of all mental processes. The more the subconscious is cluttered with unprocessed signals "wrong", the worse it affects the "working capacity" of the psyche, and the more often new signals "wrong" appear.
Psychological repression can be likened to the accumulation of karma. No wonder "negative" comes from the verb "deny". The more strongly we deny something, and the more actively we reach for the opposite of the denied, the more we swing the pendulum of the duality of this aspect in our own psyche. So, for example, the more a person craves entertainment, the more difficult it is for him to make efforts, work, go to work, etc. And accordingly, a calm attitude towards entertainment generates (in a good way) a calm attitude towards work, thus reducing the charge of duality between the denial of "boring" work and the thirst for interesting and fun entertainment.
If there are too many negative assessments in a person's life, which he is forced to restrain, over time all this will result in neurosis. Often the signal “wrong” goes to the subconscious when the mind evaluates the same phenomenon as “right” and “wrong” at the same time, that is, when the phenomenon itself contains an obvious duality. For example, when the mind encounters the dark and light aspect of life, a contradiction and a “hesitation” signal arises. So that this signal does not linger in RAM, it is sent to long-term memory, from where it can break out in an unsightly form at any time. If it is possible to process the signal of contradiction on the go, the person begins to laugh. If there is an initial understanding (depreciation), nothing happens - a person simply accepts what is happening as it is.
Dual reactions
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The point is that we ourselves consider our own mental suffering to be justified and appropriate. From early childhood, we have taught ourselves to punish ourselves with difficult experiences for something that does not fit into our ideas about how to live “correctly”. We may not even be aware of the existence of such concepts, but the mental mechanism of duality continues its work. The theme of such illusions on progressman.ru is one of the main ones.
For example, often a person tends to show excessive concern for loved ones, because it seems justified. Calm (at the level of the psyche) reaction to what is happening is perceived by other people as indifference and cruelty. Others are used to expecting a double reaction from us. We are ashamed of not living up to these expectations. But what is the use of negative experiences? What good can a person do under the influence of negative emotions when his mind is torn apart in a duality of experiences? It is very important to understand that in order to perform good deeds, we do not need pangs of conscience at all. If we are able to understand and choose the right decisions, realizing their appropriateness, then there is no need for guilt and pressure of conscience. It's all about knowing exactly what we want, what we need here and now. It all comes down to an honest look at yourself and your place in this life.
But what about an ordinary adult, in whose subconsciousness, from early childhood, a set of repressed experiences has been accumulating. If we take it as an axiom that each individual has a certain "program of experiences", according to which we inevitably experience ambivalent feelings (joy, grief, fear, surprise, boredom, interest, etc.) from infancy, then the question may arise: But can we somehow manage our experiences at all? Of course, we are not talking about drugs and other methods that physically interfere with the biochemistry of the body. If we imagine our own psyche in the image of a cluttered, dark and dusty room, through which rats run (uncontrollable thoughts), and our own “I” - as a person in this room, can we put cleanliness and order there? How to deal with the past, in which actions could remain,which the person regrets?
To understand and to forgive
As for our past, whatever it may be, it is necessary to understand that you could not have done otherwise. You acted under the influence of the level of understanding available at that time in your life. If understanding were different, the whole life would be different. And there is not much to talk about here. Nobody could do otherwise. Everyone in the world of duality has had, is and will be reasons that inevitably determine behavior. A person cannot be absolutely “bad” or “stupid”. There are reasons for everything, which depending on the level of our honesty towards ourselves, we are able to understand. Someone had a difficult childhood and early adulthood. Someone, on the contrary, remained an infantile child as an adult, because there was no proper upbringing. Another person lives life without knowing either grief or happiness. There are about six billion options. There is nothing regrettable in the pastbut there is eternity from which we learn lessons.
The steps of understanding and forgiveness must be started, first of all, in relation to oneself. A person who has freed himself from the burden of internal contradictions, has devalued the charges of the duality of internal antagonism between good and evil, is able to understand other people. We are able to help others when we have been able to help ourselves.
If no one could do otherwise, is the person responsible for their decisions? Here, as elsewhere, where relative and absolute concepts are mixed, we may encounter an apparent contradiction. Responsibility is the subjective duty of a person to recognize himself as the cause of his own actions, and to accept the consequences of these actions in accordance with the accepted norms of the environment in which a person lives. If you live in a society, and would like to communicate with socially adequate people, you need to be able to follow the (unspoken) laws of society. Responsibility is one of the conditional laws of society. However, in a general sense, responsibility can be called one of the main laws of life itself. For more on this topic, see the article “The Justice of Life”.
Healing
Sometimes a mature soul reaches such a state when practically no new repressions of duality into the subconscious arise. However, at the same time "karmas" from the past make themselves felt. In such a situation, you simply should not be led by these experiences. You should not savor your own worries, irritation, condemnation, resentment, etc. If experiences are spontaneous, you just let them come and go, rather than dancing to their tune.
We can even pray like true Christians, saying, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner," simply because we are not afraid of our "sins." We are ready to honestly admit what was and what is, without self-flagellation and without suppression. In this sense, prayer is a powerful tool for releasing the duality of repressed emotions.
It is quite obvious that the more things in life that we do not like, that we deny, the harder it is for us to live, the more the pendulum of duality swings. The stronger in our minds the division of life into spiritual and secular, the farther from each other the poles of light and dark, the stronger the inner conflict manifests itself. Ultimately, it is this division that creates doubt in the mind and the feeling that you are out of place. It is easy to love the image of God. It's hard to love a person. But we are all in this eternal reality as brothers and sisters, living the adventure of human life in infinite infinity in this age on this planet.
From duality to unity
God is everything. There is no suppression here. Life is one. We must be able to distinguish in order to raise a leg and lower it exactly to the next step. But how foolish it is to deny and hate the step from which the leg pushes off, in thirst for the next step on the ladder of life. At a certain point, we don't need hate to move. In wisdom, we learn to understand and accept life beyond the duality of the here and now. Even "stupidity" can be understood and accepted as part of the general movement of life, as a necessary experience.
Acceptance is not the indifference and hard-heartedness of an "immoral sinner." This is wisdom, calmness and moderation, in which we do everything to create harmony without the need for a painful division into dark and light. All these evaluations take place in our mind. What has been judged as "bad" is a bad part of our consciousness, which thus reflects life. That which has been judged as sacred is our light emanating from our consciousness. The good and the bad are our subjective projections onto the blank screen of life, the steps of which we walk smoothly, not rushing ourselves, and not denying the steps left behind. We simply move, accepting the present, to meet us here and now.