Bible thumpers everywhere shout for you to stop sinning.
And some of them can even quote scripture, which they point out that you are sinning.
But, do any of them really know what a sin is?
There are a few that i have talked to that have an idea, but most only know of it as "the rules of god". They say if you break a rule, commit a sin, that god will be angry with you!
I can comperhend how they come to this conclusion, because that is the way it is taught, that is the way it go translated. That is the way the bible was edited/abridged.
A sin can most simply be described as something that hurts your soul.
An example
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife
This commandment is hard to understand because it is missing all of its context. They got rid of that to make it a list of ten.
So, what is the sin? Is it all about the neighbor? (you need to stay friends with him) Is it about the wife? Is it because she is hot? Is it because your wife is not? Is it because she doesn't nag? Or is it just about the coveting?
Well, it is about you hurting and limiting yourself. Not you physically, although that may happen, but your soul, your heart, your energy body.
You are over there wishing you had that guy's wife. And this hurts you. If you were wishing you had a (good looking, supportive, non-nagging…) wife, now all you are dealing with is the pain of choosing what you want. There is stress between where you are, and where you want to be. This stress exists whenever creating something new. And it is the price of life. The Buddhists call this "suffering", and why they say "life is suffering".
But, this doesn't hurt your soul.
So, what is it in coveting that wounds you deeply?
It is because of the energy structure of coveting (your neighbor's wife)
You are wanting something that is already taken. So, you want it, and you are holding yourself away from it. This is not just stress of creating, this is a tearing apart of yourself.
You are also wanting something that you can never have. You cannot have "their relationship". That relationship exists between them, and even if he dies, or elsewise gets removed, it will never be transferred to you. Further, the relationship you are coveting is all in your head! You do not know what is really going on between them. Seeing their Instagram photos of their vacation does not let you in on anything they experienced on that vacation. It is all, and only in your head.
So, you want something you cannot have.
You want something, that you will have to break/destroy, to insert yourself into.
You are keeping yourself from ever having it.
All these destructive thoughts, and it doesn't have any way of getting what you want.
This structure is soul/heart/energy body crushing/ripping. (sorry, we don't have real words for these things)
Not a sin: Seeing something in your neighbor's relationship that you feel you would like. So, you get with your wife and tell her about it and how it made you feel, and then she adopts it. Or maybe a new wife comes into your life that embodies that desire and you get to experience it. These are both creative (not destructive) ways of manifesting your desire.
Coveting is a sin because it is you, holding yourself apart from what you want, in a destructive way that either festers inside you, or you act upon it and destroy all that was good, that you wanted in the first place.
What is a Sin?
A sin is basically something that hurts your soul. And since humans are not very good at seeing/feeling damage to their soul (hey, we ignore indigestion, and that is physical) we have to be told about these things.
Sorta like telling someone the stove is hot, do not put your hand on it. When they really can't see or feel the stove.
If you are into energy work, and healing your body, you can get to a point where you notice lies hurt you. Yes, lying is a sin. (but this will be a post in itself, telling the "honest, brutal truth" is not automatically not-a-sin)
Everything that you do that keeps you from your desires is a sin. You are a hugely powerful being that can manifest anything you can think of. So, keeping yourself from something you want to experience is very painful.
We are all connected, so hurting someone else is also hurting ourselves. That is why murder is a sin. (this is what the original translation of the bible says) But, killing is a sin too, even in self-defense. Letting yourself get hurt is also a sin, but the bible has been (re)written to make you think self-sacrifice is godly. All of these things cause harm to your soul. You will have to heal all of these wounds, and it may take dozens or hundreds of lives to do so.
It would be best if all of us could do energy work, and see/feel our energy bodies and understand what is/has hurt us, and to find constructive ways to stop doing that.
Until then, we will have guide books that tell us things that are a Sin.