One man denies truth.
Another denies his own actions.
Both go into the dark
and in the next world suffer
for they offend truth.

Wear the yellow robe.
But if you are reckless
you will fall into darkness.

If you are reckless,
better to swallow molten iron
than to eat at the table of good folk.

If you court another man’s wife
you court trouble.
Your sleep is broken.
You lose your honor.
You fall into darkness.

You go against the law,
you go into the dark.
Your pleasures end in fear
and the king’s punishment is harsh.

But as a blade of grass held awkwardly
may cut your hand,
so renunciation may lead you into the dark.

The mother superior of a convent advertised for a cleaner and retired old Cohen applied for the job. Since he was the only applicant, the mother superior had no other choice but to hire him.

Six months later the mother called Mr. Cohen to her office and said to him, “Dear Mr. Cohen, we are very, very pleased with your work. You are the first of your faith to be employed by us and I must repeat that we are pleased. You are a conscientious man and the church has never been cleaner. There are, however, three things I feel I should point out to you. Firstly, Mr. Cohen, don’t wash your hands in the holy water. Secondly, don’t hang your coat on the cross. And thirdly, please address me as Mother Superior and not as Mrs. Shapiro.”

Man ordinarily is a robot. He lives apparently awake, but not really. He walks, he talks, he acts, but it is all as if in sleep – not conscious of what he is doing, not conscious of what he is saying, not conscious of all that surrounds him. He moves surrounded in a dark cloud of unawareness.

According to Gautama the Buddha, this is the original sin: to live unconsciously, to act out of unconsciousness.

In fact, the word sin comes from a root which means forgetfulness. Sin simply means that we are not conscious, aware, alert, that we don’t have any inner light to guide us.