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The Real Seven Deadly Sins

Tommy Acosta, Sedona Times Publishing guest writer

Tommy Acosta, Sedona Times Publishing guest writer

Sedona AZ (January 13, 2010) – An exclusive guest editorial to the SedonaEye.com, formerly SedonaTimes.com, by Tommy Acosta, Sedona Arizona:

These are the real seven deadly sins that stop us, thwart us from ever being able to achieve our dreams:

1. Regret…

“Wishing I had done something else. Regret for what I did not do. Why did I do that? I should have, could have and made the wrong decision not to.”

This sin is paramount in the self-hate and torture of oneself. It is the paralysis, the stopper of creative thinking because the mind then preoccupies itself with the past and wishing it had done something else. Over and over thoughts of regret run through the mind, sickening the thinker, stealing energy and lowering the immune system. Can one change the past? No! Only what you think of the past can be changed. Tortured by regret, one is blinded to the fruits of the present or hope for the future.  Regret slowly kills. Regret takes away the sweetness of the present. Regret is mother and father of sorrow.

The question is how can one change regret? The answer is to know that whatever you did wrong was simply a divine correction for you to do right the next time around. It is the opportunity for one to change their thoughts and realize there is nothing left in the past. There is no hope in regret.  Sorrow reins king for those living in regret. Can I let go of regret when everything in the present reminds me of the mistake I made? Every minute passes and the thoughts torturing me run through my mind. What can be done to break the cycle, if anything?

There is only one hope, and that is the knowing of God, knowing the peace of God, feeling the reality of God and having faith in God. What can we do but that? The thoughts of regret can not be replaced with hope while they play their constant melody of upset. God whispers it is alright. God takes your hand through the valley of remorse. God explains there is more, there is something special, wonderful waiting once you get past the thought of regret and see the silver lining to the dark cloud. Feel the love of God strong, forgive your self and look to the next opportunity to do right.

2. Guilt

“I was wrong. I failed. I am ashamed for what I did. I hate myself.”

Guilt is the offspring of regret. Here is where shame comes into the picture to heap itself upon remorse — Had I not done that then I would have been alright — I hurt someone, denied them their rights, took away their hope, hurt them.

Again, it is in thought were this monster lives. In the mind, seen and unseen, guilt works its way into our lives. Guilt creates the feeling of worthlessness. It supports failure because you deserve failure for what you did or failed to do. While carrying guilt everything good you want to do is tainted. Guilt smears success. It thwarts your every attempt to do well or go forward. It won’t let you achieve success because you know you don’t deserve it.

The only antidote to guilt is forgiveness.

So we pray:

“Oh heavenly Mother/Father forgive me for what I have done. Let your calm hand sweep across my brow and forgive me for the pain I have caused. Heal those I have wounded. Help me to forgive myself for only then can I be free to love myself and others again. Help lift the burden I carry. Teach me the only way to self forgiveness is my forgiveness of others.”

So again, the only choice, hope for the ending of guilt and its parent regret, lies in the Divinity we are part and whole of. Only by recognizing our divinity and knowing God is with us at all times and always forgiving, can we forgive ourselves and others. See Divinity in those who you know and hurt, and let your love out of its prison.

3. Doubt

“What should I do? Am I wrong or right? Should I stay or should I go?

Doubt follows regret and guilt like a dog does its loyal master. Regret for mistakes, guilt for having hurt or failed, sets the stage for doubt. With our minds and hearts filled with regret and guilt, how can we be sure the decisions we make are right?

Doubt stops us from feeling what is right or wrong — what we should or should not do. We cannot make right decisions when we are in doubt. We do not trust ourselves to do the right thing, whether it is picking the right color for a shirt of buying the right stock or even whether we should say yes or no. In doubt, the past plays its roll in messing with the future. Past mistakes twirl in our minds and prevent the clear, thinking through of problems.

Confidence is the victim of doubt and as confidence falls, so do positive outcomes linked to our decisions. Without confidence, doubt takes over everything and soon we are in a negative spiral as our world crumbles around us and every decision we make brings bitter fruit.

Like regret and guilt, there is only one source that can free us from doubt, and that is God, our Divine self, divinity in all. Look to God for the source for He can guide us through the turbulent seas of doubt.

Creation replies:

“Oh see me my child for I am in you, with you and around you here now, through the past and forever. Place your hand in mine and have faith in me for I am the good of all and I love you full and complete. Call upon me when doubt comes, I will come and I am here. Have faith, have faith and I will sooth regret and guilt and clear the path to right decision. Be confident in me for I am the source of all. Don’t worry. I am here with you. All is right. All is good. I love you.”

This is the message the Divine has for all. Faith is the antidote to doubt.

4. Fear

Oh no! I’m scared! I can’t! What can happen? I’m afraid! Help! I’m going to get hurt. I am lost. I’m going to die!

The root of regret, guilt and doubt is fear. Fear of making the wrong decision. Fear of losing. Fear of death. Fear of poverty. There are a million colors to fear and a million reasons to fear. As long as there is fear there is no rest. There is no joy. There is no love. Fear fills our ever move with trembling. Decisions made out of fear are always sure to fail, to hurt, to cause regret, guilt and doubt. Fear-based decisions sabotage all the good you wish for yourself or others. Fear leads to destroyed relationships, jealousy, divorce, estrangement, wars, murder, mayhem and chaos.

Fear kills the feeler. The emotion robs the body of everything good it has.

So we pray.

“Dear God, please free me from my fears. my pain, my sorrow. I am so scared, so lost right now. I am in deep pain, trembling, seeing a sorrowful future with no hope or goodness. I don’t know what to do. I want to cry. Help me! I am so scared. I’m so scared.”

But know the comfort of Divinity —

“Cry not beautiful one. Fear not. Why fear when you are cradled by my love? There is no fear when you realize we are one. We are one my child. I am here with you right now taking you through this. Know I am real. Know that I love you, so much, so much. Feel me here now. Feel my hand on your brow. Everything is as it should be. Everything is balanced. Everything is complete. I am you and you are me. We are all and we are complete. I am here always waiting for you to see we are we.”

5. Panic

Run! Hide! Help! Argh!

Panic is the culmination of fear. Here is where the greatest mistakes are made. When fear is unbridled and panic sets in, the mind no longer thinks, reason ends and we are sucked into a vortex of wrong decisions. In panic, we are blind, no longer capable of anything but running off a cliff or destroying everything we ever built or meant something to us.  We are frozen in panic. The heart pumps wildly. The body lurches. Adrenalin fires through us. Our immune systems disintegrate. We want to run, hide, but there is no place to go. We lose our ability to reason. We are vulnerable to everything. We stampede like a herd of frightened cattle into an abyss of despair. We are finished. In panic, we forget even to call upon God for help.

But He is here, always. In panic, there is only one way out, and that is the stillness of God, in you, deep. He is there waiting. Stop. Listen. It’s the only way out.

God consoles:

“Hear me. Hear me. Hear me now. Feel your heart. It is beating. I am that beat. Listen to your thoughts. They are rushing. Join me here watching. Step out of the rapids for a moment. Feel me. I am here. My precious, my beloved, don’t cry, don’t panic, I am here to catch you. I have you in my hands. Fear not. Do not tremble. I love you. I love you. Be still. Be quiet. Listen. Can you hear my whisper? In the darkest of your dark call upon me. Or I will call upon you. Rest, breathe, you are Divine as I am. I love you. I love you. I do.”

6. Helplessness

There is nothing I can do. Why bother. It’s no use. I can’t. It’s over. I am done.

When all hope is lost, and we give up, after the fear, after the doubt, the panic, regret and guilt, there is hopelessness.

Hopelessness is the last stop before extinction. But it can also be the best place to find God and consciously become one with Divinity because the mind, spirit and body have no where else to turn. There is nothing left for you to do. You are done. You have tried it all, and now, you are lying in a bed of helplessness, not able to do anything, not able to rise from your defeat.

In this place, calling upon your Divine self, seeking conscious union with God, can best cement the full-blown understanding of your Divine nature forever in your being. Abandonment to Divinity as your source, your guide, your mission and your hope can be best accomplished when you have been stripped away from your pretensions and realize the only reality that counts is your Divine nature.

And in that dark moment when all is lost, you turn to the source of All.

“Oh God, I cannot rise from my bed. Why bother. There is nothing left for me anymore. I am finished forever. I have tried and failed every time. There is no hope. I am helpless. Is there hope? Can you help me? Can you rise me up from my darkness? Can you free me from the chains that bind me? I am ready to give myself up. I am no longer me. I am in your hands.”

The Divine is hope. The Divine is action. The Divine is love.

“How can there not be hope when I love you the way I do? Let yourself go. Be mine. Trouble not, for you have given you to me as I give me to you. I am here everywhere. You are cradled in my love. I will raise you from helplessness and despair. I will give you the strength and courage to move forward again. Just be with me. Listen to me. I am in your mind all the time talking. Just ask and you shall receive. Here I am. Take me. Be me. I am you. Take my hand and rise. Nothing will stand in our way. Be one with me. Be part of me as I am part of you. Rise, rise from your helplessness. Come, take my hand, I will help you. I love you. I love you because you are me and I can love me through you, my mirror, my co-creator, my omnipotent and sacred child.”

7.  Death

Goodbye…

After helplessness there can only be one outcome — and that is death – if one’s Divine nature is not realized before passing from the mortal plane.

That type of death is the real end. The spirit that passes not knowing its own Divine nature and unity with God, passes into a darkness broken only by a return to flesh to once again try to achieve, try to remember one’s conscious union with God.

Death, after one’s conscious union with all All is not death, but the beginning of life, real life, the life of Divine oneness with creation itself.

So we pray:

“Dear God do not let me pass from this mortal plane without my deep understanding, knowing and realization of our Divine kinship. Let me stay in mortal form until the day, hour, minute and second that I consciously remember my oneness with you and every cell in my body sings the re-union. Then I will be ready to join you in the conscious caretaking of Creation. In the joy of you I am and in knowing you so full I am reborn with every new life in the cosmos. Once we are consciously one, death can never take me.”

And Creation assures:

“We are one my beautiful child and have always been before time itself began. I am here all the time with you breathing light into your mind and whispering my love, sharing peace and hope. I am one with you. Know I am you. Listen to me for I am here with you right now. The most important thing you can do in this life is to know me. The very reason you were created was so I can know myself. Only through you can I know me. And only through me can you know yourself.”

Thus, we can see how falling into Regret, Guilt, Doubt, Fear, Panic, Helplessness and Death are of themselves “sins,” seven deadly sins that truly stop us from experiencing, remembering, the true oneness of ourselves with Divinity.  Never forget your kinship with Creation.

Be assured, Creation never does.

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2 Comments

  1. Patti Nelsen says:

    The mind is like a Phantom whereas it tries to keep us in the Past and the Future which both out picture as the 7 deadly sins. The only POWER the mind has over us is to keep us OUT of the present moment. This very moment is the only place that God/Goddess exists. If we can learn to be happy in this very moment or just plain be in this very moment, we then can understand there is no past or future. It is all illusion, including the 7 deadly sins, as the 7 deadly sins do not reside in the MOMENT hence creation of the illusion. Therefore, if we stay out of the illusion of the past and future, we then may understand that everything in this moment is in the Divine Plan and everything else are just experiences of the Divine Plan. No duality. No right/wrong, black/white, yes/no/ should I/shouldn’t I, etc. We can choose to become our Godself or we can choose to become a Victim. The 7 deadly sins is the Victim. This very moment is our Godself and if we are in the moment every moment, there are no sins because nothing else exists. Think of it like puppets in a play. God manuvers the strings Divinely and nothing is to be regreted. For it is only expereince in getting us where we are to be in the play of Divinity. Everthing has been given to us a gift to grow on OUR path. Not someone else’s path. Just our path Divinely Individually. No hurts, no pains, no fears, no regrets or any of the others mentioned……….. that is the illusion. It is time we move through the eye of the needle and see no more illusion as mentioned in this article as the entire artical is a beautiful display of what is the illusion. We are all perfect. Each and every one of us in all that we do. It is our mind that is sick and un-Godly that tells us differently and creates that illusion.

    Thank you for writing this aritical so that we can touch so many hearts that may be in that place of illusion. We create Sin in our mind as there is no Sin in the heart center of Christ Consiousness. Sin is unable to create and manifest itself if we are in that heart center and the moment at all times. Sin can’t exist in that place. Just unconditional love is able to exist in that place so lets take up our crosses and go to that place that is real inside our hearts. Jesus said “The way to the father is THROUGH ME”………what else would that mean other than the word ‘through me’ means move through the heart center of Christ Consiousness of uncondtional LOVE as nothing else exists…….. Namaste’

  2. Gary Chamberlain says:

    Dear Tommy,

    In regards to your article “The Real Seven Sins”, we need more vocal people like you. The key word is vocal! There are many who have wholsome values, convictions and strength of charactor but their main weakness is not speaking up. They keep these values a secret. We all need to promote and defend the values you have described. I have come to realize that you, Rita Livingston and the staff members I have met are some of the people. You verbalize your values. Thank you for being who you are.

    Based on my exposure to The Sedona Times and the people associated with it, I find that they are willing to discuss many social issues which most people tend to want to sweep under the rug, especially city, state and federal government leaders.

    Guess what? The rug has been rendered usless due to a big lump. It’s time to clean these messes up, for they can no longer can go unnoticed.

    One contributor to the lump under the rug is the litter in our community. The Sedona Times and it’s staff have been very generous in their coverage of our Road Warrior and CSI litter abatement program. Your organization has continued to follow our progress which now includes the virtual community of Folksville. Our community includes many citizens and businesses from Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Clarkdale, Jerome and Sedona who have come together to try to reduce the illegally dumped litter in our communities. We have pride!

    As the Mayor of Folksville, Arizona (USA), our community wants to thank you and The Sedona Times for being vocal!

    Gary Chamberlain
    Mayor of Folksville, AZ (USA)
    Cornville, AZ
    89A.CSI@gmail.com

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