Sunday, June 5, 2022

Holiness from the Role You Play

You can fight your sins one by one, or, from another perspective, can try to train yourself out of bad behaviors one by one. If you don't have success, or if you find that you can't keep ahead of them (your focus on one of them means you can't focus on others which come back, perhaps), then maybe you need to take a different tack.

Humans are often actors and wear spirits and roles. Sometimes you have a choice of which spirit to take in, or role to play. You could take in the spirit of Smerdyakov, Dmitri, Ivan, or Alyosha. Or the role of "member in good standing of your society, political tribe, or family of origin or choice". You could try to take on the spirit of Jesus, or of Mary or Moses. Your behaviors will follow from the role you play, which is bound to the spirit of the character. In this way you can do greater good than by dealing with individual behaviors. (Or perhaps greater harm, depending on the role chosen.)

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