Seven deadly sins?

I had wondered whether there was a different way of looking at what we do wrong. There's a pretty deadly standard to aspire to in the Christian tradition, one that discomforts me, not because it is strict but because it seems to leave no margin for being fallible. 

I was intrigued to find that around 400AD, Evagrius Ponticus came up with a list of traps for us – thoughts that could confuse our thinking and lead to a world of imagined reality.

There is a parallel with the deadly sins in the Bible, which came along a few hundred years later, courtesy of Pope Gregory. But the emphasis changed makedly. In the original, the emphasis is much more about gaining insights into the mistakes we make – where bad thinking leads to seeing things wrongly.

The original list of definitions made interesting reading for me:

1.      Gluttony: Anxiety about our’s health or becoming ill

2.      Fornication: Fantasy and obsession with the body – yours and mine

3.      Avarice: futile planning for an unreal future – obsession with things that don’t exist

4.      Envy: Obsession with the past

5.      Anger: Clinging to anger and the resentment that refuses forgiveness

6.      Self-pity: (Acedia in the original) where nothing engages our interest

7.      Vainglory: Day dreaming about our magnificence

8.      Pride: (really spiritual pride) Imagining that we can do things ourselves, without God’s help

Here I found a more practical code which keeps me in touch with my reality and with how I behave in this world. And a pointer to the encouragement that guides me towards an awakened spirit: Pay attention to yourself.