Siddhartha

"What seems to separate the two is that Siddhartha has lived the life of a sinner, and through this experience as well as his religious experiences he has learned and experienced the oneness of the universe"

~ Barry Murdaco

 "Listen well, my dear, listen well! The sinner, which I am and which you are, is a sinner, but in times to come he will be Brahma again, he will reach the Nirvana, will be Buddha—

... all sin already carries the divine forgiveness in itself, all small children already have the old person in themselves, all infants already have death, all dying people the eternal life.  

...death is to me like life, sin like holiness, wisdom like foolishness 

... I needed lust, the desire for possessions, vanity, and needed the most shameful despair, in order to learn how to give up all resistance, in order to learn how to love the world, in order to stop comparing it to some world I wished, I imagined, some kind of perfection I had made up, but to leave it as it is and to love it and to enjoy being a part of it."

~Siddhartha

"Sinner" is a word that evokes powerful feelings in the West. I want to make a few distinctions between the Eastern and Western concept of sin so that we can understand these differences. 

First of all, the Western concept of "Sin", which is influenced by Christianity, is linked to the concept of "Worldliness". Basically, the idea is that we, man, are born with Original Sin. This is a predisposition to err on the side of bad that was brought into the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Thus we are in an eternal struggle against this inherent evil. Those who strive to keep this original sin at a distance (By following God's Commandments) are called "Righteous". In Christian philosophy, they have attained "Brahma" by not sinning.     

However, taking a passage from Siddhartha: 

"The sinner, which I am and which you are, is a sinner, but in times to come he will be Brahma again, he will reach the Nirvana, will be Buddha"

We can see that the Eastern and Western concepts of Sin are vastly different. 

The best visual representation to understand the Eastern concept of Sin is the Ying Yang. It is a symbol of opposites. Good and Evil. Dark and Light. These opposites share an equal space. Both make nature complete, giving balance to the universe.  

This applies to the Buddhist concept of Sin because it intuits the full circle aspect of life. That is, there is a directly proportional relationship between the path of the Sinner, aka Atman (Man) and the path of the Brahma (God, or rather the God the Atman becomes through his journey). The process of going from one to another is catalyzed by experience. (In fact, it is more of a continuum than two separate paths. This what Siddhartha means by 'all small children already have the old person in themselves, all infants already have death, all dying people the eternal life')    

"I needed lust, the desire for possessions, vanity, and needed the most shameful despair, in order to learn how to give up all resistance, in order to learn how to love the world, in order to stop comparing it to some world I wished, I imagined, some kind of perfection I had made up, but to leave it as it is and to love it and to enjoy being a part of it."

Whereas Christianity more often preaches total avoidance of Sin, Eastern philosophy understands it as a necessary feature of life. In fact, there is no "Sin", no vice of life in the truest form except that which separates the Atman from his path in life.

Buddhism seems very neutral when it comes to designating an act a Sin. There do not seem to be many "Thou Shalt Nots". It is primarily about the individual's path; Which can change from one person to the next. It is only through experiencing life as an Atman that we can become Brahma. 

Ying and Yang. Each a necessary force of life.  

My own example of Brahma and Atman. 

I think this is best explained by saying that most of us cannot fathom what it is like to be homeless. I mean homeless in the sense of living through years of desperation. We can't fathom what it's like to be hopeless. Most of us have never found ourselves on the downside of low. 

I think there is a real barrier in perception between those who have always been pretty much financially stable and those who have never known stability. (Being broke for a little while doesn't count.)

I think it would be very much like discovering Brahma through Atman if more of us were aware of what life looks like through the eyes of the homeless by actually experiencing homelessness. 

Note that most of the negative comments on the homeless are usually by those who haven't been there themselves, despite how much they utter that the opposite is true.  

Furthermore, Eastern religion seems to lack a deity figure. The Buddha is more of an example of the model "Man turned God" than an object of deification. In this way, each follower can become his or her own God. Within the self is the potential to damn or save one's own soul; And not in the hands of an omnipotent and omniscient creator. Therefore, the only one who can truly know if you've come to the goal of your life is you.