Theos-Talk Archives (September 1997 Message tl00129)

"Jerry Schueler" <gschueler@netgsi.com> wrote:

> HPB and many others have all pointed out that it is motive and motive alone
> that is the difference between white and black actions (magic, karma,
> whatever).

I think you're taking this "rule" a little too rigidly. ;) Only kidding. Reply
to my following remarks, not this snotty, infantile, sarcastic one. ;)

I agree that many people observe the letter of the law and still cause
tremendous harm because of bad motives.  I have unfortunately been the victim
of such hypocritical "good".

But I think it's going beyond the spirit of HPB's words to blindly say that
motive alone makes the difference.  Some Muslims on Jihad kill people in all
sincerity.  Their karmic penalty is probably mitigated by their motives, but
they still cause misery and invoke karma.  If an Islamic "Thou shalt not kill"
stopped them until they could develop compassion, I think it saves them karma
and does real good.

> Good motives can cancel out bad actions.  If we think we did a good
> thing, we tend to produce good karma no matter if it was really a bad thing
> that we did (because good and bad are always subjective and relative). But
> karma itself is very complex and I am trying to simplify here.

Christians, Muslims and Hindus who kill in all sincerity must have a lot
of good karma.