Theos-Talk Archives (September 1997 Message tl00144)

At 09:59 AM 9/8/97 -0400, Doss wrote:

>Physical and emotional suffering is a fact of life. Anything anyone can do
>which can alleviate or mitigate them, I feel as helping. It could be as
>simple as a kind word, a kind gesture, giving a little food for a hungry
>person. I think it is the duty of every thinking person to do so, because
>not to do so simply shows lack of compassion. Whether it is done with
>whatever motive, from a very simplistic point view, it can help the
>suffering person.

Doss,

There is a lot of merit, IMHO, to what you said if we can disregard all of
the misguided attempts to help the suffering that *ultimately* end up doing
more harm than good. An example would be the type of help that provides for
the immediate hunger, but is given in such a way that fosters continual
dependence on the part of the person suffering, has unconscionable strings
attached, or is simply an outright ploy to gain some sort of power over the
"helpee". Such efforts, when seen for what they are, are often followed by
an angry, "But I was only trying to help!!!!" ;-D Consider the number of
those who enter the "helping" professions who are on monumental power trips
as an example.

>I am not talking about any spiritual path, because I should know personally
>for sure of what the path it is, if indeed there is one. (I may have post
>the Truth is Pathless Land statement of K).

I read somewhere (I forgot where) that one becomes the Path or one with the
Path. Thus the apparent paradox you are hinting at. And yes you did post
K.'s "The Truth is a Pathless Land". :-)

>I am still at such an novice level as far as personal knowledge of the
>spiritual path is, I am just at a stage when I am looking for the simple
>objective of "helping" any one as far as I can, in any manner I can. We all
>can improve the conditions of the world if more of us try to do the same (I
>am not telling anyone to do anything -- this urge has to come from the
>person himself/herself).

Your very modesty is itself evidence of how far you've advanced on the
Path. I think that the further you go, the more distant the end of the Path
seems to be, because the greater the evolutionary vista becomes that you're
able to perceive. As you journey, by the mere fact of your accomplishments,
you become aware of the incredible evolutionary challenges ahead that
diminish your already hard-won accomplishments to practically nothing. This
is just my opinion, of course.

<excerpting from an earlier post by Jerry>

>>Also, I take exception to your premise. 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). So,
>>giving help to others with the wrong motive will NOT produce any
>>good karma. Sorry. But it just won't. Its not so much what we DO
>>in life (exoteric) as how we ARE in life (esoteric). Bad motives can
>>cancel out good actions. 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.
>
>Again let me look from the recipients/beneficiary's point of view. The fact
>is that the recipient or beneficiary of my "help", if it does help him or
>her, then it is a fact and it is all that matters. 
>
>Since I do not know personally about the working of Karma, any "theory"
>about it is as good any one else's. I will suspend my judgement about it in
>the hope one day I will get a better *personal* first hand understanding --
>not some second hand one. (And if does happen in this lifetime, I will
>surely post it here and in all the usenet groups -- I want to share it with
>the world!).
>
While I agree with Jerry, again you make a wonderful point. The operation
of the Law of Cause and Effect is probably one of the most subtlest and
most difficult laws to grasp. I agree that it is best to suspend a final
judgement on it until we've personally evolved to the point where we truly
*know* its operation.

There is probably a subtle middle road between both of your positions. One
one hand, we have Jesus' admonition that, "by their fruits you will know
them" or something like that. In other words a poisoned motive can only
bear poisoned karma, which I think is what partially underlies His
admonition. I'm still working on trying to articulate "the other hand"
which I strongly suspect is there. If someone else can come up with this
"on the other hand", please feel free to jump in.

Lynn