Charity

From The SpiritWiki

Charity is an act of kindness towards those less fortunate. Charity is a common theme in spiritual literature and is an example of Right Action.

Related LP Terms

Right Action > Alignment, Discipline, Equality, Three Rs of Alignment

Non-LP Related Terms

Right Action > Ahimsa, Charity, Dharma, Duty, Karma, Mithra

Notes=

St. Avila notes that achieving discipline and alignment is a necessary step on the way to Union with God. "Yet, although the soul which reaches the Third Mansions may still fall back, it has attained a high standard of virtue. Controlled by discipline and penance and disposed to performing acts of charity toward others, it has acquired prudence and discretion and orders its life well." [1]

In Islam, charity is basically taxation of the rich.

"Every religion in the world has preached charity and the giving of alms, but it is only in Islamic Sufism that it has been made obligatory and binding upon all those who accept the Muslim faith. Here we have a brotherhood into which the rich man cannot enter unless and until he is willing to give part of his posessions for the support of the poorer members of the brotherhood. Everyone who possesses property above a certain limit is reuired to set apart a stated portion thereof. The portions so set apart should be collected by the State of the Imam..."[2]

Footnotes

  1. St. Teresa of Avila. Interior Castle. Kindle. New York: Dover Publications, 2007.p. 5 https://amzn.to/2GpC7NG.
  2. Ali Shah Ikbal, Islamic Sufism (Tractus Books, 2000). p. 71.