True Charity and Beyond

TRUE CHARITY AND BEYOND

It shouldn't be thought of as "give and take," but
as "offer and receive."

Charity starts the same time as does sacrifice.
Giving away what you don't really need is garbage
disposal.

Tribal self-protection is not charity, let alone
social justice or righteousness, and is certainly
not God action.

If everyone on Earth had what they needed to be
quite comfortable in all ways, there would be
nothing extra. That's Tao. So any time each one of
us who has far more than he or she needs,
transfers that excess to one of us who has far
less than he or she needs, it's not "charity," but
justice and righteousness -- acknowledgement
of God's dominion -- because it's simply returning
to the oppressed what is rightfully theirs.

There's solidarity as opposed to pity, and social
justice as opposed to charity.

The USA for Africa "Live Aid" effort is a good first
step for compassion arousal, but consider this:

A guy has his forearm chopped off.
(His land is stolen and his nation's agricultural
system is destroyed.)

To prevent him from bleeding to death you supply
a tourniquet.
(Emergency food aid is sent.)

After the bleeding is stopped, you give him an
artificial limb.
(The nation gets "long term development aid.")

But you are either blind to, or willfully ignore the
fact, that there's a man who at the very same time
is preparing to (or is continuing to) hack the
victim to death with a chainsaw.
(The continued role of agribusiness and its allies
in stealing land, etc. is not dealt with.)

And now the man has no legs.

All charity (even solidarity) to humans is tribal
self-protection, and all charity/solidarity to people,
animals, the environment -- to anything at all -- is
Self-protection.