Bill,
One would be hard-pressed to find any official Judaic religious text (like the Torah, Old Testament, Talmud, Halakha, Shulchan Aruch etc. ) on the Internet that recommend charity toward outsiders. The Koran makes charity compulsory, and recommends a formula for determining the amount. In Catholicism, good works are recommended. Protestant parsimoniously believe that faith alone is required for salvation. --ED --- In [email protected], <billsm...@...> wrote: > > Anthony, > > You're easily shocked! > > You've mixed two classes of religions here: Buddhism that teaches karma and the family of monotheistic religions (Judaism/Christianity/Islam) who teach the belief in one god (Jehovah/God/Allah). > > In Buddhism karma is a spiritual version of cause-and-effect. I don't think Buddhists believe karma can ever be 'invalidated'. I think the best they can do is recognize, accept and work through it. > > In the monotheistic religions the functional equivalent of karma is the belief in sin and punishment. Again, under their precepts I think there is no way to 'invalidate' this cause-and-effect chain, but each of the religions have different ways to deal with it. In Judaism and Islam you can ameliorate sin and punishment with good deeds. Christianity also allows for this but also offers several versions of a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card. The ones that immediately come to mind are baptism, being saved (accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior) and repentance (asking forgiveness for your sins). Any one of these will wipe your sin/punishment slate clean. > > Zen, at least the zen I practice, is not a religion so it doesn't have any set definitions or set procedures for manipulating your life (or at least the illusion of your life). Zen, the way I practice it, does not recognize karma or sin in that these things are illusory - just concepts. So it doesn't have a need for a set of actions to 'invalidate' them. I guess you could say the zen I practice 'invalidates' karma and sin/punishment by recognizing them as illusory. > > Are you still shocked? > > ...Bill!
