Theos-Talk Archives (October 2001 Message tt00158)

In a message dated 10/8/2001 11:47:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
micforster@yahoo.com writes:

> Theosophy teaches that we must be truly altruistic and
> unselfish so that we may prevent bad karma for
> ourselves. But is this not, in itself, being selfish?
> 

Mic,

If one is TRULY altruistic and TRULY unselfish, then all of ones actions, 
will, by definition, not accrue any personal karma. As long as there is no 
intent for escaping personal karma in the motivation of an action, then, 
TRULY noble and compassionate acts cannot be selfish. In these cases, the 
lack of accrued personal karma is simply an unsought for byproduct of such 
acts. It is not SELFISH.

Louis