Caritas

The word “Caritas” is Latin for “Charity.” However, it adopts deeper meanings for those involved in the Western Esoteric Tradition, as well as other religious traditions around the world. The concept of charity in mainstream society has been watered down over the generations, and many do not grasp the concept of what it means to be a charitable person.

For many in the world charity simply means donating money to a cause you believe in. Perhaps you donate to the ACLU, your church, or to a local food bank. It allows you to feel good about yourself and often lets you take advantage of a tax break. This is not at all a bad thing, and we shouldn’t undercut the good that is done in the world because of charitable donations. Millions of people are helped each year because of the kind generosity of strangers.

There is more to charity than donating a couple of times a year, and there is a reason why the cultivation of charity is so important in religious traditions – especially the Western Esoteric Tradition. Charity is a tool that, if used properly, can help us develop our spiritual selves and lead us toward enlightenment. It allows us to connect with other humans in a unique way.

Charity, in one way or another is a gift of yourself to another person. Such a gift requires empathy and compassion. Empathy is that which allows us to understand how another person is feeling, and compassion is a sympathetic recognition of the suffering of others. Developing these two skills, empathy and compassion, are the keys to becoming a better person.

Charity then, rather than an economic contribution, is more often an act of compassion and empathy: Smiling at someone who you know is having a bad day is charity. Helping someone change a flat tire is charity. Standing up to bullies on behalf of another person is charity. It is charity as long as your heart is in it – as long as you have compassion for the individual you are helping and have empathy for how they feel.

Unfortunately, empathy and compassion are not skills that the general populace appears interested in developing. Certainly, almost everyone can be compassionate and empathic toward people who are like them, who share their values, culture, and economic situation. When they encounter someone who is somehow other; suspicion, fear, and hatred are a more common reaction than empathy and compassion. It is a sad thing, but most people are unable to feel charitable toward people who are different than they are. We see that in how minorities, immigrants, and people who have different sexual preferences and gender identities are treated by society. We also see that in how the poor are treated.

Often the poor are looked down upon as somehow inferior to other human beings that are not poor. People ignore the reality that most of us are just a few bad months away from being completely destitute and homeless – and that those we see in that situation could just as easily be one of us. Instead, many feel that they manage not to be poor because they are morally or intellectually superior to those who are poor. So, when people with this attitude give to the poor, it’s not really charity because it contains neither empathy nor compassion. It’s more of a show to flaunt what you feel is your higher status in the pecking order and make yourself feel good about helping other people. There is no nobility in this and it does nothing for your spiritual development.

If we look at history, particularly the last couple of decades, we see that the negative events in the world can be explained almost exclusively by a severe lack of compassion and empathy. In other words, our population is not particularly charitable. In fact, we are becoming more and more tribal in nature. We, as a race, are more concerned about what we feel we deserve and should have as individuals or for the group of people we identify with and are rarely concerned with the health of the human race as a whole. To be blunt, tribalism makes us gullible, and it often causes us to act against our own self-interest. It also divides us. If we identify with a certain group and the interests of that group then as a consequence, we are designating people outside that group as “other,” and a threat.

It is tribalism and a hyper focus on what we feel we need and deserve as individuals that define our current era. We continue to destroy our environment because there is profit to be had today and individuals are not willing to give up any level of comfort today to ensure that there is still a sustainable world available tomorrow. In other words, there is zero empathy or compassion for future generations. We have decided to take all the wealth we can from the Earth now and never mind the consequences for our progeny. This is not charitable. We continue to malign the “other” – those from other lands, or those who have different religious beliefs than we do. We see people who express their gender identity or sexual orientation differently than we do as threats and do everything we can to deny their existence. Again, this is not charitable.

Those with political and economic power understand this tribalism and have used it to their advantage. Often, they will echo prejudicial statements made about other groups in order to keep the populace divided. United as a whole, a populace can threaten the power of the political and economic elite, and so keeping the population divided into tribes is beneficial for those already in power.

The good news is that tribalism and prejudice is not our natural state as human beings. We are naturally empathic, compassionate, and charitable. These traits are the result of our evolutionary process. Humans who gathered together in a society, worked together for common goals and concerned themselves with each other’s welfare, were the humans who most often survived to procreate. Those hunter-gatherers that tried alone to fulfil all of their needs and did not collaborate with others were not successful. For this reason, it is in our nature to be charitable. We survived specifically because we embraced each other’s differences, recognized how those differences enhanced the group, and worked to protect each other.

Tribalism, racism, prejudice of any kind – these things do not come naturally for us. They have to be taught and repeatedly reinforced in order to become part of our personality. The problem we have today is that these things are being enforced quite often by very loud individuals. Compounding this issue is the social media environment that becomes an echo-chamber for whatever form of tribalism you have been indoctrinated into, reinforcing your bias.

Without exception, the Western Esoteric Tradition sees the human race as a Fraternity. We are Brothers and Sisters emanating from the same Divinity. The stated goal of the various Orders in this Tradition is to restore and heal that feeling of fraternity, and thus aid in the spiritual evolution of the human race. When we see ourselves as large family, as brothers and sisters, it becomes much more difficult to hate one another. It becomes absolutely impossible to label certain individuals or groups as “other” because they can’t be “other” if we are all one family.

Caritas, then, is softening your heart toward others and recognizing our inherent unity. It is expanding your consciousness so that you can sympathize and empathize with other human beings, even if they are very different from you. It is essential to our own personal spiritual development, and it is essential to the continued survival of the human race. If we continue to be selfish, and to focus only on our own success in life without considering others, then our species will not survive. If we continue to divide ourselves into tribes and cultivate fear and hatred for anything outside of that tribe, our species will not survive. It is only when we embrace each other’s inherent humanity and demonstrate a sincere and powerful care for each human being’s wellbeing, that we will together take the actions needed to save our world. It is only then that we will grow as a species.

We stand now at a crossroads. Our choices in the next few years will determine the future of humanity. The hour is late and these choices need to be made soon. There are several ways in which the human race can destroy the civilization it has fought so hard to gain. There is only one way to save it. Caritas.