How can I safely help?

If you are an intelligent person whether you have been to college or not and if you have either time or money (or both) that you would like to help others with, this is a very important question.

For example, I have come out of a bank with my wife and been accosted by someone demanding I give him money and I gladly gave him $20 just because I knew intuitively this person likely wanted to stab me or my wife because I sensed the motivation there. So, when I gave this man easily $20 he seemed really angry that I had created a bond with him so he couldn't stab us both. Likely the man was on drugs at that point. So, I consider that $20 well spent because I knew it protected my wife and I from harm.

Then there are other times when I would like to give someone begging at the side of the road money and I always ask my angels whether this would be a good idea or not. From my own perspective I would theoretically like to give anyone begging each $20 because everyone deserves to eat and to b able to stay alive from my point of view. However, it is interesting to me that most of the time my angels say "No" because either it isn't safe to give the money to the person because they would misuse it in some way (like buying alcohol or drugs or guns with it) or the people are just so confused it isn't safe for me to give them money at that point.

So, often it is a real problem in how you can safely help people even if you have the time and the money.

The following is a true story about a Catholic Nun in Oakland, California. She was working in a soup kitchen and one of the homeless men came up to her and knocked her out and hit her in the jaw which broke her jaw and sent her across the room. The rest of the men nearly killed the man that did this before police and authorities arrived and hauled him away. But, the point is often it isn't safe to help homeless people because they tend to have so many problems.

However, I found this less true in the 1980s when I was in India. Somehow people who beg there are much more disciplined and civilized than most people here. I think it is because it is normal for some people to be beggars multi-generationally. At least this was true in the 1980s when I was in India with my family then.

For example, on one day I saw literally thousands and thousands of beggars with leprosy lining a road to a famous cave used by Cave yogis. And many Buddhists were giving food and money to the lepers without fingers, toes or noses from leprosy lining the road to the sacred cave. This was unbelievable to me as an American because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. But, it all was completely organized with whole families of lepers, Men, women and children all orderly begging which completely amazed me at the orderliness of all this as people smiled at us while all saying, "Baksheesh" which basically means "Please share with me so I don't have to die".

Since I was in India I realized the spiritual benefit of trying to give something to everyone who seems safe enough to give something to since my experiences in India and Nepal were so powerful.