What is Dharma?
May 12th, 2007You may have heard the word dharma used in spiritual circles before and thought what is dharma? The word dharma means protection but the answer to the question what is dharma would be best described as, dharma is an internal law of life we cannot escape. The law of dharma teaches us to understand that all our problems in life come from our own ignorance. Buddhists and Hindus believe the best way to improve the quality of your life is to practice dharma. The longer we chase materialism or external progress the longer we will continue to chase our own tail. Any external pursuits will never ultimately lead to happiness, the only way we will find lasting happiness is to look inside and make the inner journey to contentment.
I read recently that a study was done on men from all over the world looking for the happiest men on the planet. It was found to be in Northern Thailand among Buddhist monks who basically have no material possessions. They live simply, want for nothing and are apparently the happiest men in the world. When I first came to Thailand for a holiday I quickly noticed that Thai people always seem to be smiling and this was the case all over the country from North to the South and everywhere in between. Thailands population is 95% Buddhist and although Thai people are generally quite poor they certainly look a lot happier than most people in Western countries. Over the past 2 years while I have lived in Thailand I think the Buddhist mentality must have rubbed off on me a little as I seem to be a lot happier than I have ever been before and material pursuits mean almost nothing to me anymore when once upon a time they did.
So what is dharma about? In a nutshell, without practicing dharma we will not find inner peace and without inner peace, there is no such thing as outer peace. If we can establish peace of mind that peaceful mindset will have an avalanche effect into the rest of our life. On an individual level we can achieve happiness if we first get to that calm place within ourselves and take responsibility for every event and circumstance in our life. Sadly, until we all take the inner journey and stop looking for happiness outside of ourselves, the world will never be at peace. It is our ego that has and is destroying our lives and the planet. If we can all learn to let go of our ego, stop worrying about and judging others we will take a huge leap closer to world peace. Compassion breeds compassion, hate and fear breed only more hate and fear. War will never stop the fight, war will only prolong the fight, if the leaders of nations could grasp this simple truth we would all love more and hate less, although we are all responsible for where we are today.
Dharma is very much linked with karma. By practicing and understanding dharma we can learn to accept our karma, be it good or bad karma. Karma brings back to us what we have already done in the past, we always get back what we give. If someone harms us or talks negatively about us, we should not react by trying to harm or with more negative talk, we should accept this as our lesson and see that the one who inflicts the harm is just like a teacher giving us what we deserve. This might be a difficult concept to come to terms with but once we can master this we will move one step closer to happiness and further away from ignorance and fear.
When considering the concept of what is dharma and how can it help me you should know that as you learn to accept all the negative situations and see them as life lessons, you will find less negative experiences arising in your life. You always have the power to transform any situation by loving the experience and seeing that it is a lesson you asked for and deserve to have. By loving your lesson instead of getting angry or frustrated at it you have the power to transform it into something good. Although it may at first be hard to give love to someone who is hurting you, by doing so you are making incredible progress along the spiritual path. This spiritual path is the path to enlightenment and happiness.
Understanding dharma will give you the greatest insights into where you have been and where you should be heading. Hurtful and deceitful people are your spiritual teachers, as you learn from them and grasp the idea that you need to be more compassionate or patient you will never again have to go through these lessons again as you will be comfortable with all experiences that come your way. The harsher the lesson seems the more important is the spiritual teacher. These spiritual teachers will teach you the greatest lessons if you accept them and not fight them, understand that you asked for it and as you learn to deal with it by coming up with creative solutions this is the road to freedom and a form of happiness that far exceeds anything material.
So in summary, what is dharma? Dharma is the ultimate way of thinking that will allow you to live the ultimate life, a life free from fear, material wants, attachment and help guide you to your ultimate goal of ever lasting happiness.
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May 14th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
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cheers mate
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I agree. A great article and something I had not heard of before.