One of the great struggles I witness in people is something I too struggled with for years—-knowing my path, my purpose. It took me losing my way to realize that was always on my path, no matter how lost I become.
I invite you to consider that the plan the Universe, God, Spirit, has for you, is far more vast than your local, fear-based ego could ever imagine. It may not have anything to do with a solid retirement plan, and yet, the failure to fulfill that “higher” plan could leave you with a deep sense of unease. In fact, the following quote expresses a deep all pervasive truth for most human beings: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” (Gospel of Thomas) That sounded so ominous to me at one time, and now I want to share from a perspective of possibility that says you are never far from your true self, and thus never far from bringing forth what is within you. It’s so close you could trip over it, or you minimize its impact. And yet, we all long to know our sacred reason for being here.
This longing is connected to your personal heart, and to your life’s calling, that which you are here to manifest as only you can. There truly is a heart-ache when we hear that call and refuse to heed it. We block the spiritual energy that would be released if we did. When you do connect to this spiritual energy, you connect to yet another heart, a bigger intelligence–the Global Heart—and begin to feel the pain of the world. The call is the call to find your way of flowing infinite love toward the world, toward all of life. You become intimate with all things, with life itself. You become sovereign, and a mighty force of good, in your own way.
When you head that call, you are fulfilling your dharma. It is a key concept with multiple meanings. There is no single word translation for dharma in western languages, and yet it points to your essential nature. The word closest in meaning in English is purpose, which has a typically western spin on its meaning as something outside of you that you must find and make money doing. Though you may make money fulfilling your dharma, it is in living your dharma that a holy channel is opened up for all kinds of prosperity to enter, including money if that is what you need. (Click to tweet)
In recent years, purpose has become something that people are willing to pay someone else thousands of dollars to help them find, but like the fellow who lost his keys a few miles back, and is looking for them under the street lamp down the road because the light is brighter, it is unlikely that anyone will find their purpose that way. If they are lucky, the person they pay will come along and say, “Hey, I saw your keys. They are still perfectly intact, and they are back there where you dropped them. Come, let’s go back, because I know where they are, and you can make sure they are yours. “ That’s the kind of guide you need if you want to discover your dharma, or purpose. It’s been with you all along, and it is an expression of the love that you are.
In Hinduism, dharma signifies the behaviors that are considered to be in alignment with the order of the universe—a kind of right way of living. In Buddhism, dharma means cosmic law and order and also applies to the teachings of the Buddha, which were based on cosmic law and order. For the Sikhs, the word dharm means “the path of righteousness,“ and in Jainism, dharmarefers to the teachings that pertain to the purification and moral transformation of human beings. It carries a big meaning, this word dharma.
I say that dharma is what we teach by our actions. (Click to tweet) It goes beyond us, and I recommend letting your dharma be as powerful as you can express it. Karma, on the other hand, is considered in Hinduism and Buddhism to be the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, or what westerners refer to as fate. This points to our suffering and fears, whereas dharma points to what we express on the other side of our suffering and fears. When you are living your dharma, you essentially live according to the highest law, which is love. You are fulfilling the highest expression of yourself. You are fully who you are, expressing your essence, your loveseed. You could say that your dharma has the same relationship to you as sweetness does to sugar. They are inseparable.
On the path to fulfilling your dharma, you become sovereign. You could say your dharma is where fate, which is that sweet spot where what you have been given, your fate, meets free will, which is what you do with it—that is where your dharma is expressed. To live your dharma you must exercise your sovereign free will, which means you take full responsibility for your life. (Click to tweet) This means you have the ultimate power in your life. To do that, you must connect to the one power that is the Source of all power. That is the real meaning of sovereignty, which points to the King and Queen archetypes. The King and Queen were originally thought to receive their power directly from God, according to the medieval political doctrine called the divine right of kings. To live your dharma you claim your divine right.
When we activate the energy of these archetypes consciously in our lives, we begin to take back power we lost to the conditioning we’ve been immersed in since birth. In regard to dharma, to be sovereign means to stand firmly in your I AM consciousness, which is also called Christ consciousness. Rather than referring to the person of Jesus of Nazareth, this Christ Consciousness refers to the Light which is the Love that we are, the Self, Atman, Buddha nature, pearl of great price, treasure buried in a field, or mustard seed that grew into a great tree.
Sovereignty lies in the choices we make day to day. (Click to tweet) It is a capacity and quality of your Soul—inherent in who you are. The Source of your sovereignty is the love inside you, and you can see how much it is related to your dharma. It’s as if we each have a manifesto inside—-the insistent urge of the Divine to express itself through us.
A manifesto is a “public declaration by a sovereign or prominent person with large powers as to their intention and motive.” In order to express that manifesto, we must be clear and come out of hiding. It doesn’t have to be in a big public way, but must be expressed to others. Guilt and other emotions that keep you hidden, as well as over focus on the self, become indulgent at a certain point. Your Soul wants you to let that go.
You must recognize that if you are human, you have been called. The only answer that will fulfill you is YES. And you must express yourself. You must take a stand for something, or you will fall for what is not real, get caught in shoulds and rules of the culture, and remain blind to your own greatness. To fulfill your dharma, you must become a messenger of love, contributing to oneness on the planet.
What is within you that has yet to come out? Earnestly sit with this question with a sincere desire to know. Surrender your reasons for not being able to (karma), so that you allow your dharma to be drawn out of you by the things that call to you deeply—the things that break your heart or rouse you to take action for the greater good.
