Big Idea Daily | The Great Work of Your Life
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A Guide for the Journey to Your True Callingby Stephen Cope |
“At the end of life, most of us will find that we have felt most filled up by the challenges and successful struggles for mastery, creativity, and full expression of our dharma in the world. Fulfillment happens not in retreat from the world, but in advance—and profound engagement.”STEPHEN COPE |
BIG IDEA
What Is Dharma?
FROM THE BOOK“The Sanskrit word ‘dharma’ as used in the Bhagavad Gita, is so full of meaning that it is impossible to grasp its full scope through any single English translation. ‘Dharma’ can be variously, but incompletely, translated as ‘religious and moral law,’ ‘right conduct,’ ‘sacred duty,’ ‘path of righteousness,’ ‘true nature,’ and ‘divine order.’
René Guénon, in his classic Introduction to the Study of Hindu Doctrines, comes as close as any author to the meaning of dharma as we will use it here. ‘Dharma,’ he says, ‘is the essential nature of a being, comprising the sum of its particular qualities or characteristics, and determining, by virtue of the tendencies or dispositions it implies, the manner in which this being will conduct itself, either in a general way or in relation to each particular circumstance.’ The word dharma in this teaching, then, refers to the peculiar and idiosyncratic qualities of each being —those very essential and particular qualities that make it somehow itself.”
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Brian's Notes
Dharma.
I just LOVE that word.
And I love each of those nuanced definitions.
Our dharma is that constellation of “peculiar and idiosyncratic qualities of each being.” It’s the “very essential and particular qualities that make it somehow itself.”
In short: It’s what makes us us.
And, if we want to feel radiantly and joyfully and enthusiastically alive, it’s very wise to live in integrity with that essence.
Challenging us and helping us do that is, of course, what this book is all about.
Now let’s look at how we go about doing that.
There are four primary parts to the puzzle. Here they are:
Big Ideas
01: WHAT IS DHARMA?
02: THE PATH OF ACTION
03: DECIDE
04: THE RIGHT CONDITIONS
05: WHEN DIFFICULTIES ARISE
“Every man has a vocation to be someone: but he must understand clearly that in order to fulfill this vocation he can only be one person: himself.”THOMAS MERTON |
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