Dharma
Finding your purpose & meaning in life
These teachings come from Sian’s lectures in her Yoga Teacher trainings.
Have you ever yearned to find greater meaning in life, or felt called (and possibly a little overwhelmed) to find your life’s purpose? In this blog post, Sian Pascale begins to unravel the word dharma and how we, as modern day yogis, can explore this idea through philosophy and practice.
Dharma- meaning
Dharma is a sanskrit word, found in the yoga texts, that is often translated as your life’s purpose. You might have heard a yoga teacher say something like ‘follow your dharma,’ because there is a sense that dharma is something closely linked to your karma, a kind of predestined purpose that is something you need to discover.
One of the issues in the West with this translation is that we often misinterpret dharma, and life’s purpose with the word vocation- our chosen line of work.
In this post I would like to expand on the subtle meaning behind the ideas of dharma and life’s purpose, in order to untangle from the weighty heaviness that I often see my student’s wading through when we explore this idea.
Dharma- what is the expanded meaning
The term dharma is used across both the Indian yoga traditions and also Buddhism, and by exploring both we can start to expand what it can mean for us.
Dhamma in Buddhism
In the Buddhist tradition, dharma (dhamma) refers to the teachings of the Buddha, so to follow the dharma is to follow the right path and the teachings of Buddha. This connection to spiritual teachings and practice is important to remember as it becomes part of an expanded understanding of the word and the key to following your dharma, as I see it.
In the Buddhist philosophy, like in the yoga tradition, it can also mean cosmic law and order. So again we can sense that this word links us to the laws of the Universe and (again) this sense of a predestined, karmic or right path for us, as ordained by the powers of the Universe.
A segway - via my personal story
I remember when I was in India and doing a Yoga Nidra with a beautiful Yogini Master in the Himalayas many years ago. As part of her instruction she would ask all of her students, who had just reached this wonderful, relaxed, hypnogogic state of yoga nidra, to “bring to mind your san kalpa,” continuing in a booming voice to say “bring to mind your LIFE’S PURPOSE and repeat it to yourself 3 times.” I remember suddenly moving from total relaxation into a complete stress state.
What WAS my life’s purpose?! And how could I discover it within the 2 minute time frame of her instruction??
I had spent much of my twenties in the pursuit of finding this life purpose, with the idea that it had to be my vocation- the perfect job that would fulfil my destiny, bring meaning to my life and allow me to get paid.
Over the years, my work changed and shifted from university student, to spiritual aspirant, to architect and designer, to yoga teacher, to business owner and now also to mother. In this time I had the incredible gift of both studying and teaching yoga and in particular the Bhagavad Gita, which gave me great insight into how I viewed what dharma, life and purpose was all about.
Dharma and the Bhagavad Gita
One of the most popular Indian texts, the Bhagavad Gita, explores the idea of dharma through the lens of Arjuna, the warrior who goes through an internal moral conflict about whether to fight his extended family in battle, or not.
In the text Krishna speaks his wisdom to Arjuna saying:
“As you discern your own dharma, you should not waver. For the warrior, there can be found nothing great than battle for the sake of dharma.”
In this text there is a real sense that your dharma is deeply connected to your duty.
Krishna describes duty as connected to your karma, caste (which is anachronistic in today’s world and difficult to understand in the West) and your deep nature.
Without going in to great and detailed commentary on this text, we can start to piece together a more nuanced sense of the word dharma through the lens of ‘your duty’ and the idea of being in the present moment.
Finding Your Purpose in every Given Moment
As modern day yogis, we can look at the idea of dharma through a simple question.
‘What is my role, my duty, my purpose, my dharma, in this exact moment?’
At any given moment we will be asked to fulfil a specific role, and that role, requires a very specific response.
So perhaps you are a yoga teacher, and in the moment, you find yourself not as a teacher, but instead as a yoga student, in a yoga class. Even though you are a yoga teacher, in this moment your role is to be a yoga student. This is not the time to start to adjust another student, to tell the teacher they have made a mistake, or to start doing a different practice that you think would make more sense. Now is the moment to be the best yoga student you can be. To listen intently. Practice dutifully. And honour your teacher in the moment- whether they be more or less experienced than you.
Or perhaps you are a mother, and find yourself on a train as a passenger watching another mother parent their child. Now is not necessarily the time to start to give your wisdom to the other mother, letting them know how you would parent, what they are doing right or wrong and how they could do it differently. In that moment, your role is to simply be a passenger on the train, and do it to the best of your ability. (Ie: pay for your ticket, enjoy the scenery, get off at the right stop etc.)
Starting to get the drift?
Just incase, here’s another example. It might be that you have had a really long day at work, your mind is still racing with tasks and deadlines and work politics as you enter your home. Do you stay in the role of ‘busy worker human’? Or can you adjust and slide into your new role as being a flatmate, part of a family, lover or parent? It might require you to drop out of your head and into your heart, so that you can listen lovingly to your children tell you about their day (or try and coerce it out of them;). Perhaps your role is to become engrossed in cooking with your flatmate. The idea is to get really present with whatever your ‘duty’ is in that moment.
Purpose in Spontaneous Right Action
A big part of this nuanced and highly mutable idea of what your dharma and purpose is, relates to the idea of:
Spontaneous Right Action.
That is, knowing, spontaneously, in the moment, what your role is and what action needs to be taken.
Spontaneous Right Action is a kind of flow that we can tap into, which often arises when yoga practice is embedded and you are a healthy and well meditated human.
By combining a connection to the spiritual teachings, a practice that allows us space from every day tasks (such as yoga, satsang, breath work or meditation), we can connect to a true path, a universal flow that directs us towards right action, our dharma in any given moment.
In this way dharma doesn’t bind us to any one path or role or job, but rather, is a constantly changing and always dynamic purpose.
So it could be that the mother on the train, suddenly realises she does need to use her wisdom and knowledge to help and support the other mother nearby. Or the yoga teacher in the class might find themselves after class having a much deeper discussion with their teacher as they muse over their respective lives as teachers. Or perhaps your work requires you to occasionally work late and you need to bring your professional life home.
1.Whatever the role is, allow yourself to be deeply and wholly present to it, heart and soul.
2. Create space in your life for spiritual practice to embody deep and humble wisdom.
3. And have an adaptability of spirit that allows you to shift dharmic roles and move with the flow that the Universe presents to us at any given moment, in full acceptance of the dynamism (and chaos) of life.
Addendum: Finding One's Purpose and Meaning in Life Through Vocation
Ok so I can already here a few disappointed sighs from those in the audience who want help finding their dream job. So for those of you in this position there is a great equation (of sorts) that Deepak Choprah wrote about in his book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success that I will paraphrase here:
Do what you are good at + Service to others = That is your work
Or
Take the karma that is handed to you + find a way that it can also help others = create your own vocation
OR
Do the thing you love doing + see how this fulfils another’s needs = Do that and ask for money while doing it.
It seems to be the best recipe for creating meaning from the work that you do.
THE AUTHOR
Sian Pascale is the founder of The Light Collective, an Online Yoga School focussed on working with practices that help her students access the subtle body, such as movement, pranayama, kriya yoga and meditation. She focusses mostly on a Shakti-centred yoga and the Tantrik lineage.
She is currently based North of Byron Bay in sunny Australia where she practices and teaches.
Read more about her.
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