By Laurie Dean
Dharma—Your noble purpose. One’s duty or one’s path.
Sounds pretty lofty and esoteric—right? And yet, these few words capture one of the essential principles of the Yogic tradition—the idea that each one of us is born with unique gifts and the desire to express our unique purpose.
While this may be a new idea for you, I am willing to bet at some point in your life you have thought about your purpose. It may have even happened as you sat outside looking up at a clear cloudless night. As you sat there awestruck, did you ever wonder—why am I here? Life is such a gift—what am I meant to do with mine? Dharma is the idea that we are born out of something noble and that each one of us has something unique and noble to contribute. It may be through parenting, through mentoring, through writing or a creative endeavor, or through your commitment to being involved in a way that contributes to create lasting change.
We are inspired and cheer for those who accomplish great things—gifted athletes, artists, statesmen, and inventors. In cheering for them, we are at some level, cheering for the part of us that aspires to become everything we are capable of becoming. I’m writing about individuals like Leonardo di Vinci, Anne Frank, Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandala, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Bill Gates, and Tiger Woods. So often what we admire as much as their innate talent is the quality or qualities of their contribution.
“Strength lies in the magnification of the secret qualities of my own personality, my own character…” –Rod Stryker
So—how to we even begin to know what our purpose, our dharma might be?
It starts with self inquiry—with asking questions, being curious, being willing to dig deeper, to know more… A thread of this has been with you throughout your life—but you may not have ever thought of it in this way.
How do you grace the world? What makes you feel like the very best you? What do you have to contribute? Can you think of a time in your life or a situation when you felt like the best, the most positive version of yourself came through? What were you doing? What was it that was being expressed when the best of you was shining thru?
People often think of their “purpose” as being what they do for their career. A few lucky ones may find career and dharma align. A career is a necessary and valuable means to an end—a way to provide for our self or our loved ones. But dharma is more often what we articulate we would do if no obstacles stood in the way.
Read related article: Mapping Your Purpose
Take a moment and ask yourself, what would I do if no obstacles stood in the way? What would I be doing if I was using my greatest gifts? What are the “secret qualities of my own personality” that I am longing to share and to express? I like to think of it as sharing your secret “superpowers” with others.
Not just the yoga tradition, but all contemplative traditions appreciate the value of cultivating a calm quiet mind. As I described earlier, it is often when we are quietly stargazing or taking a walk through the woods, perhaps sitting outside with a cup of tea that our overactive mind has a chance to settle down. Then we can more readily tap into the part of us that really knows, instead of constantly listening to the part of us that thinks it knows!
Meditation—the practice of drawing your attention inward for even a few minutes each day—helps to clear our mental space so that our intuitive knowledge can make itself known. This is a great place to begin asking yourself about what you would do if.
Some people find it helpful to journal—trying to write without self-editing about things they would like to do if. If you are curious about uncovering or connecting to ideas on what your unique life purpose is, why not spend a few quiet minutes each day and see what happens.
And DREAM BIG!! Tap into the qualities within you that you have always known were there—the ones you express in situations where you feel most alive, most yourself!
I would describe myself as passionately curious. I love to learn. As far back as I can remember I have thrived when I was learning, and I still continue to want to learn more. And what makes me feel most alive? The times when I am sharing what I have learned from my teachers, the knowledge and wisdom they have shared that has so positively influenced my life.
The book, The Four Desires, written by Rod Stryker, offers a clear, practical, and practice driven approach to helping you begin to discern what your dharma might be. Stryker’s book closes with a quote from the yoga master, Yogananda.
“Analyze what you are, what you wish to become, and what shortcomings are impeding you. Decide the nature of your true task—your mission in life, your dharma. Endeavor to make yourself what you should be and what you are meant to be.”
With curiosity and patience, may you begin to explore what it is that makes you uniquely you and offer your gifts to others. The world needs you to become who and what you were meant to be!
Laurie is a 500-hour certified yoga teacher, and an Ayurveda Health Counselor. As a Four Desires teacher and mentor, she shares this life changing work with others both privately and through local weekend trainings. Visit Verapose.com for more details.
Related Articles:
It was late October when I moved to Michigan from Alaska 16 years ago. The day I met my new neighbor, he enthusiastically told me some of the reasons he loved Michigan. It was reassuring, as a mom with three young kids, to hear the positive things he had to say about growing up here, but I had to admit that I was probably most excited about living in a place that has four seasons. I said that as much as I loved living in Alaska, the long winters were challenging for me—cold winters when some days the sun would rise after 10 a.m. and set before 4 p.m. I did not mention how much my mood was affected by the scarcity of light, but when I noted that I looked forward to having more sunlight during the winter, he laughed and responded with something like, “I don’t know if you know this, but even though we don’t have the same extreme when it comes to sun up and down, the sky can be gray pretty much all winter.”