Dharma: 11 Steps to Find Your Spiritual Life Path
The meaning of life has been the query of humanity since ancient times. And still today we are no closer to knowing how to find our spiritual calling than they were! Our God Self holds the blue print and when we can be in alignment with our quiet center, it reveals itself to us. When you go beyond the outer quest for success and comfort and dive into the cavernous spaces within, you will find surest answers. The simplest answer to “why am I here” is:
You are a being of light, sent here to reincarnate until you merge with the vibrations of love and forgiveness that are the true nature of the universe.
Your life purpose – your dharma – is to walk this path as only you can. Finding your spiritual path is a life quest and not a weekend workshop. It requires honesty, integrity and a commitment to unearthing all that distracts you from Spirit.
Daunting, yes. And how the heck am I supposed to do that? The blessings are myriad for once you find your dharma, bliss follows on its heels ensuring devotion and fulfillment.
According to the Chopra Center, “When you live in the harmonious flow of dharma, the entire field of pure potentiality opens to you. You’re able to create as much happiness and wealth as you want because you’re aligned with the domain of spirit, the unlimited source of all manifestation.”
The Law of Dharma
The Chopra Center illuminates The Law of Dharma. According to their teaching, it consists of three steps needed to align with spirit and effortlessly fulfill your life purpose.
Seek Your Higher Self
Once this decision is made to reunite and embody your God Self, the universe will conspire to help you. Even though we may not know how to find this sense of self, the prayer or request alone will draw this divine aspect closer to us.
Our essential nature is spiritual and it is the design that we all fulfill this unique expression and purpose.
Find your Unique Talent or Gift
If you can’t readily identify your uniqueness, look back to what you love. What conversations or activities excite you most? What are you better at than anyone else? When we work in these places of our brilliance, time disappears as we become completely one with the creation.
Your passions are your purpose and you’ll discover they weave throughout your life.
Contribute to the World
Inherent in our dharma is a unique gift that serves humanity. Finding your true purpose innately invites the expression of your purpose. It is these skills which nurture you and the world. To save this life energy only for ourselves would burn us up from the inside out. It is this emblazoned dharma which is to be shared that sustains our vital qi energy.
Matt Kahn offers his own lesson on this in his video Serving the Cosmic Heart: Each day is an opportunity to be a being of light in service to the enlightenment of the planet. When we seek only to be of service rather than fulfilling our own agenda, everything will come to us naturally.
Your gifts are not only yours but they are an intricate design within the global blueprint. We need you to fulfill your dharma. It feels good to fulfill your dharma: it is your very reason for being.
The natural result is that you have more joy, more peace and more vitality to handle life’s curve balls as they appear.
“I am the immeasurable potential of all that was, is, and will be, and my desires are like seeds left in the ground: they wait for the right season and then spontaneously manifest into beautiful flowers and might trees, into enchanted gardens and majestic forests.” ::Ancient Vedic Proverb
Such a simplistic and beautiful design is not by accident. Yet our monkey minds complicate the heck out of the obviousness. Be gentle on yourself and in your honest moments, let life call you back to yourself. The enlightenment gleaned is invaluable to us all.
How to Find and Follow Your Dharma
1. Synchronicity
The universe speaks to us in many ways but coincidental timing is the most profound. As if our timeline is matching up with that of the universe, synchronicities affirm our current place. No need for judgment or self chiding, these events find us and act as a balm of peace and acceptance for wherever we may find ourselves.
2. Passion
Passions and curiosities always point to your dharma. Follow these gentle urgings to bring you closer to the places of peace, passion and purpose.
3. Connect the Dots
Sometimes we are reluctant to suppose there is great care and meaning in the way things are unfolding. The brain would much rather dismiss the significance than admit there are divine forces at work. Connect the dots and acknowledge ( joyously proclaim!) there is a reason bigger than you. Ignore the logic and follow the cosmic clues to your dharma.
4. Divine Discernment
Know when its time to cut your losses. We only have so much energy. Use that life force wisely and show the universe your dedication to your purpose and call the bliss of dharma to you.
5. Non-Linear Growth
Spiritual growth is a spiral and the cautious planning of our task-master minds to achieve a goal may not jive with divine timing. Be in loving receipt when things do show up and don’t fret when the completion of your goals feels far off. The bigger lessons are offered in the journey to becoming.
6. The Path is Often Illogical
Dharma is not rational. Spirit is not rational. The mind insists that they should be, but very rarely does any of the path to your true self make perfect sense. Go with the flow and trust the feelings more than the logic.
7. Spiritual Practice
Dharma lies in the spaces of your divine self. A commitment to your spiritual path exercised daily will support you while the journey unfolds. Yoga, meditation, time in nature and even journaling are paths that nourish the spirit and feed your dharma.
8. Find Heroes and Role Models
Look to the people you admire. They are representing aspects of you not yet manifested that will give clues to your dharma. While you may not have yet achieved what they have, recognizing the qualities of those to whom you venerate will be revealing.
9. Be Gentle
Everything matters and nothing is significant. While we give devotion to this way of being, it can offer its own slippery predicaments. Don’t take yourself too seriously or work from ego. It is instead the childlike ways that are more true to the calling of your dharma.
10. Courage
To walk this path takes a courage rarely found amongst the masses. Faith carries us and is our constant companion so long as we show up. Be bold, be fearless and follow your intuition first. You won’t be led astray.
11. Expand and Contract
It’s a funny journey to walking our truth. Some moments feel so clear, yet just around the corner is deep murkiness. Patience is crucial. In shedding layers of the illusion, there is brilliance and darkness. Know this is the nature of illumination and don’t lose hope.
To become that which we were born to be is both exhilarating and crazy making. Since this is a path few traverse, we look to the guides, gurus and Masters who have achieved peace before us. It is the blessing of this current lifetime to live your purpose: It is after all the graduation of the ages we have awaited. Truly knowing how to find your spiritual path it is a commitment of love. Enjoy the ride and be true to you. Dharma is your destiny when you are willing to walk with it.
About the Author
Chögyam Trungpa: Poetry, Crazy Wisdom, and Radical Shambhala
I was entranced with the beautiful writings of Chögyam Trungpa for many years. His book, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of The Warrior became a staple in my life. It opened my eyes to the spiritual potential and deepened my understanding of life, love, and the divine.
The more I learned, the more I craved Chögyam Trungpa’s books. When I meditated on him, I could feel his playful and loving heart. He had died a few months prior to my first experience of his unique spirit and work.
My favorite Chögyam Trungpa quotes are, “Everyone loves something, even if it’s only tortillas,” and “The ideal of warriorship is that the warrior should be sad and tender, and because of that, the warrior can be very brave as well.”
A prolific writer and Buddhist meditation master, Chögyam Trungpa (March 5, 1939 – April 4, 1987) is among the first masters who brought Buddhist teachings to the west and made them accessible.
The holder of the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, Chögyam Trungpa was a brilliant man who lived a remarkable life.
Besides being the 11th Trungpa Tülku, an incarnating line of Tibetan lamas, Chögyam was:
- A radical, groundbreaking teacher in the Vajrayana school of Buddhism
- A re-imaginer of the original visions of Shambhala (a mythic Buddhist kingdom)
- A Tertön, someone who discovers ancient, hidden, Tibetan Buddhist texts
- The Supreme Abbot of the Surgmang Monasteries
- Globally adored Poet, Artist, and Scholar
“Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment.”
― Chögyam Trungpa
The Adventurous Life of Chögyam Trungpa
While studying meditation, philosophy, calligraphy, painting, and monastic dance, Chögyam Trungpa became a monk in 1947.
In the 1950s, when Chinese communists repatriated Tibet, the Rinpoche trekked over the Himalayas and narrowly escaped capture. He reached India in 1959 and began teaching Buddhism to young lamas in Delhi, India.
Fluent in English, Chögyam Trungpa studied at Oxford, and taught throughout North America and Europe, giving thousands of talks to eager initiates.
