Chapter 4: Dharma ~ A Tree Bends Toward Light
Rod Stryker’s Four Desires (4D) Virtual Book Club

Get ready, Part II of the Four Desires is dedicated to dharma. We will do some writing exercises and start to uncover our souls’ purpose. Chapter 4 throughly describes dharma with eloquent ,awe-inspiring words, capturing the feeling of dharma. That feeling helped me later in the process of uncovering my personal dharma (dharma code).

This chapter begins with the beauty of how nature follows it’s purpose: “a honeybee, drawing nectar from a blossom, bats its wings at 11,400 times per minute; an ant will carry twenty times its weight to serve a colony.” Dharma is natural for animals.  But humans tend to complicate existence. If only understanding dharma were that easy; but at other times, I feel that it is that easy. We are, after all, complex animals.

So why look to nature to understand dharma? Because as much as we separate ourselves from nature, we are intrinsically part of it. These next few chapters will guide us though very specific exercises and practices that will teach us how to better listen and uncover our own direction.

“From the microscopic to the cosmic, our world is a vibrant place, but it is shaped by more than sheer force. It is under the constant care and guidance of a kind of intelligence or order. Thus a tree bends toward light–always.”

But why, you ask? Dharma.

“The root of dharma is dri, which means “to support” or “to hold up.” What we are uncovering is what supports us to carry out our unique purpose. Joseph Campbell said that if “you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track, which has been there all the while waiting for you.” I remember at an Yoga of Fulfillment workshop that I attended, Rod adding a bit of needed Earth consciousness to Campbell’s statement by asking, “How can we achieve our individual happiness while simultaneously having a positive impact on the world of which we are a part?”

If dharma is that intelligence that supports the world, than our discovery of our personal dharma is that which will support our time here on this planet. Because dharma will influence all other desires, we start with it first.

Here we go venturing out (and in) to uncover or discover our souls’ purpose. Be prepared, it could be a bumpy ride or smooth sailing. Those of us who have been practicing these teachings for a while could attest that “the more we understand and embody this force or intelligence, the more capable we will become and the more our lives will reflect the fullness of dharma’s endless power and capacity. Thus we seek it out in countless ways.”

Like the tree that bends towards light as part of its dharma, what do you bend towards as part of yours?

Next weeks reading: Chapter 5 ~ Understanding Your Mighty Purpose

Aloha,
Chanti

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