So here’s the first post in “Fun things I learned at Kripalu”.  My session was all about dharma, which as I mentioned, wasn’t a familiar term to me.  I think it scared me off because it is a pretty complicated term.  There are two aspects to it in the Bhagavad Gita - there’s a piece about duty and your role in society.  There was some justification of the caste system in India going on there, but that’s an old school view that we’re not looking at here.  

The more interesting aspect of dharma is your personal dharma.  It’s the stuff that’s related to your own being, to who you really are.  It’s like the calling of your deepest self, your guts, your soul.  It’s the personal gifts that you bring to the table. The kind of thing that if you weren’t able to do it, you might shrivel up. You might call it your sacred purpose. 

Our teacher, Stephen Cope had lots of great examples of this and we watched the movie Billy Elliott because it highlights it well.  

One of the stories I loved was about Dr. Jane Goodall.  When she was six she went missing one day.  Her family searched all over for her and finally found her in the chicken coop.  She’d been sitting for hours watching a hen sit on and hatch an egg.  Jane was completely fascinated by it.  She hadn’t moved for hours. Of course her family thought she was nuts.  But it was the early demonstration of the kind of skills and interest that would make her become a world-renowed scientist. 

But dharma isn’t necessarily something you come across when you’re a kid, it can wack you across the head anytime in your life. 

Cope said that the cool thing about dharma is that it’s not about selling your house and moving to Paris to be a painter.  He said usually your dharma is a lot closer than you think.  And we found that in our session.  I won’t relate people’s personal stories here but suffice to say that a number of people were having a really tough time with their jobs.  They were burned out and frustrated and thinking they needed to quit and go pick apples or something less stressful. 

But over the course of the session they went from seeing it as a black and white situation, that is “I need to do this job that’s killing me or I need to quit” to seeing that there might be a 3rd way.  They began to see that they could explore the various shades of grey in between to find the perfect fit for themselves.  As Cope said, it’s all about aim and discernment.

So back to the Gita, Krishna provides the 4 point plan for taking action:

1. Figure out your dharma.  It’s that seed inside you that’s itching to grow.

2. Do it full out.  All the cards on the table.  Pedal to the metal. Total unity in action.

3. Relinquish the fruits.  Do the labour, let go of the fruits of your labour.  Do the work, let the outcomes take care of themselves.

4. Surrender.  Maybe it’s to God or a higher power if that works for you, but regardless there will be sacrifice and if you can do it out of love it’ll make it all the more meaningful.

So your mission if you choose to accept it is to list the things in *your* life that you totally groove with.  The things that light you up.  Your unique set of personal gifts and skills. The things that just feel *right* when you do them.  Don’t bother judging whether they’re too small to bother with, put ‘em down.

And you’re not done yet, here’s the second part.  Go through your list and mark which of the activities that when you do them put you into a flow state.  That’s the state where you’re completely absorbed in the task, time slows down, you forget to eat and everything else fades into the background.  That’s a great sign you’re practicing your dharma.