What's your dharma?

Discovering one’s purpose in life can be daunting – and actualizing it can be even more challenging. Fortunately our wise inner self always has the answers we seek, even before we ask the questions. We just need to quiet ourselves long enough to hear what our soul is telling us. Students of Primordial Sound Meditation and visitors from around the world who come to the Chopra Center to learn how to meditate are taught to ask themselves, What is my dharma? How can I help others? How can I serve? Then during the 30-minute practice of stillness and silence, the answers begin to flow through their awareness and resonate within their souls.

Dharma is a path toward the highest expression of your own nature to help, heal, and serve others using your unique gifts and your special talents. Being in your dharma is as vital as breathing. And when you are in your dharma you are a conduit for the universe to flow through you. When you are in your dharma, enter a state of blissful, timeless awareness. When you are in your dharma, indeed you are the universe.

There are as many dharmic paths as there are individuals on the planet. You may find your dharma in teaching, writing, building, cooking, making music, engineering, driving, leading, computer programming, acting, performing, coaching, playing sports, entrepreneurship, inventing, drawing, raising children, public service, gardening, training dogs . . . the possibilities are infinite.

Identifying Your Gifts
To identify your dharma, pay attention to those activities that so engage you that you lose all track of time. Ask yourself, What are my special talents and gifts? Keep in mind that it’s easy to overlook your gifts because they come so naturally to you – there’s a tendency to assume that everyone can do something just because it’s easy for us. Or you may dismiss your gifts as not being special because they aren’t valued by the dominant culture. Keep in mind that you are here for a unique purpose that may look different from those of your friends and family members.

Identifying your unique gifts and your special talents is the first step. Once you have discovered these innate aspects of yourself, you will have the mechanism to channel the universe through your words, thoughts, and deeds. Imagine a waterfall of cosmic proportions that you tap in to and divert your own cascading river. Dharma works the same way. You tap into the divine healing flow of the universe by using your unique gifts and special talents. Now the universe is acting through you. Nothing is more satisfying and fulfilling than doing the work of the cosmos through your own personal expression.