One Apple A Day #358
“Your karma informs your dharma.”
I read this yesterday in the new book by my dear friend Sujith.
My understanding is that Dharma is the purpose of my existence. It’s the reason why I am here now, in this form. To me, this concept strongly connects with the idea of meaning as Viktor Frankl describes it. When we think about the meaning of life we are not talking about life in general, we are talking about our existence. It’s about giving meaning to our presence in the universe.
Karma refers to our life events. All the things that happen in our life, all the experiences we go through, all of them are lessons. They are all opportunities to understand our purpose. Our dharma.
By observing our past and present experiences, we can discover powerful insight about our purpose. Just take a look at your more memorable experience of the last ten years. Draw a horizontal line on a piece of paper, this is your lifeline from ten years ago, on the extreme left to now, on the extreme right. Now place a dot at the right point of the timeline with a label that reminds you of the experience. Depending on how much positive or negative was the experience, change the vertical position from very high to very low.
Now take the highest three and the lowest three and for each one write down what you remember of that experience. Try to remember your emotions. Where they positive or negative? How did you feel? Were you excited or scared? Did you feel energised or drained? Were you in flow? Are you smiling when you remind them or are you still in pain? How have you changed after that experience?
Can you find any recurring words? Some patterns?
This is a simple but effective exercise to get clarity about who you are, your values and your dharma.
Let me know how it works for you.