Living Your Own Dharma (or Spiritual Purpose)

When we rely on the world to be the barometer by which we determine if we’re “on track” with the course of our life, we risk not noticing (or deepening our alignment with) the divine unfolding of our unique spiritual purpose or “dharma” in life.

Living in accordance with our personal dharma should be as effortless as the blossoming of a flower, but, unfortunately, we’ve severely interfered with this process through our overwhelming attraction to the world’s thinking…a thinking that has occurred out of a massive misalignment with this inner purpose.

The world’s thinking has arisen out of ego’s desire to only know itself as  the physical, three-dimensional self, which, of course, limits us from knowing ourselves as a soul.

The more attracted we are to knowing and expressing ourselves as a limited three-dimensional, physical being, the less drawn we are to seeing experiences as the unfolding of our personal dharma…that which brings about the soul’s awareness in our experience.

Instead, we judge our life situation based on the thinking of the world and, thus, give it meaning where it has none at the soul-level.

Comparison is born of this lack of understanding. I’ve seen it crop up in my journey when my desire to be somewhere else, either further on the spiritual journey or further in the physical journey, temporarily takes over my thinking.

This desire to be somewhere other than where I am causes me to overlook where and how my dharma may be playing out in that particular moment. We’re meant to be exactly where we are to learn the needed lessons to further the unfolding of the soul in our conscious awareness.

However, the more we fail to see this (because we’re aligned with the physical, three-dimensional aspect of life, in those moments), the more comparison and its’ cousins: frustration, self-loathing and guilt, tend to take over our thoughts.

We end up projecting our three-dimensional desires onto those who already have what we desire, thinking they’re somehow better than us (more advanced, more developed, more talented, more capable, more something), never realizing that we’re only seeing a small fragment of the total picture…

We can’t see how, where we are in a particular moment, is shaping us for the specific lessons that we need to learn and we can’t see how, where someone else is in a particular moment, is shaping them in their journey to know themselves as a soul.

Projection is always done from the ego’s perspective and, thus, can never reveal what’s truly at play from a divine perspective. So as long as projection is at play (which it will be until we overcome ego), we can safely assume that we have no clue what’s really taking place at the level of the soul.

And in this assumption, we can trade our comparative thoughts for faith that all is taking place to support the unfolding of the soul in our awareness.

I had a really bad habit (still do to some degree) of avoiding accepting where I was in my physical and spiritual journey as compared to where I desired to be…

I tended to compare myself to other bloggers who were already making a huge impact sharing the type information that I share. Aside from the quantifiable difference in impact we were making, I compared how we seemed to express ourselves, thinking since they were more free, expressive and infectious with their words (and pictures) that I’d failed to unlock something in myself that would allow that flow to take place.

I couldn’t see that neither the quantifiable impact nor the way in which we expressed ourselves mattered when it came to aligning with and living our respective personal dharma. I was giving meaning to things that had no meaning at the soul-level.

At the soul-level, we’re each tied to the exact experiences and circumstances that we personally need to allow for the unfolding of the soul in our respective awareness.

It’s true that they’re more expressive than me and that they’ve unlocked something in themselves that’s allowed for love to express itself in that particular manner, but what I couldn’t see was that I was only projecting what wasn’t working in myself as opposed to what was.

And because I was doing that, I was limited from seeing the full divine play that was taking place in both of our experiences. None of us (myself and the people I was comparing myself to) have fully conquered ego; instead, we’ve each taken whacks at different parts of its nature.

But because I was projecting from my ego, I was only paying attention to the whacks they’d taken that I still needed to whack…I wasn’t even paying attention to what I’d already whacked or what they may still need to whack, which would have given a much fuller picture of the divine unfolding at play.

Most of my distorted perception was stemming from a desire to feel safe and secure through the success they’d already accomplished.

The more I was lost in this three-dimensional desire, the harder it was for me to see my experiences as fully supporting the unfolding of my soul in my awareness (and that what was happening in their lives was simply the unfolding of their particular dharma).

We each have the seed of truth in us and we’re placed in the exact circumstances and experiences that are meant to unlock that divine unfolding…we just have to commit to seeing all that occurs in our experience from this perspective (as opposed to drawing meaning from the world’s thinking).

We have to see meaning where it is and give up seeing meaning where it isn’t.

To minding our own sweet dharma and allowing it to unfold just as it meant to,

Shanna