7b. Spiritualism in Performance (Part 2):
In the last installment, I began describing the concept of “Dharma”, or Divine-Given life path, or simply, truth. This is one of the more beautiful spiritual concepts I’ve come across, and the more I’ve subscribed to it, the more it proves itself to me; solidifying like oak over the many years.
Making the “leap of faith”, (which is both figurative and literal in one: figuratively leaping from the tethers of the status quo to a life of freedom, spiritual service and abundance, fueled and protected by literal faith in the Most High), is what is required to live your Dharma.
But how do we find our Dharma, and how do we harness it in order to reap the benefits I’ve described? That’s what we’re going to talk about in this week’s installment, but before we do, it’s very important to realize and embody the concept that we first must relinquish the idea of working for the fruits of our own personal gain. When we truly do this, that’s when we begin to harvest those fruits.
This is such a difficult concept, and one that seems contradictory, but it is universally and karmically true. It’s similar to the concept of meditation itself: we have to endeavor to stop our thoughts in order to quiet the ego principal and reveal the Divine within. But as soon as you “try” to stop the thoughts, you’re thinking about that idea, and therefore not meditating. It’s like a balancing act where we set our intention to stop the thoughts and relax into the quiet without trying to stop thinking. Very difficult. That’s why it’s called meditation practice. You never stop practicing, you never reach perfection, but you get better every single time you practice.
Similarly, in attempting to manifest this wonderful life we want, to give ourselves to our life path and eventually gain some sort of comfort in life, or even abundance, we must relinquish the desire to reap those fruits selfishly for ourselves.
How do we find our Dharma, our life path, our purpose? That’s a tricky question in itself, and the answer is different for everyone, but some things are the same across the board. As young people, we try lots of different things in life. We like some, we don’t like others, yet some very special things we love, and they almost seem to love us back. This is the first clue and exactly what we’re looking for in discovering our life path.
So you’ve found something to do in life that just fires you up. There’s an unmistakeable feeling of deep pleasure in this act, and we come to it out of pure enjoyment, again and again. We work our butts off to get good at it, yet this work somehow seems effortless. (Clue!) Continue to foster these interests. One will eventually emerge that fits you so perfectly. You’re good at it. It comes to you easier than other things you’ve tried, and you excel. You feel good about yourself when you exert energy toward it. Other people notice your affinity and comment on it. Maybe, you even make people somehow feel good when they witness you doing your thing. You’re getting close to your Dharma. Don’t give up. Don’t take your foot off the gas and don’t tap the brakes. Get better, learn, practice.
As you dive deeper into this activity, whatever it may be, you seem to experience “time warp.” This is one of the biggest clues. When I was a kid and I would practice music, I could be at it for hours and swear only 20 or 30 minutes had elapsed. I remember it blowing my tiny mind. This is one of the universe’s clearest sign posts telling you: go this way! (The very same experience happens during our deepest meditations, by the way, a link and commonality. . . In fact, that’s the secret to being able to meditate for long periods like the greatest yogis: they’ve lost track of the banal sense of time passing and slip into something. . . greater.) Slipping into this nearly meditative state when you are performing the one special thing you love is very indicative of Dharma.
So now, you’ve clearly found your Dharma, but at this point, you’re only at the very entrance to the path. How do you make it your life? How do you learn to make that path a gift back to the Most High, and our brothers and sisters here on the planet? The answer to that is different for every person and every path, but as I mentioned in the last blog, if you can give yourself over fully to your Dharma, if you execute your path with your full being, giving the performance of it, and the resulting fruit of it, over to the highest power and other people, the universe will take notice, and will begin to help you in ways unseen, opening doors, making connections, interceding on your behalf. You will begin to notice this help, you will accept the gifts it gives. But you must continue to give yourself and your path away, and remain mindful of this concept while your are performing or executing your path. Also, when you perform for others and not yourself, when you give it to the Most High as an offering, you will inevitably perform at your highest level. You can’t feed your ego, you must feed others, and remain mindful of this while you perform.
When you do all of this, and continually do it as a way of life, you will slowly reap the fruits of your efforts as compensation for your duties.
Do you see the subtle reality of this? I can’t stress it enough: if you act not for yourself, but for others and your Maker, then and only then will you be rewarded the way you really wish to be. On the flip side, if you act only out of selfishness, or even the understandable and necessary mode of self preservation, you begin to block this flow of energy toward you. It’s much like a Catch 22. If you want great success, you have to want to give it all away.
Sure, people with self-centric motivation can find some success, even a lot, but I guarantee you, their success would be even greater, assisted by the greatest power, if their intentions were directed toward serving others and not themselves.
So, in this way, the most abundant people actually gain their abundance by intending to give their service away. To help others, to give back to that which gives us life and sustains us. Leave it to God to give us the biggest paradox to achieving our best lives: when we kill the ego and our selfish, yet necessary self-preserving desires, we are at our very best, and we gain the most, finally achieving abundance.
Therefore, it is with the greatest love and a desire for your greatest gain, that I hope any of these musings assist in even the smallest way to bring you to your best life, your greatest success, and enjoyment of the greatest abundance for you and yours, that I write these words.
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to share. I wish for you to be the best possible version of yourself and for your biggest desire to be to give yourself to others and your highest power.
With love, MN
(PS - As mentioned earlier, I take no credit for any of these ideas. They all have been handed down for thousands of years. I’m merely sharing them with you with hopes of your benefit.)
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