Living your Dharma - following your Star

Today I am posting a piece I had written months ago that I shared on another website, but thought it relevant here for our juicy years - living out our later years involved in work or activities that are in alignment with our personal vibration, presence, and values.  

I had been reflecting on this topic, and at the same time, reading what others are sharing. In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas it reads “if you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you; if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you”. I love the way this is expressed, the language of the past.

If you find it hard to articulate what it is you want, or what path to follow - wait - it may take some time for your subconscious to bring it forth into being. We musn't look for the answer too early - any harvest has it's own way of unfolding.

 Following your Star

In 1996 when I first moved to the Blue Mountains, I was on a mission to find my “purpose”, or what I needed to bring forth.I sensed that my star was shining somewhere. There was a burning within me, to find my soul’s path, whatever it took. I even did university assignments in Social Ecology on Finding my Soul’s Voice; interviewed women for a project Women Work & Meaning. Further along the road, with more self-examination and insights, I did find my way, or my dharma. In discussion with a young woman recently who, like me in my earlier years, also focused on mothering, we acknowledged that mothering is in fact, many women’s dharma. And that is enough for some.

 

Stephen Cope says in his book The Great Work of Your Life, that “our job is to make choices that create the right conditions for dharma to flourish”. And it is important to show up every day. It’s not as easy for some to do this, as it is for others. Many come to crossroads and never take either road, but stay stuck out of fear, or other reasons. Perhaps that which wants to live through us will be much stronger than the fear, or the ego, that inhibits us. It’s a trusting in invisible guidance and that you will recognize the signs.

I know from experience that when I live in alignment with the vibration that is me, there is a sense of fulfillment. Life flows. Life works for me. Living daily from my heart space enhances all that I do. Our dharma could include many flavours.  

Part of my dharma now is to encourage women to take up the call, to practise with other women and embrace to the fullest, her feminine essence, her spirituality that is expressed differently from that of a man, and to heal from the years of conditioning - how spirituality should look like, through the eyes of the masculine.