Karma, Dharma and Love

Recently I spoke via the miracle of cell phone technology with my friend Mike, who lives in the Washington, DC area. He was driving home from his job at the EPA in slow DC traffic. I was driving to the southern part of the Big Island to see a hospice patient. Mike was talking about his ongoing experiences with teachers and teachings from the world religions: “They all have something to say about karma in one form or another; and they all look at dharma…” he said. “And they all have something to say about love,” I finished the equation. Mike had noted that the Great Faiths all seem to revolve around a few universal principles. “And that’s a good thing!” we both agreed.

Karma, dharma and love: with these three principles we can gain a lot of insight into life on this planet. Karma gives a hint as to what our past activities and desires have been (either in this life, or some say even in past lives). For example, if I wake up one day behind bars wearing a uniform with black and white stripes, I can guess with some certainty that I have broken the law.

As a universal principle karma—the law of action and reaction—encourages us to accept responsibility for our current situations, and to use the lessons of karma to improve our plight. A school boy who fails fifth grade due to inattention to his classwork, or too much attention to girls, has a choice: he can learn from his mistakes and go on to graduate with honors (thus transcending his karma, or even being motivated by his karma), or he can go on being inattentive and continue to fail. We don’t generally like to hear that we’re responsible for our situation in life—and there is something to be said for the effects of group karma. But most spiritual traditions bluntly state that ‘as we sow we reap’ and ‘as we do unto others, others will do unto us.’

Karma then gives us some insight into why we are ‘where we are’ in life. Dharma on a personal level indicates what our special purpose in life is: some are called to teach, or to minister, to build, to create, to care give, to farm, and so forth. Dharma is that seed planted in the heart by Universal arrangement or agreement. The seed of a maple tree will not grow into an orange tree. The sooner we can determine our dharma, the quicker we can begin to play our role in the drama or the pilgrimage of this life. If I’m doing my dharma, and you are doing yours and she is doing hers, the world will be a heaven on earth—as all of the members of Life’s Orchestra play their instruments on time and in time.

Dharma indicates who we are and what we are here to do. Karma indicates how we’ve understood that and how well we’re doing at it. And Love indicates the purpose for each of us accepting our vocations and doing them excellently. Love is the reason behind the whole creation. God, Great Spirit, the Mystery, Source of all has spun out this universe and all of its inhabitants for love alone. As parents create children for love, so God creates all of the creatures of the universe for love alone. Love flowers and grows as the lovers grow into their particular strengths and beauties. God the Beloved awaits our maturing into vessels of divine love.

With our dharma understood, and our karmic actions directed toward the Good, each of us can and will flower into the magnificent beings we were born and seeded to be. As the song says, “someday there will be love.” And that will be our perfection.