In this talk, Zach explores all the many different meanings of the Sanskrit word “Dharma.” Like many Sanskrit concepts, there are many different translations of this word, including duty, purpose, path, teachings, method, law, Tao, and Cosmic law. While seemingly separate ideas, there is an underlying unity behind them all.
Intro Poem is part of the Pebbles poetry collection, click here to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/Pebbles-Zach-Beach/dp/B0B2V3VYW6
“People are not free when they are doing just what they like… People are only free when they are doing what their deepest self likes. And there is getting down to the deepest self! It takes some diving. Because the deepest self is way down, and the conscious self is an obstinate monkey. But of one thing we may be sure. If one wants to be free, one has to give up the illusion of doing what one likes, and seek what IT wishes done.”
– D.H. Lawrence
“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
― Gandhi
“To find the Buddhist law, drift east and west, come and go, entrusting yourself to the waves.”
– Zen Master Ryokan
“The gate is wide open and nothing blocks your way.”
– Zen Buddhist Mumon Yamada
“The dharma is universal, it’s immediate, it’s open-handed, it’s to be experienced by each person for themselves directly, it’s timeless. The truth of life is here to be discovered for any individual with eyes open to see”
– Jack Kornfield
“Be quiet, still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
– Franz Kafka
“Wait for an autumn day, for a slightly
weary sun, for dusty air,
a pale day’s weather.
Wait for the maple’s rough, brown leaves,
etched like an old man’s hands,
for chestnuts and acorns,
for an evening when you sit in the garden
with a notebook and the bonfire’s smoke contains
the heady taste of ungettable wisdom.
Wait for afternoons shorter than an athlete’s breath,
for a truce among the clouds,
for the silence of trees,
for the moment when you reach absolute peace
and accept the thought that what you’ve lost
is gone for good.”
– Adam Zagajewski
“the leaves believe
such letting go is love
such love is faith
such faith is grace
such grace is god
i agree with the leaves”
— Lucille Clifton
“Heal yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon. With the sound of the river and the waterfall. With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds. Heal yourself with mint, neem, and eucalyptus. Sweeten with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile. Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a hint of cinnamon. Put love in tea instead of sugar and drink it looking at the stars. Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain. Stand strong with your bare feet on the ground and with everything that comes from it. Be smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with your forehead. Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier. Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember … you are the medicine.”
– María Sabina
“All creatures exist for a purpose. Evan an ant knows what that purpose is–not with its brain, but somehow it knows. Only human beings have come to a point where they no longer know why they exist. They don’t use their brains and they have forgotten the secret knowledge of their bodies, their senses, or their dreams.”
– Lame Deer
“When I was the stream, when I was the
forest, when I was still the field,
when I was every hoof, foot,
fin and wing, when I
was the sky
itself,
no one ever asked me did I have a purpose, no one ever
wondered was there anything I might need,
for there was nothing
I could not
love.”
–Meister Eckhart (1260 – 1328)
