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July:
Dharma and
Everyday Life
A generic catch-all topic for the issues we
face in our day-to-day life, including education and competition
Summary
Throughout the year, we have examined important themes
for Dharma as it applies to various different external issues. What we seek this month is to see how
Dharma applies to your life, your thoughts, and your actions everyday.
Everyday, we make decisions. Our decision-making process measures the benefits of an
action versus its consequences; the choice we make attempts to maximize
benefit and minimize consequence.
Unfortunately, we usually measure only the short-term benefits and neglect
the long-term consequences of our actions. Because of this, we may be ignoring future problems in our
own lives, since the full consequences of our actions may be delayed past our
short time horizons. Our job,
then, is to expand the time horizon for which we make our decisions, and try
to maximize harmony, peace, and growth over the long-term.
The Power of Thought
Every thought leads to a desire, every desire to an
action, and every action to a consequence. As rational beings, we can internalize consequences and
think about it. Unfortunately,
this feedback loop can be reinforcing – a negative thought leads to negative
desires, leading to negative actions with negative consequences, which lead
to further negative thoughts.
However, we have the power to control our thoughts, and create
positive reinforcement. As a
simple example, let’s say you are angry with someone, and reacting quickly
and with rage, you hit them.
It’s not a surprise if they hit you back. This is an example of “cash karma” – you are quickly repaid
for your actions. However, if
instead of acting with rage, we acted calmly and rationally, we might have
been able to resolve the situation, and no one would have been in pain. By being mindful that every thought
of ours leads to real-life consequences, we have the power to improve our
everyday life.
Some Things We See Everyday
Let’s examine some things we experience everyday:
For example, we could examine the competition
aspect in our lives. We face
competitors on the basketball court, we face them while studying for a high
grade in biology, and we face them in the business world. If an opponent on the court fouls us
hard, do we bear resentment, and foul back hard? Or do we let it slide off, giving carte blanche to our
opponent to foul again? What is
the best way to handle a hard foul (that’s painful), while making sure we do
not create further resentment?
Similarly, in a competitive classroom atmosphere, one could become
intensely resentful of his classmates, and try to sabotage their grades, so
that he is the highest on the curve.
The unfortunate effect is tension in the classroom, and an atmosphere
where no one is happy, and burnout is frequent. Instead, he could try to foster cooperation with his
classmates, where the synergies of teamwork not only help him learn more, but
ultimately allow him to beat the curve anyway. A win-win situation, brought about by trying to create
harmony in the classroom.
Keep this in mind when we treat our friends, our
classmates, or our parents. A
little consideration goes a long way to relieving tension and creating a
friendly atmosphere.
Important Life Decisions
There are several decisions we make that will affect our
life tremendously when we make them, for example:
·
What should we study in college, and what career path
should we take?
It is interesting - though many of us consider ourselves
Hindu and we study Hinduism through the Hindu Students Council, very few of
us are Hindu theology majors.
Why is that? What makes
the Hindu student disposed to studying medicine, law, engineering, pure and
applied science? Looking long
term, it may because those professional careers offer security and a decent
life. But we must balance that
versus personal happiness and growth.
During this time, analyze what your priorities in life are, and how
your personal dharma may have a different calling than what you are studying
now.
·
Should we get married?
Hindu dharma traditionally ascribes marriage as part of
the “householder” stage of life, where a spouse is seen as someone who
completes you. However, not
everyone wants to get married, and not everyone is prepared for it when the
time comes. Again, it becomes a
question of priorities – maybe you are so devoted to spiritual studies and
God-realization that nothing else in the world matters. Perhaps you simply feel you will not
be compatible with another person.
But again, you can analyze this decision using the tools for dharma –
examine harmony, peace, and growth.
There are few things in life that can create personal growth like a
spouse, and there are few better ways to learn to live in harmony.
There are several other types of decisions we must make
throughout life. Throughout this
month, think about how you can see dharmic principles in action everywhere
around you – and see how you can apply it everyday.
Background Articles
Possible Activities and Discussion
Topics
Relevant Organizational Contacts
Speakers in your Area
Quotable Quotes
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