Dharma
(Sk.). The sacred Law; the Buddhist Canon. (TG)
One must emphasize the significance of an active and as perfect as possible fulfillment of the earthly tasks, or as it is said, of “one’s dharma to the end.” Only in this way is it possible to achieve the true progress of the inner man. “Man comes to perfection by the constant fulfillment of his dharma,” says Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita. (LHR I, p 329)
As color, form and sound are to the eye and ear, so dharmas are to the consciousness. They exist for us by their effects. The blue color exists only as we receive the sensation of blue.
It is customary to call the Teaching of Buddha itself Dharma, since dharma also signifies law. Subjective and objective phenomena are continuously changing. They are real; but their reality is momentary because all that exists is but part of an eternally unfolding development—dharmas appear one moment in order to change the next. This doctrine of the eternal flux of all things was so fundamental a characteristic of the Teaching that it was named “The Theory of Instantaneous Destruction.”
Dharmas (transcendental bearers of definite qualities) are drawn into the stream of eternal change. Their combinations define the specifications of objects and individuals. Only that which is beyond combinations is unchangeable. The ancient teaching knew only one concept which was integral, unconditioned and eternal—Nirvana.
Every dharma is a cause, for every dharma is energy. If this energy is inherent in each conscious being; it manifests itself in a two-fold way: outwardly, as the immediate cause of phenomena; inwardly, by transmuting the one who has engendered it and by containing in itself the consequences revealed in the near or distant future. (FB, pp 103-104)
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