HJ: It’s tempting to think and believe that life is happening to you, when the reality is that it’s dynamically interacting with you. That means there is a silver lining even in the most difficult situations, because anything that’s happening in your life is, at least in part attracted to you directly as a reflection of your decisions and beliefs. Although this may be difficult to accept conceptually (especially because it clashes with the mainstream view of reality, in which life is random and chaotic), the truth is that it’s extremely liberating.
Why is this? Because if you are causing the situation, then you have the power to change it. Also remember that situations are only frustrating and painful to the degree to which we miss the hidden (or not so hidden…) lesson in them. When you become aware of the lesson in any given situation, it is almost magically disarmed and can even pull a complete about face and transform itself into a moment of empowerment.
This means taking full responsibility for your life, which can be scary for people used to blaming others or ‘outside’ events for their own misfortunes. However, the sooner you take responsibility for everything happening in your life, the sooner you gain the power to shape it however you desire!
In the article below, Angela Artemis does a profound job of translating this concept into an easy to understand concept that is both empowering and liberating. It is a highly inspirational article that will surely have you well on your way to seeing the beauty and wisdom of every moment in your life.
– Truth
Spiritual Awakening: Why Your Dilemma is Your Dharma
By Angela Artemis | Powered by Intuition
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“The essence of the Dharma (the teachings of the Buddha) is about identifying the cause of our suffering & alleviating it.” – Allan Lokos
Will my life ever settle down again or is struggling the new normal?
Do you feel the foundation of your life just slipping away like sand under your feet?
If so, you’re not alone. Many people are feeling lost and as if their lives are on shaky ground.
For many people these changes are directly impacting their financial security and careers, for others their relationships or their health. Have you lost a job? Is there a possibility you may be laid off? Or, are you feeling dissatisfied in your existing career because it no longer suits the person you’ve become?
This is one of the many ways the Universe speaks to us.
If at first we cannot hear the whisper of our intuition, and later we disregard the voice of our intuition, the Universe ramps up its effort to communicate to us from gentle raps to pulling the rug right out from under our lives entirely. If you’re in the latter phase – you missed the gentle reminders. Do not fear no matter what phase you’re in the Universe will support your efforts to listen and heed her guidance to turn your life around again.
The root causes of current painful circumstances
Everyone has bad things happen to them but, when the same sort of misfortune befalls us over and over it is time to look within to see if perhaps this circumstance is not just another unfortunate incident but, is mirroring something that’s going on inside of us. Nothing that happens to you is isolated and in a vacuum. Everything that is now causing you immense pain started as a tiny little bruise. The only reason it escalated to such a degree is because you’ve not been paying attention to the more subtle cues. Now the Universe has to go to greater lengths to get your attention.
The fact that you‘ve not been paying attention shows that you have not been ready to learn that everything in our lives is a mirror of what is going on inside of us. When you come to understand this great truth you will have come far on your journey toward finding the meaning and purpose for your life.
We have contributed to creating every circumstance that shows up in our lives. Our beliefs and behaviors drew these situations into our lives. We will need to open our eyes and learn how our thinking has affected our physical environment. We will need to recognize that it is now our obligation and duty to deal with the conflicts we’ve created and learn from them. It is now our dharma.
What is dharma?
Dharma refers to the natural law of the Universe, one’s personal obligations, life path, calling and duties and state of realization. You might think of it as the lessons learned by living in this reality that awaken you spiritually.
When you recognize that your dilemma is your dharma you’ve already climbed “Challenge Mountain.” The next step is to integrate the lesson of this challenge in your life and face why the mountain appeared in the first place.
When a molehill becomes a mountain it is because we chose to ignore the problems growing before our very eyes. It usually takes a long time for a molehill to become a mountain which would mean that we were not ready to take responsibility for our role, no matter how small, in creating our dilemma.
Examples of lessons dharma teaches
Take this example: A spouse wakes up one day to find their partner has left them. Do you think this mountain sprang up overnight? No, certainly not. There has to have been problems that were ignored for a long time for the partner to have left like this.
Here’s another example: Your boss fires you. Did this just spring up in one day? It’s not likely. There has to have been things happening at your job between you and your boss for quite some time.
What about having your car repossessed? Or the house foreclosed upon or even being hounded by bill collectors? There are years of attitudes and behavior behind each of these events.
When the student needs a lesson the problem appears
All of these examples are quite extreme and I certainly hope your problems are less severe but, the fact remains, everything that happens in our lives, that we view as negative had its roots in the small ways we addressed and behaved regarding some problem. The trick is to use the problems when they’re still small as “signs” that adjustments are needed in our lives.
Think of the small problems as winds which are pushing you off the course you’re on and now require that you change the way the sails are set in order to stay on course. If you initially see small problems as needed course corrections you’ll be more apt to avoid the huge dilemmas that you’re now facing.
When we’ve ignored small problems and allowed them to become huge we’ve lost control over our lives. We haven’t used our intelligence and power to affect the trajectory of our lives while the course is still not critical. By waiting we allow the winds to whip our boat way off course into uncharted waters where we face even more dangers.
Learn to be objective about problems and to face and fix them right away
If you find that you keep running up credit card bills and run out of money at the end of each month. Put yourself on a strict budget. Get real about what is a necessity and what is frivolous spending – every penny adds up. Do you really need a case of store bought water in the garage? Wouldn’t it be wiser to have a simple water filtration system and reusable water bottles? Accept that you are living beyond your means now before this little problem turns into one that can sink your entire life. Change your ways and start living within your means.
Turn within and reflect upon why you have this need to spend so much money every month. Do you feel insecure unless you have the latest fashions and look a certain way?
Do you want to keep up with the Joneses and foster a false appearance of being wealthier than you are? Why do you care so much about what other people think?
You need to do some soul searching and become really honest with yourself. This is the only way you’re going to avoid the Universe knocking on your door with really bad news about your financial situation one day.
Do this with all problems that arise in your life whether you attribute the cause of the problem that has arisen to someone else or not. Each of us is equally culpable for the problems we face in our lives. You can’t avoid repercussions by blaming it on someone. If it appeared in your life you alone must deal with it. It certainly is nice to have support though and this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask for or accept help.
Once you’ve awakened to seeing your problems as signs that your behavior and responses need to be addressed you can begin to take control of your life. When bad things happen to us it’s an opportunity to see how the world mirrors what has been going on inside of us. Thank the Universe for showing you so clearly and begin to make your course correction.
See your dilemma as an opportunity
Perhaps getting fired from your job was what you wanted deep down? Then thank the Universe for releasing you from that path so that you can now pursue work you love.
Maybe your spouse did you a favor by leaving? If you have been unhappy for years and known at a gut level that your marriage was not working see this as an opportunity to reinvent yourself and your life.
An unfortunate incident like losing your home to foreclosure will teach you valuable lessons if you are open to accepting your role in contributing to creating this circumstance. If you blame others and take no responsibility you are not ready to grow and understand the language of the Universe yet.
Our life circumstances contain encoded messages about how we are interacting with our environment
When you begin to see that your dilemma is your dharma you will be ready to follow the “right” path in your life. You are ready and willing to learn and assimilate many life lessons that will serve you well for the rest of your days.
Recognizing the path of dharma says that your consciousness has expanded, that spiritual growth is paramount in your life. You’re growing spiritually and moving into a higher phase of spiritual awakening. You’ve outgrown a victim mindset and no longer attribute problems in your life to others because you see the oneness in all life and in everything that happens around you.
You have learned that like throwing a pebble in a pond every thought and action you take sends out rings that affect everyone and everything in your world. And, once your consciousness has expanded, it can never shrink back down again – you can never not know what you now know. You are well on your way to seeing more and more of the miracles right under nose with your expanded consciousness. Spiritual awakening is your dharma and part of a life path toward fulfilling your life purpose.
Is the Universe trying to get your attention? What lessons might you be ready to acknowledge? Do you recognize why learning these Like lessons is part of your life purpose?
