Wherever You Go, There's Dharma

How surfing taught me that karma isn't sometimes spelled with a dh

I’ll admit that I only recently learned that dharma is not an alternate spelling of karma. That’s how removed I’ve been from Eastern cultures. I can only blame myself for being too lazy to read books and the Eurocentric nature of my New England liberal arts education. But my personality and upbringing came with benefits as well: as a surfer in New England, I spend 2 hours commuting to the beach during which I listen to audiobooks and my education taught me to listen to opinions and beliefs that are different than my own. If not for those two things, I would have no clue what dharma is and I would not have realized how much it relates to my life today.

A few weeks ago I bought a book about dharma called “The Great Work of Your Life” and after a few minutes of playing it I abruptly turned it off. The author, Stephen Cope, was going on about how grand it is to master a single craft, art or skill. The idea that mastery is the pinnacle of human experience repulsed me. It felt like a complete invalidation of my life experience.

As a child my greatest wish was to find my passion. I felt that if I could figure out what that one thing was that I loved to do and had a talent for, then there was no way I wouldn’t find success. I would devote all my time and energy to it and become a master. I was desperate to know what the “one thing” was and I felt sad and dejected to not know. The problem was that I had too many interests and a variety of skills and talents. Many of them brought me joy but none called out to me stronger than the others. I reluctantly came to see myself as a jack of all trades and master of none. That had to be enough.

So I stopped listening to the book about dharma and moved on to something that was more aligned with my existing beliefs—a book about pursuing the impossible. This new book did not disappoint. It was extremely validating and had me nodding my head the whole way. By the end I was thoroughly inspired but ironically I felt pulled to return to the concept of dharma. If I really believed in pursuing the impossible I would need to stretch myself outside of my comfort zone and learn from different points of view.

Well surprise, surprise. I do believe in dharma. I always have. It was that thing I longed to know as a child but what I know now is that my dharma was always with me and it doesn’t have to manifest as a single activity. In Western culture we have the concept of “finding yourself” and generally that involves going on some long journey and big adventure then coming home and fulfilling your life’s purpose. The way this idea is talked about makes it seem as if the understanding of who we are can only come from chancing upon the right thing after an exhaustive search. I thought I was just unlucky to not have found the thing yet. I think the truth is more like “wherever you go, there you are.” Dharma comes from the inside and is always with you and kind of like the syncing of two waves in phase, it is amplified when you are aligned with it.

Every day I can feel myself getting more aligned with my dharma. I can’t yet name it but I can feel its presence when I think about surfing. Riding waves feels natural, so much so that some of the things I was doing before I started surfing grew to feel unnatural afterwards. When I started surfing I stopped underfueling my body and stopped drinking alcohol. I started listening to audiobooks about well being and started prioritizing sleep. I quit my job and spent the winter waking up at 5 AM to drive to a snow covered beach and surf in 40 degree Fahrenheit water. It all felt automatic. Not like a self-help checklist that I had to grit my teeth to bear. That isn’t to say these changes were easy or didn’t come without sacrifice but I didn’t have to doubt that they were right. This is closer to the concept of dharma as I’ve ever gotten.

If you reflect on your own life, you’ve probably experienced something “dharmic” even if only for brief moments. Maybe there was a time when you did something that your friends thought was weird but made perfect sense to you. Or perhaps there is a story your parents tell of a time you shocked them with a behavior that you found effortless. You were in alignment with yourself.

It’s possible that the memory that comes up for you doesn’t directly point to an activity you have a passion for today. It’s pretty clear that dharma is not passion. Passion is an emotion that can come and go. When it’s not there, passion can leave you in a desperate state, immobilized with indecision. The first chapter of “The Great Work of Your Life” describes this feeling through the recounting of the Bhagavad Gita, a famous Hindu text about dharma. In the Gita, the protagonist Arjuna is on the floor of his chariot, immobilized with indecision and doubt. That was what I felt growing up. Today I don’t feel that I need to know exactly what to do next. I’m just trying to be the best version of myself that I can right now. And while not every moment is easy, it all feels natural, effortless, aligned.

It’s funny how I almost gave up on dharma but decided not to judge the book by its intro. Instead I gave it a chance and it gave back. That’s karma.

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