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 complet…