Friday, December 13, 2013
What is Dharma? by Lawrence Edwards, PHD
From Wikipedia: "For practicing Buddhists, references to "dharma" (dhamma in Pali) particularly as "the Dharma", generally means the teachings of the Buddha, commonly known throughout the East as Buddha-Dharma.
The status of Dharma is regarded variably by different Buddhist traditions. Some regard it as an ultimate truth, or as the fount of all things which lies beyond the "three realms" (Sanskrit: tridhatu) and the "wheel of becoming" (Sanskrit: bhavacakra), somewhat like the pagan Greek and Christian logos: this is known as Dharmakaya (Sanskrit)."
Here is Lawrence Edwards' interpretation:
On Dharma--by Lawrence Edwards, PHD
"I read a while back some where about the power that is behind Dharma and supports those who attempt to be true to dharma, especially in this dark age of adharma. I think the author, whom I don’t remember referred to it as Dharma Shakti, but it could have been my devotee’s mind that put it in those terms! I began thinking of the power of Dharma that Buddha transmitted awakening some instantly to his state, and continues to be fully alive in Buddhadharma and other dharmas. Dharma Shakti. It is the dharma of a devotee and servant to lovingly serve with all one’s capabilities. This is karma bhumi, the realm of action. So when all seeking has been exhausted, when She has extinguished all cravings, when unknowing has dissolved in the embrace of the unspeakable, what is left to engender action? The one last desire in the dharma of one who has take the bodhisattva again and again, to follow dharma, Dharma Shakti, through Her drama of hide and seek, form and emptiness, bondage and freedom, pain and ecstasy, serving, forever serving…."
