08/03/2025
I originally wrote this as part of self-reflection, but I thought I’d share it here for those it might resonate with — as they navigate their own personal journey of growth and transformation.
————Walking the Path of Dharma———-
An existential crisis is something we humans experience at some point in our lives. It usually comes with the culmination of the past self and gives birth to a new us. Mine came in full force about 8 years ago. It was a time when I had to find new meaning in life. New purpose and new way of living. It’s when I found Buddhism and its concepts which emphasizes we alone must walk the path. But that path — what does that look like? It means even when you are lost, even when things are hard, even when the tower comes down — you walk the path of dharma. For me it meant you do the next best and right thing for yourself and for others around you.
This in reality and in everyday life doesn’t always look pretty and neatly tied in a bow. In everyday life it looks like a fire that’s burning close to home, you feel the heat of it, you put the fire out only to find there’s a snake creeping into your garden, and there are wolves in sheep’s clothing just around the corner, and if nothing else there are the onlookers who don’t know your story but give you the looks anyway. Someone somewhere someplace told them to. You lose things. You lose people — both good and bad. What do you do then?
My comfort at every odds such as the above has always been walking that path of dharma. It didn’t mean you didn’t just use a sword to defend yourself as you treaded the known and unknown parts of the forest. It didn’t mean a thorn didn’t just prick you on the very feet that kept you going and you had to heal from. But it meant when the turbulence and chaos is over, you heal your leg and soul and keep walking — back on that path that you know will never lead you astray from yourself and life itself. This is the path where there’s no company — the parts of life and moments where you alone have to walk it.
There’s fog ahead — not everything is clear. But when you put one foot in front of the other — the light always seems to shine just an inch ahead — just enough for you to keep walking. And sometimes — just sometimes — you get lucky where you can drop the sword for a bit- and you meet people that are like the waterfall in your life — it fills your spirit. Definitely make those stops. It’s what keeps you going. Don’t discount the tending to yourself you will always have to do as you walk. Walking the path of dharma isn’t easy — but it’s always a huge pay off. You know there are shadows following you, you know the bushes alongside the path aren’t safe, but you tread on. Many bridges to cross when you come to it as well. The one that walks along a straight yet tedious path is exhausted by the thought of anticipating all the other distracting and disrupting curves and obstacles that might catch you off guard. You walk anyway not going after the deceptive sidewalks that are best suited for one’s ego but not your soul. Metaphorically you literally take the high road.
As you stop to reflect on your journey, your hardships and triumphs — occasionally you even find yourself aching for the very people that once hurt you, but you aren’t walking backwards, you just feel the moment , all within yourself — being human — being the paradox you always were meant to be —as you navigated this very complex enigma called “life”.
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path — a righteous one”.
