{"id":5550,"date":"2017-07-10T19:55:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T23:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=5550"},"modified":"2017-07-10T20:00:02","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T00:00:02","slug":"from-despair-to-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/?p=5550","title":{"rendered":"From Despair to Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"

I continued to work with the ideas in Stephen Cope\u2019s book\u00a0The Great Work of Your Life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere are the central pillars of the path of action \u2014 the path of karma yoga \u2014 as expounded by Krishna. …
\n1. Look to your dharma.
\n2. Do it full out!
\n3. Let go of the fruits.
\n4. Turn it over to God.\u201d \u00a0 p16<\/p>\n

Quoting Krishna \u201cIt is better to fail at your own dharma than to succeed at the dharma of someone else.\u201d \u00a0 p16<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This addresses my question.\u00a0 I think that helping someone else at a cost to myself is not my dharma, but someone else\u2019s for whom the helping would not be a loss, or would be a worthwhile loss, as Walt Whitman shortened his life by giving everything he had to wounded and dying Civil War soldiers. \u00a0Cope describes a woman he calls Ellen, whose dharma is clearly to help others.\u00a0 She does it with joy, with shining eyes, because it is what she is meant to do. p49.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sanskrit word \u201cdharma,\u201d as used in the Bhagavad Gita, is so full of meaning that it is impossible to grasp its full scope through any single English translation.\u00a0 \u201cDharma\u201d can be variously, but incompletely, translated as \u201creligious and moral law,\u201d \u201cright conduct,\u201d \u201csacred duty,\u201d \u201cpath of righteousness,\u201d \u201ctrue nature,\u201d and \u201cdivine order.\u201d \u00a0 p21<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He quotes R\u00e9n\u00e9 Gu\u00e9non<\/a>, and paraphrases what he says as:\u00a0 \u201cThe word dharma in this teaching, then, refers to the peculiar and idiosyncratic qualities of each being<\/i> \u2014 those very essential and particular qualities that make it somehow itself<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 p21 \u00a0This means that I have do what it’s laid upon me to do, even if it creates difficulties for someone I care about. \u00a0Despite the pain I\u2019ve felt in trying to understand and heal what happened to me, it is still worthwhile, a task worth doing.<\/p>\n

As best as I can understand it, there is a process and I have to let it carry me, and not worry about the outcome. \u00a0I’m feeling very uncertain about whether I will get in to Kendal because of my financial picture. \u00a0I’m going to have to leave it in God’s hands.<\/p>\n

Reading these books, the story of Job has been used as an example. \u00a0Job loses everything, his family, his wealth, even his health. \u00a0His three “comforters” tell him things that aren’t helpful, like “It’s your own fault, you sinned,” that in our culture basically mean “I don’t want to hear about your pain.” \u00a0At the end, he is comforted by recognizing how small he is. \u00a0I have always had a hard time with that. \u00a0But now, the thought of the Ben Shahn<\/a> silk screen I own, with its words from the book of Job, comes to remind me of something I love.<\/p>\n

Canst thou bind the sweet influence of Plieades, or loose the bands of Orion? \u00a0Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? \u00a0Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It always amused me to play the part of God, as I felt when I ran a planetarium, and sent the planets racing along the zodiac. \u00a0And I love to say these lines in a God voice: \u00a0“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the deep?” \u00a0But now I think of my vision of the universe<\/a>, that comes from Astronomy, my major in college, and what I’ve learned since: “The universe is beautiful, interconnected, complex and creative \u2014 the universe is unbelievably beautiful, extraordinarily complex, intricately interconnected, and outrageously creative.” \u00a0The universe is way beyond our power to understand. \u00a0At the same time, how could a beautiful, interconnected, complex, and creative universe create anything that’s not beautiful, etc? \u00a0So I have to accept that there’s no way I can understand why things happen as they do, and have faith in the unfolding of the universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I continued to work with the ideas in Stephen Cope\u2019s book\u00a0The Great Work of Your Life. \u201cHere are the central pillars of the path of action \u2014 the path of karma yoga \u2014 as expounded by Krishna. … 1. Look … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,14,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","category-present-day","category-spirit","category-vocation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennydeupree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}