What is dharma and can it be what saves you?
This fabulous furry creature appeared on my computer screen one morning when I started it up and it was such a beautiful reflection of how I felt about the latest book I was devouring with such a sense of awe that it literally left me breathless.
I can’t tell you how many times I caressed, kissed and held the book to my heart. I moaned, shouted and sang out in ecstasy as if I had been touched upon by a glorious divine blessing. I wanted to wrap the book up in feathers and silk and embed it into my heart so that I would be forever be filled with the energy that poured into my mind and nourished my soul.
Can you believe a book that could cause such glory? It is evidenced in the reflection of the rising morning sun on the screenshot I share – like a radiant beam of light illuminating what is True that is calling to be lived.
So, what book is this that I speak of? That moves me like no other. That has changed me.
That has ignited passion. And, lit a fire inside.
“Stephen Cope is a national treasure. He is an incredibly rare combination of brilliant spiritual thinker, elegant prose stylist, and empathic, grounded teacher. The dharma stories threaded throughout The Great Work of Your Life are moving and instructive. Keep a pen and paper handy as you read this remarkable book: It’s like an owner’s manual for the soul.”
~Dani Shapiro, author of
“I was spellbound and inspired by this book from beginning to end. I thought, how is he going to bring together the message of the Gita, the enduringly compelling lives of so many amazing people, the quest for passionate expression in the lives of his friends – how will he keep so many balls juggling at the same time without dropping any – and end by making it all relevant to me right now in my life? And, he has! One rarely thinks of a dharma book as a page-turner, but this one is indeed that. This book is a great read and a great revitalizing breath of fresh air.”
~ Sylvia Boorstein, author of
Description:
“From the Senior Scholar-in-Residence and Ambassador for the famed Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health comes an inspiring meditation on realizing your life’s purpose – what spiritual teachers call dharma. Stephen Cope says that in order to have a fulfilling life, you must discover the deep purpose hidden at the very core of your self. The secret to unlocking this mystery, he asserts, can be found in the pages of a two-thousand-year-old spiritual classic called the Bhagavad Gita – an ancient allegory about the path to dharma, told through a timeless dialogue between the fabled archer, Arjuna, and his divine mentor, Krishna. Cope takes readers on a step-by-step tour of this revered tale and highlights well-known Western lives that embody its central principles – including such luminaries as Jane Goodall, Walt Whitman, Susan B. Anthony, John Keats, and Harriet Tubman, along with stories of ordinary people as well. If you’re feeling lost in your own life’s journey, The Great Work of Your Life may help you to find and to embrace your true calling.”
It is so clear to me that this book was written with the purest of intent and humility to uplift humanity, and save lives. It is rich with dharma and laced with energy graced by the Everything… the All.
There is barely a page that I have not highlighted or written on or earmarked.
This book came to me during a time in which I’ve been in deep contemplation and working out a seed of an idea that came to me a few months ago. The Great Work of Your Life has helped me to learn many many lessons, one of the most important being having faith that I don’t need to know how everything works all at once, and trust in the process of taking the next right step… one at a time.
It is a book about passion and purpose, living to our full potential and wrapping it up into our sacred calling… what is otherwise known as dharma in the ancient text called the Bhagavad Gita. And, it couldn’t bring it all home to the heart any better than this.
Here’s to living to our potential!
Kiernan
