Why to Know Your Dharma
Dharma is an eastern word with many meanings including one’s true inner calling or life’s work. The Hindus and Buddhists teach that we all have a Dharma, but not all of us are conscious of it or following it. What is your life’s work? Are you aware of it? Are you living it? Or are you ignoring an inner calling to your peril?
Deepak Chopra found his life’s work by impulsively leaving a top medical job to answer a want ad for an emergency room physician in Boston General Hospital (lying open to that page in the Boston Globe in his employee lounge). But dharma or life’s work is not about greatness or renown. Deepak Chopra may be rich and famous but not all people like that are following their dharma while some people toiling in obscurity and relative poverty may be living in blissful alignment with theirs. As Stephen Cope, the author of The Great Work of Your Life puts it, “for me, there is really no longer any distinction at all between great and ordinary lives.”
But it’s also useful to know what is really mine to do. Or, put another way, what COULD be mine to do. Every one of us is always at choice in this lifetime. We can be shown what is ours to do and decline to do it.
One tool for choosing the road that is ours is the coincidence. See below for more ideas on how to proceed.
Tool of the week—Coincidence
Deepak Chopra says what’s interesting about coincidence is not that it “happened” but that we noticed that it happened. He says there are a thousand things co-occurring in our field at any given time. Why then do we link the yellow butterfly with a person we’re thinking about? That’s what’s interesting. Chopra calls it communication from our “nonlocal intelligence.” He suggests tracking each coincidence in a journal and the more it “breaks the probability amplitude” the more we circle it, star it, remember it, and pay attention to similar signs as the days continue. That improbable coincidence may be the key to unlocking the right door to our future.
I think of every coincidence as like those ‘port keys’ in the Harry Potter world. When I find them and use them, it gets me where I want to go faster than I would otherwise.
Reflection Questions
- Are you living fully right now?
- Are you bringing forth everything you can?
- Are you digging down into that ineffable inner treasure-house that you know is in there (that trove of genius)?
- Are you living your life’s calling?
- Are you willing to go to any lengths to offer your genius to the world?
Resources
- The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling by Stephen Cope
- Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence by Deepak Chopra
- Message me if you want the address or connection info for the Tuesdays at 4pm weekly Save the World meetup
- Next No Kings Rally is this Saturday, October 18 — Find your nearest rally here
Check it out
- Wednesday, October 8, 9 am US Pacific Time, “The Conscious Reality Show with Sara Stevens Nichols” with members of Workaholics Anonymous on the New Thought Media Network streaming live at www.youtube.com/@ConsciousRealityShow
- Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 12 pm US Pacific Time, “Healer, Heal Thyself” monthly drop-in spiritual/physical coaching session on Zoom in 2025. Register at csasacramento.org/2024/12/healer-heal-thyself
- Sunday, November 30, 2025, 9am and 11am services US Pacific Times; Speaking at Center for Spiritual Awareness, 1275 Starboard Dr., West Sacramento, CA or stream live on Facebook at www.facebook.com/csasacramento
Sara Stevens Nichols is always a writer, a teacher, a minister, and a public interest advocate, and sometimes she even gets paid. She is currently a staff minister at the Center for Spiritual Awareness in West Sacramento. She is also the host of The Conscious Reality Show, which began in 2024, and the author of Snicholsblog, which has been active since 2004. Her book (working title, How to Know What You Know) is expected to be released by DeVorss Publications in the spring of 2026.