Seane Corn used the word 'dharma' in most of her workshops. I wasn't entirely sure the real meaning behind it, until I read the Bhagavad Gita, a version written by Eknath Easwaran.
The word dharma means many things, but its underlying sense is " that which supports", from the rood dhri, to support, hold up, or bear. Generally, dharma implies support from within: the essense of a thing, its virtue, that which makes it what it is.
Dharma means the essential order of things, an integrity and harmony in the universe and the affairs of life that cannot be disturbed without courting chaos. Thus it means rightness, justice, goodness, purpose rather than chance.
There is an ancient Sanskrit epigram, Ahimsa parama dharma; the highest dharma is ahimsa, non violence, universal love for all living creatures; for every kind of violence is a violation of dharma, the fundamental law of the unity of life.
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