You Know Your Practicing Dharma When....

[Positive Change]

I would like to add the following:

1. You know you are practicing Dharma when the obstacles that you encounter are seen merely as that and it will in no way detract you from your ultimate goal and practice.

2. You know you are practicing Dharma when you recognise and in turn realise with clarity the suffering and unhappiness that surrounds you minus the veils of samsara.

3. You know you are practicing Dharma when you catch yourself being angry and the time between realising the emotion and stopping it becomes less to a point where the anger just does not materialize!

[Reena Searl]

You know you are practicing dharma when

1) Less anger ,
2) tolerance level increased,
3) forgive and let go,
4) less attachment to worldly materials,
5) putting dharma as priority
6) alway practice generosity
7) reduce self cherishing mind
sincere and authentic towards dharma practice

[Big Uncle]

You Know You Are Practicing Dharma When....

1) You can't give up because you care more for how it will affect others.

2) Finding less time to feel sorry for oneself and instead finding more time to do more to make up for mistakes or ensure that it will never get to that stage.

3) Finding genuine joy in giving and helping others.

4) Not retaliating negatively when someone accuse, scold or hurt us.

5) Finding ways to repay the kindness of our Guru and parents.

[Vajraprotector]

You know you are practising Dharma when you
- observe your reactions to situations to check your motivation
- understand that engaging in Dharma action/ motion does not necessarily equates to practising Dharma

I try to remember that always, good practise for myself

[Positive Change]

You know you are practicing Dharma when....

1. Your friends start commenting on how you seem different in a good way...
2. When your family and people close to you notice a change in you for the better...
3. Your mind is more focussed and what would normally stress/anger/frustrate you. is a lot easier to accept... The "problem" has not changed but your perception of the "problem" has!
4. When your Lama seems "closer" to you purely because you have created the merits for your Lama to "help" you.

At the end of the day, one should really be able to continue to add to this "list" as it is a constant journey of discovery and transformation!!

[Damian.D]

When you stop saying "NO"....
When you stop saying "YES"...
When you stop thinking "ME"...
When you stop taking for "FREE"...
When you want to be "FREE"...
When you want to "SUCCEED"...
When you stop saying "TIME IS RIGHT...TOMORROW... LATER... ANOTHER TIME"
When you start saying "TIME IS RIGHT...TODAY... NOW... ANOTHER OTHER"

[sahara]

I love this topic and i like Triesa poem........and many of them. For example : (1)  Practicing Dharma has made me look at things rather differently  .(2)  Is made me face my daily challenges and obstacles. (3)  I will thinking more of how to benefit the others. Everytime i log in here i can learn more and more Dharma knowledge from other....thank you

[pgdharma]

You know you are practicing dharma when

your  family, loved ones and friends see a change in you

you remain calm and focus when faced with a difficult situation

you remain more patient and show less anger

you work hard for the sake of others and not oneself

you learn to forgive and not to hold on to grudges to those who hurt or abused you

you learn to let go of attachment to worldly possessions

you contemplate more and more on impermanence

[Tenzin K]

You know you are practicing dharma when

Your action always is for benefiting others. When your motivation is such, you always stay alert and focus on every thought, move and speech.

Yourself will always be secondary and you are happy to see people happy but frm dharmic point of view.

[Klein]

You know you're practising dharma when:

1)  You let go of your negative feelings faster.
2)  You are more caring.
3)  You are less self absorbed.
4)  You have less projections.

[Gypsy]

I love triesa's poem! It's very meaningful, it reminds of the 8 verses of mind transformation. If we can truly practice all the lines triesa has just mentioned, we are indeed practicing dharma. Often we are distracted by our own indulgence, pursuits in career, attachment etc and make us stop practicing dharma or become lazy, always think there's tomorrow, "me" is more important while other matters is not. When we have less attachment desire, fear and insecurities, then we have more capacity to help others. To speak is always easier than to take action, we have to conquer the fear inside us, embrace dharma and realize how great dharma is, and how beneficial dharma is, after we have this realization, then we start practice dharma in daily life.

[DSFriend]

Isn't it wonderful to live life without being enslaved to  attachments, desire, fear, insecurities? This alone will bring so much more happiness, lightness.. And the natural outcome is as you've stated,..we will have more capacity to help others. I have still a long away to rid off the 3 poisons!

I've had debates with friends who are not on the path who claims to live their lives with NO FEAR, NO INSECURITIES, they do whatever they want and whenever they want, and have no fear of death. There is a huge difference as the natural outcome without the element of dharma will create self indulgence thus, no capacity to help others. Forgive me if I am over generalizing. There are many people with very good hearts who are not religious nor have knowledge of the buddha dharma yet, they are spiritual in their own rights.

How much we believe in karma and rebirths directly affects how we practice the dharma ..or not practicing the dharma. If we do not believe in karma and how it will affect our own next rebirth, then there's no stopping us from causing havoc to ourselves, to others, to the environment. We do not need to have a sense of responsibility to mother earth nor the inhabitants who lives in it.  It's the "who cares, I don't need to clean up the mess" mentality.

The common answer or message from everyone's post in regards to "you know your practicing dharma when.." is becoming a better version of ourselves thus, causing less harm, and begin to be beneficial.

I love Triesa's poem and every one's thoughts of what practicing dharma means.

Thank you everyone. Much to reflect on

[sonamdhargey]

When you can pause and think before reacting out of anger.

You can look at things in different perceptives rather get stuck in one view.

You are more generous and able to give more

You become selfless and always lend helping hand

You are able to less argumentative

You quarrel less with your partners or spouses

You look for less faults in others and instead look inward to see how you can change to make things better





You become less

[vajratruth]

This is a good one to reflect on.

You know you are practicing Dharma when:

(i) your thoughts stop focussing on things you like and avoiding things you don't;

(ii) when your tolerance for difficult situations and irritating people are greatly enhanced;

(iii) when you stop getting angry and upset when things don't go your way;

(iv) when you begin to take responsibility for everything that is going on around you good and bad;

(v) when karma is a foremost in your mind;

(vi) when you stop eating meat because you do not wish the life of an animal to be taken for your sake;

(vii) when you because less aware of your own emotions;

(viii) when the idea of death becomes less daunting;

(ix) when start to get along better with everyone around you especially your parents;

(x) when the basis of your happiness shifts away from yourself to your Lama.

[negra orquida]

You know you are practicing dharma when:

- something bad happens to you or someone else, you call it "purification" (although this is technically incorrect)
- you make yourself smile even when you don't really feel like it because you want to let people feel at ease
- you see stray dogs and cats, you want to chant mantras at them
- you walk past a japanese restaurant and reminisce about how you used to love eating sashimi, and smile because you are now a vegetarian and lovin' it
- when you don't feel peeved when people try to coax you back into eating meat, but instead feel sorry for them
- you whisper "om ara pasanadhi" into a baby's ear instead of lullabies