Dharma: El camino

Budha called his teaching Dharma. It is the path you tread when you understand the Four Noble Truths. Dharma is an old Hindu term that the Bhagavd Gita uses in contrast to Karma. When Budhism spread to China and mixed with Tao to form Zen, Dharma gave way to its Chinese equivalent: Tao. Tao is the path of Dharma. It means both the particular right path - your strategy - that you follow in any circumstance and the general discipline of always following the right path. You follow Dharma - Tao in a particular moment but also throughout your life. Rather than pick either of these names, let's call it by the usual translation of "Tao" into English: the Way.

The Way avoids a certain kind of conflict: Karma versus Dharma. You must find a Dharma that fits your Karma. Your Karma is the full set of circumstances the universe presents to you that are beyond your control. Your Dharma is your own set of thoughts and actions. These are within your control. You find your Way by sorting out what what exactly is withing your control rather than what you most desire. You do what you can, not what you want. Your Dharma follows your Karma, not your desires.


I had few really definite ideas, and the reason for this was that, instead of obstinately seeking to control circumstances, I obeyed them.

The fact was that I was not a master of my action, because I was not insane as to attempt to bend events to conform to my policies, I bent my policies to accord with the unforseen shape of events.
Napoleon

Beginner's mind is exactly Von Clausewitz's presence of mind. It does not mean that you fail to master your craft. It is a step beyond mastery, when you clear your mind of all you know the moment you step onto the field of battle. Otherwise, you carry thoughts into the battle based on the wrong karma. You cannot fully know what forces are in play in the battle - what moves you will need, what goal you must set - until you reach the moment of the battle itself. And as all life is a battle - that is, a field for action of some kind - you aim to achieve beginner's mind as a permanent mental state.

William Duggan, Strategic Intuition, 75.