Dharma and Meaning in Spiritual Context

What Is Meaning? Dharma vs Meaning and Ego Illusion

By Rev. Michael Gadway

The question is not to know what is the meaning of life, but what meaning I can give to my life. – Dalai Lama

Dharma vs Meaning: Why they are not the same

Many people confuse dharma and meaning; they are not the same. Dharma is spiritually alive and it flows through our existence. It is an extension of the spirit of God that lives and breathes within us. In essence, we realize our dharma in the intimacy and urgency of our relationship with God, and the unfolding of our destiny as a result of that spiritual communion. Though there is a divine intelligence guiding both the individual’s and the universe’s spiritual evolution, it does not arbitrarily assign meaning to its Lila (Divine play). The expression of God, as life, unfolds because that it what it does, not because that is what it intends to do.

Unity of Consciousness and the Illusion of Separation

There is one unified consciousness, One Presence, One Power, One Being. A singularity of Spirit presenting as a plurality. The belief in a separate existence that requires definition and meaning is a construct of the conditioned mind. It is a delusion born of a mistaken mental constraint. The need for meaning arises within the mind as a result of its Illusory perception of dualism; this impulse to seek meaning is born of the mind’s awareness of the polarity of opposites. If we are not special, if our lives are not endowed with meaning by God, then the opposite must be true: we are without value. We are nothing. In the pursuit of uniqueness and the need to be special and singularly individual, the ego searches for meaning in order to define its importance. Therefore, the need for meaning can only be a result of believing we are other than the Source and the subjective idea of the reality of this material world.

Self-Derived Meaning and Spiritual Responsibility

By saying this, I am not implying that we should not assign meaning to our lives. I am saying that meaning must be self-derived and it must give us spiritual satisfaction. We decide what our lives mean. No one else can do this for us: not our family, not our friends, not our work or our spouse, and certainly not God. We determine the essential quality of the life we are living and choose the significance of it. We turn inward and identify what is of value to us and how we want to interpret and apply that value to our lives.

A Teaching Moment on Meaning, Death, and Emotional Resistance

I was teaching a class at a retreat center in Georgia when I made the statement, “Life means whatever we want it to mean.” A woman, obviously angered by the statement, said loudly to me and the group gathered, “Do you mean my friend who just died of cancer, her life means whatever I want it to mean?” I said “To you, yes that is exactly what I am saying.” In an exaggerated huff, she walked out of the room and didn’t come back. She was still looking for an external locus of authority, God, to assign value to her friend’s life. But there is no personification of Spirit that arbitrarily applies meaning to an individual existence.

Inner Authority: Choosing the Meaning of Our Lives

We are immortal units of Spirit. The truth of us exists eternally and is beyond this mundane realm. Often, we find ourselves bound by a cultural or social need to label and identify. But it is we who choose what is important to us and what is not. I often hear people say, “Oh, that must mean God wants me to…” But there is no personified God enthroned in heaven assigning meaning to our lives. We are not looking for our dharma; we are already living it and if we are looking for meaning, that is ours to identify, assign, and apply to the cadence of our lives.

Divine Order and the Impersonal Evolution of Consciousness

There is a mathematical precision to life and a divine intelligence orchestrating the universe. The universe operates under an impersonal divine principle and that principle is relentlessly moving us towards awakening and liberation. Divine order operates independently of our relationship with a personified God. Our common destiny is to awaken to the allness of life and it is preordained.

Devotion, Form, and Personal Relationship with the Divine

There is a story about a great saint who had experienced, and was established in the consciousness of the absolute unmodified field of Spirit. Yet, he continued to worship God in form with prayers and chanting. A disciple asked, “Sir, why do you continue to worship God in form when you have awakened beyond form?” The great saint answered, “It pleases me.” Our personal relationship with God is just that, personal, and we can choose to derive unique meaning from it. When we create and develop personal spiritual meaning to and in our lives, we become more reliant on our sacred relationship with the Divine and less reliant on society. We stop looking for external guidance and instead begin to rely on the God within and the dharma that proceeds from it. When we are anchored in a spiritual union with the Spirit indwelling, we are living our dharma. What we do in the world and the meaning we give that interaction is ours to decide. We must always remember our consciousness is God’s consciousness. Our lives are God expressing in oneness as beautiful diversity.

Turning Inward to Discover True Meaning

Meaning isn’t found using the world’s mores and standards as our guideposts. It isn’t hidden in the lines drawn by society. We won’t uncover meaning by walking the roads others paved. The light we are seeking is within us and when we turn towards the inner light, we come to realize that we have always been and we will always be. When our immortality is realized, we can decide for ourselves what it all means.

Dharma, Truth, and the Emergence of Meaning from the Soul

Our dharma arises from the core of who we are and meaning is the self-derived mental byproduct of that realization. Truth begets dharma, and dharma begets meaning. They are stitched into the clothe of our Soul and the only way to unveil them is to turn towards the truth found in the depth of our being.

May 18, 2026

Spiritual Education

Finding Your Dharma: A Spiritual Path to Meaning and Purpose

What if Dharma Begins Where Approval Ends?

By Rev. Michael Gadway

Dharma is not upheld by talking about it. Dharma is upheld by living in harmony with it. – Gautama Buddha

Breaking Free from the Need for External Validation

We spend so much time looking at ourselves through the world’s eyes, we lose our natural, intuitive ability to see into the depths of our own being. We have become enamored of the physical and material aspects of life. In our relentless pursuit of approval, success, and emotional gratification from the material world, we have forgotten the one thing we want most: to rest in the awareness of our true Self.

The desire to belong, to fit in, to step up and “be somebody” in the world, so constrains our view of Spirit that it is life-denying rather than life-affirming. When we set our egoistic aspirations above our Soul longings, we drown the truth of our being in the mediocrity of society. This impulse reveals itself in two ways: as those who wish to fit in and belong and as those who spend their time trying to be different and special. Both have missed the callings of the Soul.

When we constantly search for guidance and approval from an external locus of authority rather than an internal one, our inner vitality is eroded and we disempower our life force. The corresponding Soul-devaluation affects the essential fabric of our lives. The scope of our perception is then limited to a Soul numbing restricted view of the world and ourselves, and with it, we lose the joy and contentment secreted in the profoundness of being.

Discovering Your True Self Through Dharma

To counter this loss of Self-reliance and Self-awareness, we must discover and declare our intrinsic spiritual value to ourselves. We must learn to create and hold a sacred space within us and then stand strong in this inner sanctum with or without the world’s praise; this is the true meaning of Self-reliance. To dwell in this innermost tabernacle is to be established in our dharma. It becomes that which we invoke and that which sustains us. The vast spiritual space within us speaks in whispers, Soul urgings, and intuitions. This relationship with the indwelling Infinite becomes the foundation of our lives. It guides and supports, suggests and demands, pushes and pulls us towards the Source, and it fulfills our every need.

The Meaning and Evolution of Dharma in Spiritual Tradition

If we trace the origin of the term dharma, we discover that it meant simply, the law: the law of the cosmos and of nature. It was the basic principle in ritualistic worship and it inferred a transactional-karmic relationship with God; if we do this, we get that. If we sacrifice something important to us, we are rewarded with something even greater. We give to get. This theologically underdeveloped relationship with the God of the Old Testament still exists today.

Though it is a spiritually immature framework for relating to God, many people in prayer offer God something if they will only answer their prayers the way they want them to. We see this same now defunct spiritual model in the new thought movement as well. “If I think this way, I get what I want from life.” The mistaken belief that because we are individual units of Spirit, we can manipulate the world, blurs our awareness of our dharma which is found in the bliss of surrender, not in creating a world reactive to our egos.

What Is The Modern Usage of Dharma and Life Purpose

In the Rig Veda, dharma was referred to as the “pillars” of creation and there was little moral character applied to its meaning. But over the millennia, the term dharma evolved to signify one’s moral duty or righteous conduct. It began to have social and religious implications. Dharma took on ethical tones as the term law began to be applied to peoples’ daily behaviors. It was then adopted by the Buddhist and Jain movements before sweeping across Asia and eventually making its way into western lexicon.

As it was adapted into modern usage, it evolved to mean spiritual law, righteous living, and life’s purpose. The term dharma represents the need for us to find what unites us to God in life, work, and relationships. It is the universal and personal realization that there is an organizing principle that binds us all.

Living Your Dharma as an Expression of the Divine

The Buddhist scholar Rupert Gethin defines dharma as “The basis of things.” Dharma is the foundation of our lives. It is, in a real sense, the internal structural core and interior functional framework from which we view and interact with life.

Dharma is the living, spiritual story we inhabit. It is the timely woven thread of the Divine, and it runs through the fabric and tapestry of our being. Our journey is not to discover our dharma. Our journey is the reflection of our dharma and it does not come from an outward source. It is not mediated through church, minister, or therapist. Our walk in the world is the unfolding of our dharma. Our story is the sojourn of dharma, and the path before us is our dharma unfolding as a wondrous divine incongruity. It is the demonstration of our relationship with the Infinite. Realized in the depths of our true essence-of-being, dharma is God expressing through us, for us, and as us.

How Meditation Can Help Your Find Your Life Purpose

If you’re a spiritual seeker in Raleigh, I invite you to my weekly Wednesday night Guided Meditation for Presence & Purpose. All skill levels are welcome.

May 12, 2026

Spiritual Education

Can We Love Unconditionally? | Rev. Michael Gadway

Can We Love Unconditionally?

A Reflection for Spiritual Seekers on the Meaning of Unconditional Love by Rev. Michael Gadway

“Love is the whole and more than all.” – E.E. Cummings

A Spiritual Understanding of Love

According to Vedic understanding, love is not a single emotion but a spectrum of forces that bind us to one another, to society, and to God. For spiritual seekers exploring practical spirituality and personal transformation, this offers a powerful lens into the nature of love.

At its most primordial level, love is known as Kama; Kama is desire, the impulse that moves the formless to form. It is the motivating energy behind all longing, creativity, and relationships. Kama may be transformed into Prema which is a selfless, altruistic love that seeks union without possession and it is connected to joy, generosity, and contentment. There is also a devotional longing for God that is referred to as Bhakti. Bhakti transforms love into surrender, where emotional attachment becomes a means of transcending individuality and recognizing the sacred in all existence.

The Vedas also recognize love as friendship, and differentiate friendship love from the love of a parent towards their child or child to their parent.

Taken together, these forms of love illustrate a layered understanding: love as desire that creates, affection that sustains, devotion that liberates, and compassion that unites. Rather than taking the position that worldly love and spiritual love are opposed to one another, the Vedic perspective weaves them into a single continuum, where everyday human relationships become stepping-stones toward the realization of unity between the Soul-self and the ultimate reality, God—an idea that deeply resonates with those seeking oneness and spiritual growth.

Love Beyond Definition: Expanding Consciousness

Love is trans-conceptual. It has been defined in a myriad of ways, all failing in inclusivity. It is often confused with bliss which is the natural state of the Soul resting in Self-awareness.

In the Buddhist tradition, love is a koan. It is a concept that defies explanation but, in our attempt to comprehend, we expand our consciousness. For those practicing meditation and mindfulness, love becomes less something to define and more something to experience and embody.

The Human Condition and the Limits of Unconditional Love

I often hear well-meaning spiritual teachers preaching about the importance of “unconditional love.” But unconditional love is not possible from a human being; we are conditioned beings. It is called the human condition after all.

This is a broad phrase describing what it is to be human and it includes a full range of “conditions” that we, as humans, experience. From these experiences, we create and live personal biases that shape our view of the world and our relationships.

Although unconditional love is a noble pursuit, it is impossible to achieve while embodied. It is an unachievable state of energetic awareness. It is not possible to create an unconditional energy from a conditioned being.

The Practice of Love as a Path of Personal Transformation

In stating this, I do not mean to imply that we should not attempt to share unconditional love. Like the Buddhist koan, in our endeavor to love unconditionally, we purify the ego and mind, expanding our consciousness, making us more fit receptacles for an unadulterated spiritual expression.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your Soul, and with all your mind.” – Matthew 22:37

This teaching aligns with a practical spirituality—one that invites us to live love in action as part of an ongoing journey of personal transformation.

Opening the Heart: Love as a Spiritual Gateway

Love is also a key used in many traditions to open the heart or the fourth chakra. It is the sacred whisper that unseals the heart’s inner gate. In the hidden Christian traditions, this is known as the Sacred Heart Meditation.

In the Yoga tradition, it is understood that the fourth chakra is the bridge between the consciousness of the lower three chakras and the higher consciousness of the upper three chakras. Through meditation, prayer, and mindfulness practices, love becomes the bridge between our human experience and our spiritual awareness.

Love is used to purify the heart. By loving, we move from a limited narcissistic understanding of self and life to an altruistic and boundless realization of Spirit as all life. Love transforms the view of self from a narrow, solitary, closed circle into a wide, unbounded field of shared existence.

The words attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, “Love thy neighbor as thyself” (Mark 12:31), take on a more profound significance when viewed from this perspective of oneness and interconnectedness.

Love as a Living Practice in Everyday Life

Love is less an ethereal reverie and more an applicable method to expand consciousness, leaving behind a constricted and rigid view of ourselves in the world. This is the essence of practical spirituality lived in daily life.

Love evaporates the ego and egotistical behaviors. When we love, as unconditionally as possible, we put aside the petty dictates of the ego for the upliftment of those we love.

To give everything we have to love is to surrender egoism and take up selflessness. In doing so, we rise to new spiritual heights, transcending this mundane existence for a sweeter, more sanctified one.

A Spiritual Invitation for Seekers in Raleigh

At Unity of the Triangle, we invite you to explore love not just as an idea, but as a way of being.

Whether you are new to spirituality or have been on the path for years, you are welcome in this inclusive spiritual community in Raleigh—a place where people from all backgrounds come together to deepen their connection to Spirit, practice meditation, and experience personal transformation. Read more about our Spiritual Education department.

May 2, 2026