One who protects the Dhamma, is protected by the Dhamma

The Buddha himself declared this point during his lifetime. That is the person who protects the Dhamma is protected by the Dhamma itself. It has always fascinated me. One use to wonder whether there is a magical element to it. May be. But for now...all I can pen down is my understanding of how Dhamma protects the one who protects the Dhamma. What may unfold in the future will be determined how well I continue to uphold the Dhamma.

What is Dhamma? It is a worthwhile thing to investigate before embarking on, how Dhamma aims to protect oneself.

Dhamma is the truth of the world. In simple terms I understand Dhamma to be kindness we show to ourselves and to each other, respect, generosity without expectations, humility, joy at others success just as much as our own without any trace of envy, forgiveness, not holding grudges, not asking for more that what is needed, praising and not finding fault whether one is able to or whether for pleasure of satisfying fleeting moments of ones cruel desires, patience at moments of grave worry and restlessness, living up to highest of virtues and moral conduct, not destroying life, others, emotions, taking away what is not given, and many more of standards that uphold which makes us essentially human.

This is the Dhamma. These laws whether they are protected by laws of society or by human rights or by UN, are unspoken and unwritten. These unfold according to a natural rhythm which the Buddha called cause and effect. They cannot be messed with and cannot be made untrue. It's like a boomerang. Once sent to space, it will come back. It's a certainty. So it Dhamma.

A person that upholds the Dhamma, attempts to live by the principles which it lays out. A Buddha is born into this world, in order to lay out these natural laws and show us the path. Whether we take that into our heart and follow it, is complete up to our own wisdom and judgment. However, whether we follow the path or not, we will be subjected to the laws of Dhamma.

Over the last 4-5 years I have attempted to follow the path laid out by the Buddha. I must say that it's not an easy path to tread on. It takes much effort. But as you walk you get to see lovely scenery. The walking along the path is the reward.

In walking the path, you start putting into practice all the qualities that I mentioned before. Of course these qualities are continuum's. In one corner you will find the unwholesome quality and the other corner you will find the wholesome quality. As you walk the path you go from one corner to the other corner. But it's not a straight line. You fall off the line and sometimes you go back and forth. But each stride and each moment of effort will keep pushing you on the continuum of that quality. As you develop like this, you move towards the light, which is the wholesomeness of the quality. For example, from anger towards loving-kindness. Of course you will in the path encounter many emotions from anger, to resentment, to attachment in the middle, to kindness...the perfection of the quality is loving-kindness. Of course this perhaps might taken lifetimes...but this will happen. But in the process towards this, you being to experience the feelings of wholesomeness.

Now you are moving closer to the Dhamma. You are upholding the Dhamma. Each time someone hurts you, instead hurting back, you start showing some amount of kindness. You may still have angry thoughts but they may have gotten less over a few months or years.

What I have found over the last 4-5 years is that, especially in regards to anger is that, when someone does something to make me angry, or I encounter a situation that makes me angry, I don't stay angry for as long as I used to. I don't burn in it as I used to. I stay in it for a while but my mind drops it. Then I move into love. It's almost like I move from dark to light. Like I have walked in the desert and found and oasis. It's wonderful.

My heart has found it's protector in the Dhamma. By upholding what is good, which is loving kindness, loving kindness springs to action when I encounter an object of anger and soothes my anger. Only because I have over the last few years continuously developed it on as many occasions as possible.

I believe this what the Buddha said in Dhamma protecting the one that upholds the Dhamma. Of course I can go on the give many a descriptions but I think one example is adequate to demonstrate the power of upholding what is true and what is good.

May I have the strength to continue to uphold the Dhamma as long as I live until my last breath leaves my body! Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!