It might seem funny…
To combine these words, raging and dharma. The scandalous juxtaposition is intentional. I’ll explain: First, let me clarify the word dharma – I don’t mean Buddhist Dharma, I am not a Buddhist. And I don’t mean Hindu Dharma – I am not a Hindu. Sometimes dharma means righteousness, I don’t mean that. Sometimes it means duty, I don’t mean that either. When I say dharma, I’m referring to the all-pervasive ordering, nurturing, creative power of the universe. It’s closer to the meaning of the Chinese word Tao (the Way) than it is to the English word religion. It’s a beautiful word. Though it is Sanskrit, it is universal.
The word raging here doesn’t mean exploding with anger. I don’t mean the kind of rage that we feel when our anger takes us over and makes us see red and act or speak violently. It’s more like the way we say “the storm is raging”, or the way Dylan Thomas used it here:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
This phrase Raging Dharma first came to me many years ago on retreat walking in nature. The cicadas, the light on the meadow grass, the totality of the beauty, the light of my awareness, was all raging. The DHARMA was raging within and all around. Then I went back to New York City, and there the dharma was raging in the concrete, the architecture, the throngs of hustling people, the trucks, the noise, and the power of my awareness holding it all.
THE DHARMA IS RAGING within and without all the time.
And now, here we are in 2021 and the world seems to be burning.
There has never been a more important time for good people to be empowered.
We must live.
We must keep raging.
We cannot give up or give in or collapse.
