· 9,072 ratings · 840 reviews · 34 distinct works • Similar authors
 | The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling by — published 2012 — 11 editions | |
 | Yoga and the Quest for the True Self by — published 1999 — 11 editions | |
 | The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living by — published 2006 — 8 editions | |
 | Soul Friends: The Transforming Power of Deep Human Connection by |
The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling
Stephen Cope 2012
4.32
2,456 ratings280 reviews
From the Senior Scholar-in-residence and Ambassador for the famed Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health comes an incisive and inspiring meditation on living the life you were born to live.
In this fast-paced age, the often overwhelming realities of daily life may leave you feeling uncertain about how to realize your life’s true purpose—what spiritual teachers call dharma. But yoga master Stephen Cope says that in order to have a fulfilling life you must, in fact, discover the deep purpose hidden at the very core of your self. In The Great Work of Your Life, Cope describes the process of unlocking the unique possibility harbored within every human soul. The secret, he asserts, can be found in the pages of a two-thousand-year-old spiritual classic called the Bhagavad Gita—an ancient allegory about the path to dharma, told through a timeless dialogue between the fabled archer, Arjuna, and his divine mentor, Krishna.
Cope takes readers on a step-by-step tour of this revered tale, and in order to make it relevant to contemporary readers, he highlights well-known Western lives that embody its central principles—including such luminaries as Jane Goodall, whose life trajectory shows us the power of honoring The Gift; Walt Whitman, who listened for the call of the times; Susan B. Anthony, whose example demonstrates the power of focused energy; John Keats, who was able to let his desire give birth to aspiration; and Harriet Tubman, whose life was nothing if not a lesson in learning to walk by faith. This essential guide also includes everyday stories about following the path to dharma, which illustrate the astonishingly contemporary relevance and practicality of this classic yogic story.
If you’re feeling lost in your own life’s journey, The Great Work of Your Life may provide you with answers to the questions you most urgently need addressed—and may help you to find and to embrace your true calling.
Praise for The Great Work of Your Life
“Keep a pen and paper handy as you read this remarkable book: It’s like an owner’s manual for the soul.”—Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion
“A masterwork . . . You’ll find inspiration in these pages. You’ll gain a better appreciation of divine guidance and perhaps even understand how you might better hear it in your own life.”—Yoga Journal
“I am moved and inspired by this book, the clarity and beauty of the lives lived in it, and the timeless dharma it teaches.”—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart
“A rich source of contemplation and inspiration [that] encourages readers . . . to discover and fully pursue their inner self’s calling.”—Publishers Weekly
“Fabulous . . . If you have ever wondered what your purpose is, this book is a great guide to help you on your path.”—YogaHara
From the Hardcover edition.
Genres
Nonfiction
Spirituality
Self Help
Philosophy
Psychology
Personal Development
Inspirational
...more
304 pages, ebook
First published September 25, 2012
616 people are currently reading
4,210 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Cope
34 books127 followers
Follow
Stephen Cope is the director of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living, the largest yoga research institute in the Western world—with a team of scientists affiliated with major medical schools on the East coast, primarily Harvard Medical School. He has been for many years the senior scholar in residence at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts, and is the author of four best-selling books.
====
Community Reviews
4.32
2,456 ratings280 reviews
5 stars
1,265 (51%)
4 stars
800 (32%)
3 stars
311 (12%)
2 stars
70 (2%)
1 star
10 (<1%)
====
Angela Risner
334 reviews
14 followers
Follow
December 22, 2013
Finding this book was very crucial for me. For years, I've been trying to fit myself into an expected mold. My parents were born during the Great Depression. They came from very poor families, and to them, success was a job that didn't involve physical labor or coming home covered in dirt. My dad wore a suit and tie to work. That was a measure of success.
I was raised to want to work in an office. Actually, my parents wanted me to become a pharmacist, but I couldn't imagine anything more boring. I was artsy. I majored in music. And then I ended up working in an office. This is what I was supposed to do.
But it wasn't. And for twenty years, I forced it to work. But I was never completely happy. And over the years, I became ill. From the recycled air in building where you couldn't open the windows. From sitting 8+ hours per day, 5 or more days per week.
We weren't made to do that. Our bodies were never meant to be so stagnant. Now that I'm finally healthy again, I don't ever want to go back to corporate. I don't want to sit for 8 hours per day. I want something that allows me to be active and yes, even to get dirty.
Stephen Cope had a similar journey. Trained as a psychotherapist, he went to the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health for a four month retreat...and never left. He found his dharma, his calling, there as the Director of the Institute for Extraordinary Living.
Cope has written several books, but this was the first of his that I've read. I plan on reading the rest, too. This book focuses on the Bhagavad Gita and the lessons Krishna taught to Arjuna:
1. Look to your dharma. Discern, name, and then embrace your own dharma.
2. Do it full out! Do it with every fiber of your being. Commit yourself utterly.
3. Let go of the fruits. Relinquish the fruits of your actions. Success and failure in the eyes of the world are not your concern. "It is better to fail at your own dharma than to succeed at the dharma of someone else."
4. Turn it over to God. All true vocation arises in the stream of love that flows between the individual soul and the divine soul.
Cope uses the stories of Jane Goodall, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Ghandi and man others, as well as his own friends to illustrate what happens when dharma is embraced or pushed aside.
There are so many great points in this book, I can't share them all, but here are a few favorites:
•"Dharma," he says,"is the essential nature of a being, comprising the sum of its particular qualities or characteristics, and determining, by virtue of the tendencies or dispositions it implies, the manner in which this being with conduct itself, either in a general way or in relation to each particular circumstance." The word dharma in this teaching, then refers to the peculiar and idiosyncratic qualities of each being.
•Remember Krishna's teaching: We cannot be anyone we want to be. We can only authentically be who we are. If you bring forth what is within you it will save you. If you do not, it will destroy you. And what, precisely is destroyed? Energy is destroyed first. Those shining eyes. And then faith. And then hope. And then life itself.
•The false self is a collection of ideas we have in our minds about who we should be.
•Furthermore, at a certain age it finally dawns on us that, shockingly, no one really cares what we're doing with our life. This is a most unsettling discovery to those of us who have lived someone else's dream and eschewed our own: No one really cares except us. When you scratch the surface, you finally discover that it doesn't really matter a whit who else you disappoint if you're disappointing yourself. The only question that makes sense to ask is: Is your life working for you?
•With the name came a flood of regret. It was not the tidal wave of hope and relief he had counted on. Learning to embrace The Gift at midlife is complicated. Because naming The Gift and celebrating it also means grieving for lost opportunities. They mean facing squarely the suffering of self-betrayal.
•We in twenty-first-century American have strange dreams and fantasies about retirement. We imagine a life of leisure. The Golden Years. But what is this leisure in the service of?
•The fear of leaping is, of course, the fear of death. It is precisely the fear of being used up. And dharma does use us up, to be sure. But why not be used up giving everything we've got to the world? This is precisely what Krishna teaches Arjuna: You cannot hold on to your life. You don't need to. You are immortal.
•"Like Henry James' obscure hurt and Dostoevsky's holy disease, even Beethoven's loss of hearing was in some sense necessary or at least useful, to the fulfillment of his creative quest." Mysteriously, The Gift issues forth out of The Wound. It does not quite heal The Wound, but it makes sense of it. It gives it meaning. And meaning is everything.
•He teaches that our decisions about our actions flow inexorably from our understanding of who we are. And if we do not know who we are, we will make poor choices.
•Ghandi was discovering the power of simplification and renunciation. He stumbled onto a truth widely known by yogis: Every time we discerningly renounce a possession, we free up energy that can be channeled into the pursuit of dharma.
•"If you don't find your work in the world and throw yourself wholeheartedly into it, you will inevitably make your self your work. There's no way around it: You will take your self as your primary project. You will, in the very best case, dedicate your life to the perfection of your self. To the perfection of your health, intelligence, beauty, home or even spiritual prowess. And the problem is simply this: This self-dedication is too small a work. It inevitably becomes a prison."
Even before I started this book, I had already begun to pare my lifestyle down. I had the lifestyle of someone who could buy many Kate Spade handbags and lots of pretty toys. But I don't want to do the work that brings that anymore. So, I have adopted a lifestyle that allows me to stay away from the corporate world (for now at least.) My goal is to live as simply yet comfortably as I can. And I no longer measure myself against other people's definition of success. It's okay if your definition of success means having a certain car, home, or lifestyle. It's okay, too, for me to define success as being able to breathe in fresh air, to go to the Yoga classes I want to, and to not be chained to an office.
Highly recommend.
29 likes
6 comments
====
Kelly
413 reviews
1 follower
Follow
December 9, 2012
This book centers around the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Hindu text, and the concept of dharma, one's true calling in life. Cope uses the story and characters in the Gita to frame 11 different biographical chapters about famous people who have followed their dharma and serve as perfect examples of how to find one's own and why it is important to do so.
I found this book very interesting in terms of the history of the famous figures (such as Keats, Frost, and Goodall) and the study of how each discovered and nurtured their true callings. I also learned a lot about dharma itself and what it means. I was disappointed with the lack of inclusion of "ordinary" figures. Cope does cover them, but compared to the amount of content on the famous figures it is slight. He stressed a few times that even if it's "stamp collecting, no matter what your dharma is, it is important and you should consider it your great work. However, I found it interesting and a bit insulting to be honest that he did not focus much on these "stamp collectors". If your dharma truly was that, how seriously can you take yourself when most of Cope's focus is on brilliant musicians, poets, writers, and the like? He tells us not to worry, that no matter what we do it is important but you wouldn't really know that based on where he spends most of his time in this book. I actually skipped the last 2 chapters of the book and only skimmed through Beethoven because by that point things were getting a little monotonous.
Despite all that, I was inspired by the book. I know a life in books (reviewing them, reading them, recommending (or not recommending) them, encouraging children to read them) is my dharma but I also wonder is motherhood my dharma also? Can you have two dharmas? Cope doesn't address that at all from what I remember. Overall, this was the first book I've read in the yoga genre and I find it fascinating that the term "yoga" encompasses so much more than the physical poses. Cope has written other books in the genre and I think I'll read them to learn more about the yoga tradition.
spirituality
25 likes
2 comments
====
Pamela
Author
10 books
142 followers
Follow
February 16, 2013
I enjoyed this book, although there's nothing terribly deep about it. For me it functioned more as an emotional boost, a pat on the back for having chosen an impractical pursuit that means a great deal to me over a more predictable work life. Sometimes you gotta get those props. The book's message is: You have to find your dharma (life path) and commit to it... hard to argue with, but if you're someone who has no idea what that path is, or runs into serious obstacles (like the need to put food on the table) in attempting to pursue it, I'm not sure what this book could do for you. The anecdotal passages on figures like Keats, Robert Frost, and Beethoven are all interesting, and Cope's writing style is competent and easygoing.
The main reason I'm glad to have read this book is that it has introduced me to the Baghavad Gita--and sent me to the original. Bought Eknath Easwaran's translation and am looking forward to exploring.
8 likes
====
Elisabeth Plimpton
172 reviews
155 followers
Follow
April 15, 2021
This was an interesting read for me! I love reading yoga books, and I had just recently read the Bhagavad Gita for my yoga teacher training which helped me understand this book better as it refers to the teachings of the Gita. This book had a lot of great messages about not only finding your dharma (life’s purpose) but also living it everyday. The book used many famous historical figures as examples of how they lived their lives according to their dharma. I felt I learned a lot from this book, and it inspired me to continue exploring my dharma.
There were so many great quotes. I wish I had highlighted them all. Here is one I liked from the 19th century French saint, Teresa “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” 💕
8 likes
====
Marla
449 reviews
19 followers
Follow
December 29, 2012
This is a feel good book about finding your inner dharma (purpose in your life, or "what lights you up.") It's practical wisdom...bring forth what lights you up and it will save you, or deny it and be unhappy. It cannot be successfully denied. It's totally accessible and doesn't require any knowledge of eastern philosophy, although it's obvious that's what he's basing the book on. The best part of this book for me, was it's interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita, which is extensive. I reread the Bhagavad Gita side by side with it (I highly suggest this) and I saw it in a whole new light. The chapters are examples of people who found their dharma and lived it...Susan B. Anthony, Beethoven, Jane Goodall, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost among others. It's very inspiring. Especially if you're an aspiring writer. Really 4 3/4 stars. I grew a little weary of all the examples he gave. I pretty much knew what he was getting at along about Walt Whitman. But they are all interesting biographies. It's well written. 1/4 star off for what is in my opinion, a cheesy title and cover.
6 likes
====
Lesley
88 reviews
Follow
November 4, 2012
I'm embarrassed to read his books in public because the titles are so cheesy, but I really enjoy his writing about yoga and psychology. In this book, Cope tells the story of the Bhagavad Gita and cites the lives of many famous and "ordinary" people to illustrate how people can live out Krishna's advice.
This book does not so much serve as a "guide," though. Its "help" comes more as a revelation... like Svadhyaya, the study of self reveals ... it's all so familiar. You know this already. You just have to remind yourself that you know.
Cope writes, "we are not called to everything. We are just called to what we're called to. It is inevitable that authentically good parts of ourselves will not be fulfilled. What a relief."
Indeed.
6 likes
1 comment
====
Saiisha
77 reviews
47 followers
Follow
June 23, 2016
Loved this book!
It was recommended by someone on my book club (https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...) and my interest was piqued by their mention that it was based on the Bhagavad Gita. Although the book itself wasn't about the Gita, Stephen Cope used the Gita as the framework to showcase 11 great lives, including my favorites - Thoreau and Gandhi. And also a few others I knew a little about (Jane Goodall, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, John Keats and Beethoven), and a few I didn't know much about (Marion Woodman, Harriet Tubman, Susan B Anthony and Camille Corot).
I also appreciated that he weaved in some stories of ordinary people finding and following their Dharma, like a poet friend from college, a priest, and a dean.
I could find a lot of parallels between the journeys of the people mentioned in this book and my own journey of finding and following my Dharma. My Dharma is in helping older souls discover their Dharma (http://www.nestintheforest.com/discov...), so I was surprised that I hadn't run into this book earlier, but now it has me looking up other books by Stephen Cope :)
non-fiction
self-help
spiritual
4 likes
====
Laura
57 reviews
1 follower
Follow
December 6, 2019
Wow, what an amazing read this was!
This book was recommended to me during a time where I am actually at a crossroads in my life by a yoga teacher I greatly admire. I didn't really realise I was at this crossroads until I read the book.
The power of Stephen Cope's writing is that he takes his own exploration as a starting point to guide you as the reader on a journey of some of the most incredible dharma stories. He blends great philosophical concepts, interpretations of old scriptures in a modern-day society, and practical examples, which makes this not only a pleasure to read, but also an incredibly insightful book. Cope's writing is concise and very accessible, making this book suitable for a large audience. And that's a good thing, as I believe everyone should read this book.
As for me, I have highlighted a couple of quotes that seem to point me to my dharma. Stephen Cope, I'd say your mission is accomplished.
embodiment
favourites
4 likes
====
Jennifer Louden
Author
29 books
234 followers
Follow
September 19, 2012
half way through Stephen's brilliant new book and I know I will a) be quoting it and using it extensively in my own teaching and b) that it is changing how I see my own life. The timing, for me, to be reading this feels like a tap from God.
4 likes
1 comment
===From Australia
Phil
4.0 out of 5 stars which feels like a great oversight
Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 12 January 2015
Verified Purchase
A heartfelt book that is both inspiring and informative. However,Stephen Cope leaves out one of the real complexities in the quest to find one's dharma and manage one's life: having a family. This, obviously, is a dharma in itself for many people, or a big and complex part of their lives while looking for another calling. Unfortunately, this aspect of life does hardly feature in the book, which feels like a great oversight. Nonetheless, I loved the book and it reinvigorated my inquiry into dharma. Recommended!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
Report
From other countries
Angela Risner The Sassy Orange
5.0 out of 5 stars Life-changing
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 21 December 2013
Verified Purchase
Finding this book was very crucial for me. For years, I've been trying to fit myself into an expected mold. My parents were born during the Great Depression. They came from very poor families, and to them, success was a job that didn't involve physical labor or coming home covered in dirt. My dad wore a suit and tie to work. That was a measure of success.
I was raised to want to work in an office. Actually, my parents wanted me to become a pharmacist, but I couldn't imagine anything more boring. I was artsy. I majored in music. And then I ended up working in an office. This is what I was supposed to do.
But it wasn't. And for twenty years, I forced it to work. But I was never completely happy. And over the years, I became ill. From the recycled air in building where you couldn't open the windows. From sitting 8+ hours per day, 5 or more days per week.
We weren't made to do that. Our bodies were never meant to be so stagnant. Now that I'm finally healthy again, I don't ever want to go back to corporate. I don't want to sit for 8 hours per day. I want something that allows me to be active and yes, even to get dirty.
Stephen Cope had a similar journey. Trained as a psychotherapist, he went to the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health for a four month retreat...and never left. He found his dharma, his calling, there as the Director of the Institute for Extraordinary Living.
Cope has written several books, but this was the first of his that I've read. I plan on reading the rest, too. This book focuses on the Bhagavad Gita and the lessons Krishna taught to Arjuna:
1. Look to your dharma. Discern, name, and then embrace your own dharma.
2. Do it full out! Do it with every fiber of your being. Commit yourself utterly.
3. Let go of the fruits. Relinquish the fruits of your actions. Success and failure in the eyes of the world are not your concern. "It is better to fail at your own dharma than to succeed at the dharma of someone else."
4. Turn it over to God. All true vocation arises in the stream of love that flows between the individual soul and the divine soul.
Cope uses the stories of Jane Goodall, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Ghandi and man others, as well as his own friends to illustrate what happens when dharma is embraced or pushed aside.
There are so many great points in this book, I can't share them all, but here are a few favorites:
•"Dharma," he says,"is the essential nature of a being, comprising the sum of its particular qualities or characteristics, and determining, by virtue of the tendencies or dispositions it implies, the manner in which this being with conduct itself, either in a general way or in relation to each particular circumstance." The word dharma in this teaching, then refers to the peculiar and idiosyncratic qualities of each being.
•Remember Krishna's teaching: We cannot be anyone we want to be. We can only authentically be who we are. If you bring forth what is within you it will save you. If you do not, it will destroy you. And what, precisely is destroyed? Energy is destroyed first. Those shining eyes. And then faith. And then hope. And then life itself.
•The false self is a collection of ideas we have in our minds about who we should be.
•Furthermore, at a certain age it finally dawns on us that, shockingly, no one really cares what we're doing with our life. This is a most unsettling discovery to those of us who have lived someone else's dream and eschewed our own: No one really cares except us. When you scratch the surface, you finally discover that it doesn't really matter a whit who else you disappoint if you're disappointing yourself. The only question that makes sense to ask is: Is your life working for you?
•With the name came a flood of regret. It was not the tidal wave of hope and relief he had counted on. Learning to embrace The Gift at midlife is complicated. Because naming The Gift and celebrating it also means grieving for lost opportunities. They mean facing squarely the suffering of self-betrayal.
•We in twenty-first-century American have strange dreams and fantasies about retirement. We imagine a life of leisure. The Golden Years. But what is this leisure in the service of?
•The fear of leaping is, of course, the fear of death. It is precisely the fear of being used up. And dharma does use us up, to be sure. But why not be used up giving everything we've got to the world? This is precisely what Krishna teaches Arjuna: You cannot hold on to your life. You don't need to. You are immortal.
•"Like Henry James' obscure hurt and Dostoevsky's holy disease, even Beethoven's loss of hearing was in some sense necessary or at least useful, to the fulfillment of his creative quest." Mysteriously, The Gift issues forth out of The Wound. It does not quite heal The Wound, but it makes sense of it. It gives it meaning. And meaning is everything.
•He teaches that our decisions about our actions flow inexorably from our understanding of who we are. And if we do not know who we are, we will make poor choices.
•Ghandi was discovering the power of simplification and renunciation. He stumbled onto a truth widely known by yogis: Every time we discerningly renounce a possession, we free up energy that can be channeled into the pursuit of dharma.
•"If you don't find your work in the world and throw yourself wholeheartedly into it, you will inevitably make your self your work. There's no way around it: You will take your self as your primary project. You will, in the very best case, dedicate your life to the perfection of your self. To the perfection of your health, intelligence, beauty, home or even spiritual prowess. And the problem is simply this: This self-dedication is too small a work. It inevitably becomes a prison."
Even before I started this book, I had already begun to pare my lifestyle down. I had the lifestyle of someone who could buy many Kate Spade handbags and lots of pretty toys. But I don't want to do the work that brings that anymore. So, I have adopted a lifestyle that allows me to stay away from the corporate world (for now at least.) My goal is to live as simply yet comfortably as I can. And I no longer measure myself against other people's definition of success. It's okay if your definition of success means having a certain car, home, or lifestyle. It's okay, too, for me to define success as being able to breathe in fresh air, to go to the Yoga classes I want to, and to not be chained to an office.
Highly recommend.
52 people found this helpful
====
Ron Immink
4.0 out of 5 stars Dharma and the Lindy effect
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 17 August 2017
Verified Purchase
Purpose
Andro Donovan's "Motivate yourself" is probably one of the best books on finding your purpose. If not the best, it is definitely the most practical.
Purpose is the new black
Purpose is the new black in business. It helps you to scale your company as described in "exponential organisations", it helps you to be more productive (no purpose, no flow) as written about in "Stealing fire", it helps with selling to your customers ("Loveability"), and it is good for the soul. Read "The code of the extraordinary mind."
The great work of your life
Hence picking up “The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling” by Stephen Cope.
Some searching questions:
Are you afraid that you will die without having lived fully?
Have you come home to your true self?
Is your soul awake?
Have you found your Dharma or a true calling?
What is your sacred duty?
Bhagavad Gita
The book follows the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu scripture on finding your purpose and the ethical and moral struggles of the human life. Going beyond wealth, power, fame, and leisure. Find fulfilment in profound engagement and mastery.
You are close
There is not need inventing an entirely new life. As it turns out, most people are already living very close to their dharma. Unfortunately when it comes to dharma, missing by an inch is as good as missing by a mile. Aim is everything.
Dharma
Dharma comes from the soul. Not from your brain (read “Solve for happy”). Every person has a gift. Every person has a vocation to be someone: but he/she must understand clearly that in order to fulfil this vocation he can only be one person: himself or herself. Your own dharma is the equivalent to your own being.
Go for it
Once you found it, you should go for it. It is what you are meant to do. Do it with every fibre of your being. Bring everything you’ve got to it. Commit yourself utterly. And you will be fulfilled. Don’t worry about success and failure. Let go of the outcome. It will take care of itself.
The universe will provide
The moment one definitely commits oneself then Providence moves too. The All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would come his way.
Sceptical
I can see lots of eyes going up to heaven. If you are sceptical, that is OK. I think it is a question of language and context. Replace “sacred duty” with “purpose in life” or “follow your heart” and you might get it.
The Lindy effect
I just would not dismiss ancient wisdom. It is ancient and called wisdom for a reason. It is called the Lindy effect. Look it up. Read “Antifragile.”
You have a choice
And yes, as “The Great Work of Your Life” will tell you that doubt, ambivalence, making hard choices, focus and a leap off a cliff in the dark are part of the game.
Intense involvement
However, gaming, neuroscience and human resource management will tell you that human beings are attracted to the experience of intense involvement. Why not live life to its fullest and give it everything you got?
Poke your box
And this could have been straight from Seth Godin’s “Poke the box”. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, Begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Go find your Dharma.
One person found this helpful
Report
Henry
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Great Books of Our Time
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 6 January 2013
Verified Purchase
Sometimes a book just finds you. In my case I just turned 50 and feel as if my calling has escaped me despite having been successful in business. With a somewhat heavy heart that dharma has escaped my every effort to catch it (there lies the paradox) I downloaded Cope's book on my new Kindle and read it straight through. And how could I not read this book? My father did his dissertation on Walden's Pond and Thoreau and HDT and I share the same first and middle name, "Henry David," as I was named after the great writer. Thoreau is a central figure in Cope's book.
I love spiritual non-fiction and have read well over 100 books on the soul, love, the shadow, spirit, and how to live an abundant and happy life. And while many are dog eared, underlined and highlighted, never before have I ever read a book that was just perfect. I dont purport to be qualified to edit such a great book but had I been put to the task, I wouldn't have changed, added or subtracted one word. This is a brilliant work of art and although Cope is modest and even comically self-disparaging at times, I believe this book has no peers in uncovering one's soul purpose in this incarnation--if that is of interest to you. And if you are quite pleased (and fortunate) to have found a meaningful calling, then still read about how some of the world's most respected and gifted artists, abolitionists, mediators and statesman (Gandhi) and others lived their lives, sometimes crazed and painful, with purpose and with a gift so special that all of them knew that their work flowed through them with divine grace. In short, ego was pushed aside to make room for greatness to blossom.
As you go through this book and witness how those graced with a karmic, dharmic bedazzling gift (Thoreau, Whitman, Beethoven, Tubman, Gandhi, et al.,) either read and lived the wisdom from the Bhagavad Vita or if uneducated, like Harriet Tubman, still had the precious gift bestowed upon them, you may get the sense, as I did, that if you seek fame, fortune and ego gratification, dharma will look elsewhere. Yes, you may build skyscrapers and golf courses like Donald Trump, but if you are drawn to this book you will be far more interested by the personal journey of an enlightened monk in his little 10 x 10 room than by someone chasing and succeeding in finding a buck on Wall Street.
Maybe I was put on this earth to be good salesman and caring father. There is no crime in or to my life. Yet, I still believe that something has evaded me. Tonight in my meditation practice I asked for guidance from the divine, as Cope suggests in the book. I'll be watching for the signs.
Please read this book and please share it with your friends. It's a game changer. I once read a quote from the Dalai Lama that said "teach all eight years olds to meditate and war will be eliminated in one generation." I wholeheartedly agree and will add that if you read this book and live it, you will be more fulfilled, and for the lucky few whose dharmas are finally jarred loose from reading "The Great Work of Your Life," I imagine that it will be better than finding a gold ticket to Willy Wanka's Chocolate Factory!
I am so happy that this book found me, even if that means that reading about the fulfilled dharma of others is as close as I will ever get to catching that elusive tiger by the tail. Perhaps when I give up the search, my dharma will find me. Perhaps I've had it all along.
39 people found this helpful
====
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Just started reading. Very good so far.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 15 February 2023
Verified Purchase
Just started reading and enjoying so far. Using for meditation group
====
Kathmandu
5.0 out of 5 stars The Path of Karma Yoga
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 16 February 2013
Verified Purchase
A recurring theme of the book is based on a quote from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas:
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you; if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
Now that I've completed it, I can wholeheartedly recommend this book. While I had a hard time identifying with some of the people that Cope uses as examples of those that lived out their dharma, I was still able to get something out of almost every story. There were others, on the other hand, with which I really connected, especially the stories of Thoreau, Robert Frost, and Gandhi.
While I did enjoy the first half of the book, I feel like it really comes together in the latter sections where Cope gets into the essence of karma yoga, letting go of attachment to outcome and dedicating your actions to God. Somewhere amongst these pages, I began to really understand the concept of not being the "doer" which is something I've struggled to wrap my head around for some time. Now, I'm finally able to relate this concept to my own experiences and see how it's possible for it to play out in all aspects of life.
The idea of service as a means to liberation is something frequently talked about by Ram Dass and also something that has been on my mind quite a bit as of late. So, it's not surprise that this passage really hit home:
"If you don't find your work in the world and throw yourself wholeheartedly into it, you inevitably make your self your work. There's no way around it; You will take your self as your primary project. You will, in the very best case, dedicate your life to the perfection of your self. To the perfection of your health, intelligence, beauty, home, or even spiritual prowess. And the problem is simply this: This self-dedication is too small a work. It inevitably becomes a prison."
The chapters on the life of Gandhi are very inspiring. I honestly didn't know much about Gandhi aside from the stories that I've heard Ram Dass and others tell. While I knew that the Bhagavad Gita was very central to Gandhi's life, what I didn't know, and it was very interesting to learn, is that he actually didn't read the Gita until he was in his mid-twenties. While I've read the Gita, as well as several commentaries on the Gita, I can't say that I've ever really studied it. After discovering how much of an impact it had on Gandhi, how it literally changed the direction of his life, I think this is something that needs to change.
3 people found this helpful
====
Stacie Campbell
4.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational but a little one dimensional
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 7 January 2014
Verified Purchase
I recently finished this book and I do admit that it is inspirational and makes a lot of good points. Definately worthwhile reading.
However, I was disappointed that none of Mr. Cope's examples of people who found their dharma included people with real family or financial obligations. Most of us cannot walk in the woods or near a pond for a couple years (while our mother brings us cookies) and just write poetry and reflect on nature. We must also support and care for our families. I would very much like to find inspiration from people who were able to meet their obligations and still find a way to find their dharma tat does not make anyone else suffer.
I became an engineer solely for the reason that it was a secure way to provide for my family. For a long time my dharma was simply just that, to support and care for my family. Being able to do so made me very happy. Now that my children are grown or gone (one died in a car accident) I understand that life is very short and I want to grow as a person before it's my time to go as well. Yet I still have an obligation to my husband and don't want him to feel like he has to bear the complete burden of maintaining our life just so I can "find myself". It wouldn't be fair to him.
I would have also liked more examples of people who didn't know what their calling was. Most of Mr. Cope's examples were people that always knew they wanted to be a poet or a writer or had a very strong drive to do something very specific. I, on the other hand, am not so clear. I have lots of interests, many of which I obsess over,,,,, for a very brief period of time. Then another interest catches my eye. Perhaps the journey is part of the process and the mere act of looking is teaching me what I need to know. Still, it would be nice to find something that makes me feel like I'm not just treading water waiting out the second half of my life.
545 people found this helpful
====
Ray
5.0 out of 5 stars STEVEN COPE DOES NOT DISAPOINT
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 19 December 2022
Verified Purchase
VERY GOOD SMALL IS Large is smaalnd let go of your ego. Love the references to Bhagavagita. Definitely have a better understanding of my own Dharma and what it is.
====
Sweet Demise
3.0 out of 5 stars You will GAIN & BENEFIT from this book! Just not what you expected to learn....
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 12 March 2017
Verified Purchase
I found this book to be very inspiring and motivating. It will definitely bring out (in it's readers) the inner urge to want to do better, and to live life to its full potential. Most of us get so wound-up in our every day "busy" routine, that we forget to question our true purpose in life. It's as if we run on auto pilot. This book will for sure make you rethink your own life, and where you stand today. In other words, it will make you wonder about what your true calling/dharma may be, and will make you want to work towards it.
But what the book fails to do, is to explain "how" this can be possible for the everyday people, who encompass majority of the population. The author has used numerous individuals as examples in this book, to explain to us what their true calling/vocation was, how they identified with it, and how they worked towards it. However, none of these examples are of everyday people (like most of us), who have work obligations, family obligations, financial obligations, time constraints etc. How can individuals like us find and pursue our dharma, and yet survive in todays world?
Stephen Cope's examples include individuals born with a natural gifts, or writer/poets who had years to spend in solitude simply composing and writing, or individuals whose family members helped them identify their dharma at a young age and supported them in their pursue towards it. Most of us do not have such luxury. Most of us don't even know what our dharma may be.
So although this book has been wonderfully written, it fails to deliver what it says it's purpose is. But you will still walk away from it feeling inspired, and wanting to do better for yourself. And if not that, you will have at least felt like you read a summary of the Bhagavad Gita. Somehow, Stephen Cope has very beautifully laid out in this book, highlights of the teachings of the ancient Hindu scripture - Bhagavad Gita.
You will not walk away from this book feeling like you had wasted your time. You will definitely gain something from it. It just wont be what you thought it would be!
89 people found this helpful
Report
Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars Happy to have finally picked this book up
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 29 October 2022
Verified Purchase
I have crossed this book before, but never picked it up; would have loved to have read it earlier in life, but its messages are relevant and reaffirming even now. Moving content, well delivered.
====================================
