The Trailokya Trilogy Companion is a continuing online manuscript that illustrates and explains some of the details of the story, helping readers to keep things straight while they travel through the series. Readers can view this live companion book on Wattpad (either using the website or an app for their phone) absolutely free.
The companion is organized in alphabetical sections for convenience. In each section, the entries are organized like a dictionary along with original artwork and excerpts from the Trailokya Friday blog posts. In the coming weeks and months the blog will feature specific entries, to give you a taste of what is available in the companion.
dharma.
The life contract, or plan for incarnation.
Dharma clearly insinuates Buddhist teachings in the Trailokya Trilogy. The overall premise of the books was to take ancient beliefs, even modern ones, and have them emanate from a point outside of ready awareness for humans (and all souls). Obviously the ideas and points of view are focused from a human lens, because this story wishes to relate to that audience and suggest something bigger to them in the intertexts they live daily. Not every point will be reflected in a readers understanding, but that helps give the stories a lasting depth. As time goes by for readers, they may wish to revisit the books, and there will still be things there that surprise them.
In the context of Trailokya, Dharma means the life path mapped out by an atman wishing to incarnate, and the subsequent contract developed in agreeing to let them do so. In the Buddhist faith, it means the teaching or religion of the Buddha. In the sister religion of Hinduism, it is the principle of cosmic order. (Google). Making Dharma the life path mapped out and contracted, does honor these principles, because these contracts are taken quite seriously by those creating them, and they are the point of all the bureaucracy and effort put into one another by the citizens of Zion. Eventually, these contracts lead to another existence in Nirvana.
While dharma doesn’t follow the religions exactly, it does honor them. The reason for not taking it verbatim was the premise of the book that atman who incarnate have flawed memories of their home world, if they have them at all. Thus, to have dharma defined exactly the same would suggest absolute validation of this memory on my part. That single act could unwind the entire series. Why would they remember what dharma was but not anything else?
It is also presumptuous on our parts to assume that we know things beyond our consciousness and reality without an ounce of doubt. Still, the word dharma was created centuries ago to embody a specific idea that Buddhists and Hindus sought to define. Keep in mind that these religions do not exactly agree on the definition of that word either.
Click here to learn more about The Trailokya Trilogy, and let me know what questions you have in the comments. If you loved this article, subscribe to the blog to get more. Donate by buying a book.
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