Dharma

duty or moral law.
dharma is sometimes a generic term for religious thought and practice.
this is not my definition, but a definition given to me by a bona fide spiritual guru:

“dharma means the intrinsic nature of a thing. just like the dharma of sugar is sweetness and the dharma of water is wetness. the dharma of the living being is to render service
to g-d. therefore everyone serves g-d without fail, either directly or indirectly. the devotees serve him directly and the non-devotees serve him indirectly.”
the above definition came from a qualified source, therefore i trust that it is an accurate definition.
based on the idea that everything in the universe is causally linked. all things are composite things, that is, they are composed of several elements. because all things are composite, they are all transitory, for the elements come together and then fall apart. it is this transience that causes human beings to sorrow and to suffer. we live in a body, which is a composite thing, but that body decays, sickens, and eventually dies, though we wish it to do otherwise. since everything is transient, that means that there can be no eternal soul either in the self or in the universe. this, then, is the eternal truth of the world: everything is transitory, sorrowful, and soulless–the three-fold character of the world.
i am cool, so i found dharma
dharma, with a capital “d” usually refers to a (spiritual) teaching, and more often to the teachings of the buddha. dharma with a small “d” can loosely be translated from sanskrit as: “the way things are” or “reality.”
spiritual seekers meeting each other in india would ask, “whose dharma do you follow”, as a way of asking whose teachings were followed.

the dharma of a thing is simply the way it is in reality.
a situation that gives spiritual or personal growth by observing the life and events of another
a death of a young child. it’s life was too short to offer great spiritual growth for that child, but to the parents they could have learned something valuable from the child in it’s short time here thus enhancing their own spiritual growth. the child’s life was dharma for the parents.
a character in the sitcom dharma and greg, about a guy called greg who lives with buddha.
not to be confused with another similarly named sitcom.