Aloha! My name is Dharma.
I was born into a Muslim family in the Middle East and was brought up in the religion of Islam. Growing up in a very oppressive family, my life was full of control and abuse of all kinds. Also, like almost everyone, I was named Mohammad.
From the very beginning, my parents did not want me to be free in any way and used every tactic they could to disempower me.
Physical, emotional, and psychological abuse was their ammo into my late 20s. I would get slapped, and beaten with shoes and rackets even for coming home late after studying at school.
As I began to make choices for myself, I got used to the torture my parents regularly inflicted on me. So, they began to encourage my younger brother and sister to bully me. They would often yell at me, call me names, and speak down to me. They were being used as puppets by my parents, mirroring how they also treated me.
I was scared of being at home, so I did whatever I could to stay out of the house as much as possible.
I would go home just to sleep, and then start this toxic cycle again the next day. I lived in fear all my life which was the result my upbringing. My parents used religion and family/relatives to guilt me into remaining in these soul-sucking relationships. And honestly, a big part of me felt obligated to. I had never seen anything other than that by anyone around me.
Home was not a loving place. Home was an unsafe space.
I was conditioned from a very young age to always do what I was told: how to behave, what to eat, who to speak or not speak, how to dress, what to study, and where to live. None of this was the result of my own choices. Anything that was, was met with abuse.
But I knew there was more and that my life had more meaning. I know many of you reading can relate to this, and that is why you are here.
I made the bold decision to leave my family and move across the country at 29, something which was met with a lot of resistance and threats. I married the love of my life, who was from a different religion, without any conversion, which was unheard of given we both came from extremely oppressive and feuding religious families.
These 2 decisions changed everything in my life, and were the beginning of the path that I am on today.
I spent over a decade, seeking the truth of life which I knew deep in my core was more than what I was being told to believe. It is often said that ‘when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.’ And when I was ready, mine did.
I was divinely led to my teacher Liana Shanti. And through her, I found my way back home to Jesus.
Through her programs, my healing journey began and I met my true self for the first time. When this happened, I had an inner knowing to change my name because I no longer aligned with the energy of my birth name which was associated with so much trauma and oppression, and a religion I no longer felt connected with. As I left behind my old self, I gifted myself the name Dharma Bodhi, which symbolized a spiritual rebirth for me.
The only true currency we have is time, and with each passing moment, we are getting closer to our death. Life and death happen in the same breath. This made it even more vital for me to live my life consciously in every moment.
