DHARMA X DHAMMA

Virtues and ethics and practices are also Dharma. Even the qualities that we develop, the positive qualities that lead us toward freedom and reality, those are dharma. That is how dharma came to mean a religion in some contexts, and also "duty" and other kinds of routines in Vedic Brahmanism, before Buddha used it in the liberating way. In later Hinduism, in the Bhagavad-Gita, dharma was used by God to say, "Do your dharma," meaning, "Do your duty." "Follow your role as a warrior, Arjuna!" said God, "Krishna, you warrior, follow your dharma!" But in Buddhist terms, Dharma means more like Joseph Campbell's great statement, "Follow your bliss!" Bliss is your freedom. So it means, "Follow your freedom!" And it came more to mean that in India, after Buddha's time, also in another strand in the Gita, in Hinduism and Jainism, as well as Buddhism.
Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/buddhism/2005/04/the-three-jewels-of-buddhism.aspx#2xVrA0hej3ix8okA.99