Setting Intention For Practice & Working With Hindrances

This is a portion of a talk from a New Years intention-setting retreat. I speak of the importance of living the precepts and how we can set intention to create change in ourselfes and in the world. Also discussed are the opportunities the hinderances bring to our practice and how we can over come them.

Transcript

So this mindfulness of intention,

You know I see intention as the compass.

The compass for our actions,

The compass for our karma,

That really from the Buddhist perspective,

It all really begins with intention.

Some would say it actually begins with karma.

And then the way that that karma plays out in our present time experience,

And how we work with it,

How we embrace it or push it away or grasp to it,

Determines the next kind of moment or the next mind state.

In the last sit,

I was kind of playing with,

Look at your mind state,

See what's happening there.

Right now it's just like this,

Right now it's like this,

Which is kind of,

I love what the Against the Stream does,

Right?

We take these things and we make them banners and then put flags on them and make t-shirts and tattoos.

This is a quote from Ajahn Sumedho or Lompor Sumedho.

And it's so helpful in this present time awareness practice.

It's like this.

How could it be anything other than what it's actually like?

It can't be.

But yet we're so busy kind of looking for the next,

Whatever the next thing is,

That we're often not actually experiencing life just like it is.

So the Buddha said a few things about intention.

Beings are owners of their karma,

Heirs of their karma,

Born of their karma,

Related to their karma,

Supported by their karma.

Whatever karma they do for good or for ill,

Of that they are the heirs.

So what this points to for me is that this,

What we call karma,

Is momentum and it has a lot to do with whatever is expressing itself in our kind of,

In our heart-mind.

And then our intention and our kind of present time awareness is really working to kind of untangle our karma.

Or maybe sustain.

This whole kind of notion of good karma and bad karma,

I try to stay away from because it seems like good and evil.

This part of you is bad and this part of you is good and I don't believe that that's really the intention of what karma is.

Karma is the expression of the ramifications of our past actions.

And I think about it in the way of the water cycle,

Some of you have heard me say.

Just like water is in the ocean and then gets heated to a certain degree and then turns into vapor and then rises up and then enough of it kind of,

Whatever it's called,

Gets heavy in the clouds and then precipitation happens and then it rains and then it goes into the rivers,

Or the mountains and the rivers and the ocean and this cycle happens.

That in the same way I kind of believe that that's what karma is.

And like it's not anyone's fault.

We're not to blame,

But we are responsible.

I think that's an important kind of distinction.

So Buddhism offers us a challenge.

Is it possible to live a life with no suffering?

This is the challenge.

Right up front.

I like that the Buddha didn't really mince words.

They're suffering.

It's clear.

Let's look at it.

Where does it come from?

How is it happening?

How do we end it?

So if we investigate our intentions and bringing this kind of mindfulness to our intentions,

Then it's about focusing and helping us get clear about either our life's goal or our even just daily or yearly.

And so in this idea of using the New Year's,

This kind of transition time,

As just a time to focus.

What is our intention?

And so the Buddha pointed towards wise intention.

That our intentions create a mind that is at ease or one that is frustrated and confused.

So we've had just a little bit of time here sitting with the mind.

And I can probably pretty safely say there's been some confusion and there's been some ease.

There's maybe been some regret and some remorse and some joy.

Hopefully.

When I first started practicing myself,

There was no ease.

It was just regret and remorse.

There probably was,

Really,

Actually.

There probably was.

Otherwise,

I probably wouldn't have kept meditating.

But I remember,

Actually,

My first three-day retreat was right here.

My very first three-day retreat was in this room.

Actually,

No,

It was in the Gompa.

And it was just painful.

Physically painful,

Emotionally painful.

And my intention at that time,

If I really think about it now,

My intention was to avoid suffering by learning to meditate and numb my brain.

Numb the brain.

I heard this meditation stuff,

You can stop your thoughts.

So I wanted to learn how to do that.

But no relief came in the stopping thinking.

As a matter of fact,

The opposite happened.

Increased in volume,

Increased in intensity.

Everything I didn't want to think about came rushing to the forefront of my mind.

And then I remember being really frustrated and scared.

It usually expressed itself in anger for me,

Either internally or externally.

So then I was like,

Fuck all these people,

All these old people,

And this and that.

I started having judgment about everyone around me.

I didn't know what was doing it right.

The food is horrible.

I started just critiquing the world as a way to get out of my own discomfort.

I talked with Mary Grace Orr,

My teacher at the time.

I was telling her about,

I think I said something like,

Mary,

There's this war going on in my head.

It's like mortars,

Like explosions around me,

Like people are being decapitated in my mind.

I'm dug in deep in a foxhole and I can't move.

I just want to get up and run out the room.

She just lovingly smiled,

Kind of chuckled.

She's in her 70s,

Got purple hair,

Great lady.

She just said,

Well you didn't leave,

Did you?

You didn't get up,

Did you?

You didn't stop,

Did you?

I said no.

She was like,

Well then you're doing it perfect.

At that moment I realized,

Oh this isn't about escaping,

This is about dealing.

And that things are going to come up.

The hindrances that I pointed to are going to come up.

So how do we work with that?

I set an intention on that.

Probably about this time of that retreat,

15 years ago or something.

I set the intention to just basically not give up.

Just keep going.

Just keep sitting and looking at the fear and looking at the dead bodies in my mind.

The carnage.

And then eventually,

Almost immediately actually,

It started to change.

So the intention kind of led towards wise mindfulness,

Concentration,

Effort.

Because before that,

The hindrances were winning.

Doubt,

Remorse,

Restlessness.

I had some effort about that.

And some willingness.

So setting these intentions kind of moving forward,

It can be really helpful as a place to kind of come back to.

Like this compass,

True north.

So I believe that we all have a compass.

And your compass has already gotten you here.

So in my opinion,

You're pointing in the right direction.

And it's a matter of,

Okay,

So we'll go off a little bit at times.

The mind goes past or future or falls short of precepts or unwise speech.

And as long as we're able to have something to point to again,

To keep us going,

We're going to be alright.

And this is what I believe the intention is about.

Our awareness can be like guardians at the gate.

Being aware of our intentions can lead us to right action.

Right action being kind of non-harming at its base.

Non-harming to self,

Non-harming to others.

So the Buddha talked about a few ways of doing this.

He talked about looking at,

In his own mind during this silent reflection,

This meditation practice,

Seeing mind states.

This was before he actually became fully enlightened.

This was before he kind of took the final seat.

It was one of his earlier insights that led to the complete freedom from suffering.

He was able to begin to discern between what he called Akusala and Kusala.

So wholesome or unwholesome,

Skillful or unskillful mind states.

So he had enough concentration,

Enough mindfulness where he could kind of begin to look,

This is the way I understand it and this is what I've read,

Where he could begin to look at his own mind and go,

Oh yeah that's not helpful to go down that track.

I've been down that track several times now actually.

There's always like a big gorilla with a club and beats me over the head until I come running back.

So not a good idea.

Maybe I'll go this way.

So the big gorilla being doubt or remorse.

I think regret and remorse tends to be the most kind of prominent.

Regret and remorse.

So setting intention is like coming back to that,

Oh okay,

What is my intention?

So maybe to not,

Whatever it is for you,

Maybe to not create more entanglement but to start to get clear,

To focus on what can be considered skillful action.

The precepts are helpful in this.

The precepts that we've taken,

We're going to do,

We've taken the precepts on retreat and then tomorrow we're going to take the precepts as a way of stepping off into the world with some new intention.

So the Buddha explained right intention as threefold.

The intention of renunciation,

The intention of goodwill,

And the intention of harmlessness.

So renunciation kind of,

If we're in the desirous kind of world,

Like we're kind of grasping and we're desiring and we're leaning forward into things,

The Buddha's instruction there is to renounce,

To relinquish,

To maybe stop engaging.

The intention of goodwill is obviously if we're noticing resentment or anger or frustration,

Particularly with relationship to others.

The intention to kind of focus more on loving kindness,

Compassion,

Heart practices.

I like the precepts for this too,

Like,

Just don't talk shit.

Like if you can,

Just don't talk shit about yourself or anyone else.

Let's start here,

Right?

And then harmlessness is this ahimsa that we've talked about as the precepts.

The three opposed wrong intentions,

Intention governed by desire.

I want this,

I want that,

This is my intention.

I want to get that yacht.

Or intention governed by ill will.

I really hope that that person gets what they deserve.

Or intention governed by harmfulness.

Just kind of wishing harm upon another.

So the Buddha kind of broke this down in the Akusala Akusala,

Wholesome,

Unwholesome.

And I'll just read them just so we can have a reference.

There are ten unwholesome courses of action,

Deeds which originate from the three poisons,

Known as greed,

Hatred,

And delusion.

So these are killing,

Stealing,

Sexual misconduct,

Lying,

Slander,

Harsh speech,

Useless talk,

Covetousness,

Ill will,

And false views.

Now most of these are kind of held under the precepts.

So the contrary,

Which I'll just get into,

Which are known to cultivate goodwill and wisdom.

And also qualities of detachment or non-attachment.

Generosity,

Ethics or morality,

Meditation,

Reverence,

Service,

Transference of merit.

Other words like rejoicing in the good of others.

Hearing the dharma and expounding the dharma.

And then lastly straightening out one's views.

So this whole right view,

Wise view,

I think it's helpful to just point to.

Delusion is often caused by wrong view.

And so when as we're looking within,

It's not like,

Oh this person has right view and they're going to give it to me.

It's more like through our own practice and taking on kind of ethical behavior and concentration and mindfulness.

We're going to begin to see clearly.

And then as that happens it's kind of like one of the ways it's described is from darkness into light.

Like in our heart and mind we move from darkness into light.

So this is just some kind of reflections on intention from the Buddhist perspective.

And I feel like what we're doing here is.

.

.

Reviews

Had to run, but I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of this.

Thank you for sharing your gifts

Fantastic, but stopped before talk was finished. Darn, I really ejoyed what I was hearing.
Thank you.