2024 To 2025 - Intention

Today we begin with a quote from the theologian and civil rights leader Howard Thurman who said:

“Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

As we enter a new year of practice, new opportunities and challenges will also show themselves in our daily life and those daily appearances are imbued with the meaning that we give it. So we are always returning to the teachings that how we see is more important than what we are seeing.

One of the benefits of practicing awareness is to be able to cultivate a strong mind that's able to track much more carefully what goes on in the present moment, in particular what goes on in our own minds. It's in our own minds, that we create our actions, it’s in our own minds where we set in place the conditions that play out over time. So, intentionality, actions and karma are closely connected topics.

Transcript

I'd like to begin this last day of practice for this year with a quote from the theologian and civil rights leader Howard Thurman who once said don't ask yourself what the world needs ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that because what the world needs is people who have come alive so as we enter a new year of practice with new opportunities and new challenges you know these unexpected uncertain happenings that will show themselves in our daily life and just in the same way that you know the daily appearances of our life things that come and go and happenings they're kind of imbued with the meaning that we that we give it and if something happens and then we we add on what it means right we're always kind of returning to the teachings of how we see is actually more important than what we're seeing how we see so if we are saying that we're continually striving for what we want and pushing away what we don't want and the mind is kind of bouncing back and forth sort of like a volley like a ball bouncing between these two states wanting not wanting wanting not wanting and like they're already responding you know liking not liking liking not liking and then the emotions of that response are entangled pulling all the time liking not liking I don't know about you but for me that is pretty exhausting but when we see this this volley and we take a breath and we pause for a second or a minute you know maybe even dropping in the word like enough enough this moment is enough or nothing's needed nothing's needed then what happens you know the ball drops the volley stops there's a moment that we're not engaging in this continual thirst for more and better it's it's what they say in Zen it's like a backwards step you know just stopping long enough to not add any more meaning to what's happening no more perception of lack or no more concepts and ideas and by doing this we get aligned very quickly to the direct experience of what is known as wise view the first step on the path the action of stopping sometimes physically stopping but more often mentally stopping and becoming aware of what's actually happening you know in front of you as to you know as opposed to what's happening in your mind it's becoming that still point in the wheel that I read at the end of practice free from the turning of wanting and not wanting one of the benefits of practicing awareness is to be able to cultivate a strong mind that's able to track much more carefully what is going on in the present moment and in particular what is going on in our own minds in the present moment it's in our minds that we create our actions it's in our minds where we set in place the conditions that play out over time so intentionality you know and actions and karma these are closely connected topics the workings of our mind very much shape our intentions and it's the quality of the mind you know from which we act on from which we speak from so the intentions are informing the actions and the speech classically they say what creates the momentum of karma is the intention behind what we do it's not the action but the intention that is the source of karma so to really get at the heart of karma teachings is to learn how to act differently in the present moment where the choices that's where the choices in the present moment to construct things a little differently so these practices that we do generosity ethical behavior kindness compassion balance letting go these are all actions that support constructing a better self a better disposition and by better I mean that it's more supportive to our life not like adding value like better than less than just more supportive to our life and to our practice and if our purpose is to be free from the pain and reactivity and the clinging and the volley of wanting not wanting it's useful to pay attention to the way we react to the experience of how it is in the body when we're wanting and not wanting there's a holding a contraction when there's pain there's a squeeze it's a squeeze on the heart I'm sure you have experienced this I have experienced this this feels like a human experience so having a sense of purpose or an intention it helps us make decisions about the things that we do in the world how we practice what we focus on and it orientates well how does this support this sense of purpose that I have so for example the intention that I have and have had in the onset of creating Roaring Fork Insight is to bring these 2500 year old teachings to you in a way that makes sense that are easy to integrate into our everyday life that purpose and how I do that is by keeping the teachings really simple you know breaking down the practices using language that is simple techniques that are simple to remember and there are some teachings that are not as easy to break down and not as easy to understand I'm thinking more about the teachings of not self anata there's sometimes hard to comprehend like non duality is an experience it's not an intellectual exercise so in those cases my intention is the same to bring these teachings as simply as I can to bring benefit and that's how I set the direction and then and then I have to kind of let go or get out of the way I have to let go of the purpose on how it lands for you the simplicity or the complexity of it because it's easy to fall into wanting to control how it lands and then it gets heavy and bogged down so that's an example of purpose and intention what's it for you I heard this analogy once about the the practice of intention and it struck me you know it kind of stuck with me let's say that you you want to drive north and if you're in the United States when you drive north you what you need to do is you need to keep checking that the Sun is setting on the left side to be sure that I'm still heading north right it's pretty simple just keep the Sun setting on the left and it's the same with the practice of wise intention it's like checking where the Sun is you know this is my intention intention is what shapes how we live our lives and an interesting practice that I've done over the years is I've asked myself you know what is my deepest intention what is the sense of purpose that I want to base my life on and I think the most important discovery for for this question has been how easy it is to lose touch with the intention how easy it is to get busy with life and the superficial aspects of life that pulls me away from this deeper sense of purpose you know it's kind of amazing that when we really look we notice how we spend a huge amount of our time far from remembering what really matters sometimes we're so attuned to you know just are doing and are having and are getting that when we ask you know what is my purpose what is my deepest intention the response is I don't really know I don't really know and I found that helpful not knowing because you know it's honest so let's explore intention and as we do just to say that this Buddhist practice you know in this practice what we do is far less important than how we do it another example you know my intention is to offer you these wisdom teachings but how I do it my intention is to move through my life with as much ease as possible without hurrying without busyness or have to in the in this in kind of the language I have to get this done have to do so I bring these teachings with ease how I do it is so much more important than what I'm doing what matters is delivering these teachings with integrity and honesty and care and compassion for myself and for you with love and generosity those are the qualities that's the how that's the intent that's the purpose so whatever your intention you know how we do things might have a bigger impact on your long-term happiness than what you're actually setting out to do so as we come to the end of another year maybe take some time and reflect on what your intentions are for right now for the day ahead or for the long term you know we start where we are we start with a more immediate and then we see what arises so thank you for your attention

Reviews

Thanks Lisa!

Thank you for these thoughtful reflections 🌟

Thank you so much 😊