Right Intention

An excerpt from a teaching called The Eight-Fold Path by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

All of us have intention, and intention refers to mental energy.  We have intention now, but we are not really conscious of our intention.  We don’t think of it that way other than when we say, “I intend to go to the movies tonight.  I intend to wear my new dress tomorrow.  I intend to eat broccoli for dinner.” We have that kind of understanding.  But what we don’t understand is that intention goes with mind power.  They are the same.  And mind power when it is expressed, has intention.  Whether we like it or not, if we have mind, we have intention.  So, the mental energy that controls our actions is our intention, and that intention.  Maybe we have a nihilist point of view.  We don’t really think that life is cause and effect.  We don’t have any understanding of that.  “Wherever life takes me; I’m going to go there.”  That’s kind of neutral.  And of course, with that kind of neutrality, life will take you anywhere it wants to.  You have no control.  You are like a doughnut on the ocean. You are going to take on water and sink.

Right intention is about formulating an appropriate intention, and it has to do with ethics.  Ethics in the Buddha dharma are absolutely foundational.  Once we get into the higher practices, we neglect, I think too much, to talk about it.  Right intention is absolutely important to cultivate.  Otherwise the mind is simply wild.  It wants what it wants.  It just does what it does.  There is nothing to think about.  If we have bad intention, of course that gives rise to great suffering.  Like if we wish to be higher than everybody else, or we wish to be more powerful than everybody else, or we wish to be richer than everybody else.  That’s kind of a negative intention.  It is okay to have wealth, it is okay if you have some power, and it is okay if you’re pretty, but to have that wish to be prettier or more powerful or wealthier than everybody else, that’s not good intention.  And that will cause you to suffer because someone’s always going to be prettier than you.  Someone’s always going to be richer than you.  Someone’s always going to be smarter.  And so you’ll suffer.  It brings about suffering.  Negative intention should not be tolerated.  Not only does it bring about suffering for oneself, but also it brings about suffering for sentient beings because if we have poor ethics or if we have bad intention, we tend to harm others, as well as ourselves.

So we are supposed to train ourselves with good intention, for instance, the intention of renunciation.  To have the intention of renunciation again is so important and foundational on the path.  What are we renouncing?  Well, you could go and renounce things piece by piece, and get absolutely nowhere.  “I renounce bottle tops.  I renounce red drinks.” And then get totally neurotic about it, “But I want it.” That obviously is not the right approach.  The intention of renunciation actually refers to resistance to the pull of desire and attachment.  You begin to practice that resistance.  I promise you that when you just start to practice it, you won’t be good at it, if you have no experience with it.  It takes time.  You have to examine desire.

Now, you understand that desire is all-pervasive.  I’m not talking about what happens in people’s bedrooms.  I’m talking about all-pervasive desire.  Desire for everything that we want. And we want a lot.  We want good days, we want good experiences, we want good friends, and we want good times.   None of which are bad, but if you’re addicted and attached to them, then you will suffer.  And again the Eight-Fold Path is about liberating from suffering.  So, it is the renunciation to the pull of desire and the poison of attachment.

Right intention also is the intention of good will.  Meaning resistance to the feelings of anger and aversion.  We all have that.  It starts in the morning.  “God, who made this coffee?  It tastes awful.”  “I’m having a really terrible hair day.  I’m averse to my hair.”   We have this aversion, and then we just don’t like things. Don’t like people.  Don’t care.  Just don’t give the big hoop.  I would call that wrong intention.  If someone were to approach you and say to you, “I think it would be healthy for you to practice more compassion.”  Of course, our natural thing is to react with “Shut up!” and to react with anger. But that is the exact instinct we need to fight.  That is the exact thing we need to fight.  Now, if somebody comes up to you even if they are somebody you may feel doesn’t have that much compassion, and they give you the piece of advice, “I think you should have more compassion.”  You cultivate patience and right intention.  You think, “Well, it is good that person is talking about compassion, even if it is a left-handed gift.  Still there is something there, and you can have some good intention, good attitude about it.

Basically you develop good will towards all sentient beings.  You don’t think that animals should be killed or harmed. You don’t think that dogs should be put to death.  You don’t think that people should be at war.  You don’t think that suffering should occur.  You don’t think that poverty should exist.  These are right intentions.  These are right thoughts.  Right thoughts that can be cultivated even on a very personal level while the path you’re traveling is still very personal.  You think like that.

You start to pacify anger and rage.  So many of us have so much rage stored up.  Some of it is from childhood.  Some of it is from the stress of everyday living. Were we really meant to go 60 million miles everyday?  You know that kind of stress.  We hold rage inside.  And so part of the Eight-Fold Path is to begin not to suppress the rage, but to contemplate it, be aware of it, and look through it.  Suppression equals neuroses.  We are looking for you to be awake to perceive more correctly what the nature of attraction and repulsion actually is, how they are not conducive to happiness and are the antithesis of the path.

The last part of right intention is the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion.  We forget that.  Again a foundational truth on the path, and we forget it.  We walk around with our malas and our robes, and we think, “I’m so cool.  I’m a Tibetan Buddhist.”  Well, you are not Tibetan.  And if you act like that, you’re not much of a Buddhist either.  So, forget it. And of course cruelty, if we have any cruelty in our mind, it may be a reflection of past habit or past incidences.  We have the power to examine that cruelty, to see its root, to see its fruit, to push it away, to see through it in other words, into the true nature of the Eight-Fold Path and of the Buddha dharma.  We have that power.  We shouldn’t think, “Oh, I’ve got this rage, and I’m stuck with it.  It’s just there.”  We have the power to change that by practicing this right intention.

We give up the thoughts of violence, of aggressiveness, and we begin to develop compassion.  And again what is it based on?  It’s based on the Four Noble Truths.  The compassion comes from the realization that all sentient beings are suffering.  That suffering is all-pervasive, and that it is not necessary because there is an Eight-Fold Path.  That is our way to contemplate and to bring ourselves up to snuff with right intention.

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