This world is multi faceted. If you take spirituality and transformation alone, there are thousands of paths and methods, that promise you the way to reach your goal. There is only one factor, that is sometimes forgotten, and I believe, that it’s one of the most important ones…
What’s your goal?
In my work I meet many spiritual seekers, who are meditating for many years, have learned every technique under the sun, and tell me, that they still have the feeling that they haven’t arrived yet.
I often ask an obvious question then: „Where do you want to go? What is your goal?“
As an answer I often get silence or some form of surprised reaction.
Most spiritual seekers haven’t asked this question in a deep and fulfilling way.
Sure, there are some obvious answers like:
- I want to be happy
- I want to live in the Now.
- I don’t want to suffer
- I want to to heal myself and others
- I want to get enlightened
- I want to be one with God
- I want to find the Truth
- I want to experience Love
That’s fine with me, but we need to find out now, what Happiness, the Now, Enlightenment, God, Truth, Love etc. mean for you.
(Spoiler-Alert: They all may hint to the same…)
Let’s make it practical: What Intention truly is.
Let’s assume, that you just learned some method of transformation, therapy or healing or have perfected it after years of training.
You start to work with this technique on yourself or others.
This is the moment, the magic happens. You are breathing life into the method. Even if we often assume, that the magic lies in the method or technique itself, in reality, the power lies in your intention!
Intention is the focus of your consciousness and your attention on a goal - and with goal, I don’t mean the lofty goal some motivational guru are speaking about - but simply the point, where your consciousness is directed towards.
In other words: Intention is the process of aligning yourself with a goal.
From what I could observe with many people is, that they focus 100% of their attention on the method of transformation/therapy/healing (or even the teacher of the method) itself - and oversee the true goal they once had.
That’s the reason, why many people don’t get the expected results, because the method has become an end in itself.
My recommendation is to keep 90% of your intention on the original goal and only 10% on the method - until you are able to let these 10% go too.
Every technique and method are just training wheels, that should help you to keep your focus. That’s all - there is no further meaning in any technique.
One thing is good to keep in mind:
There are no good or bad methods per se - only your intention is making it so. If you are not aware of your intention, then it will be guided subconsciously. The lack of result is then not the fault of the method, but of your subconscious intention!
Consider this: You can’t „not intent“. There is always intention - the question only is: where does it lead you?
The finger pointing to the moon.
There is a Zen saying: If someone points to the moon – don’t just look at the finger! (because you will think, the finger is the moon and miss the moon itself)
The true power of Intention - of looking directly where you want to head on your spiritual path, and not on the teaching is vital.
In our society we have the tendency to see a higher value in complex processes and trying to make them perfect, than to look at the true intention behind them.
That’s how we stay on the surface of things - even when trying to be „spiritual“. Even spiritual processes are made into things that we have to perfect.
In a sense, it’s a lack of trust in the power of the Divine itself.
Intention is in it’s core the power of divine will and something, that the Ego can’t handle. Instead we start to create out of our hurt inner child and Ego and trying to control things.
The ego tries to create with practices and techniques, what the Divine does with pure intention.
The future of healing and therapy lies in the ability to hold a space for yourself and others, in which the only intention is on universal, divine Love itself. Everything else is just a show.
Once again I deeply resonate with what you've shared. I think that so many times people are more focused on the finger than the moon, to use your metaphor. It's easy to do because the finger can be touched; its more 'real' and accessible to the mind trained to perceive immediate experience. We have to reach more deeply within ourselves to find our personal version of what the moon is, and even once we find it, we have to maintain that focus alone. The rest of the world is pulling our attention away from it at all times.
That's why we need to support one another with reminders like these. At some level we all know all that is to be known, for we are one awareness. But we have to keep singing ourselves back to ourself. Thank you for your song.
That is beautifully said! The song analogy touches another topic that is burning in me.
I'm in a work situation at the moment, where someone demands that I write down the musical notes of my song, because he thinks, that then he will be able to "understand" and play my song. Or in the finger metaphor: I should describe the moon, because he thinks, that then he will understand the moon. This for me is totally missing the point and I don't know, how to handle this situation, because I can't read musical notes - so I can't give him, what he wants (even if I wouldn't believe, that this is impossible anyway).
Maybe you have an idea, how to handle this @indigoocean?
Thanks again! Your comments deeply resonate with me! ❤️
Well I think it's awesome we've connected on here, because our spiritual paths are clearly taking us through some similar terrain and it's nice to have company for the journey.
That situation though, I don't know how there is anything you can do to relieve someone of their responsibility for discovering that directly. That's their path. Think about all the confusing experiences we had over the years, having to learn to make peace with the uncertainty, and then those a-ha moments when all the dots connected and we could see what was being revealed to us all along. Beforehand we might have wished someone would just spell it out for us, but aren't we glad now for the delight and inner strength of discovering it through direct experience?
So maybe it's not so bad you can't do it for him.
Thank you for bringing up the topic of responsibility. That alone is very helpful and resonates with me - also brings up a solution on another level, because things are connected. Perfect! Thank you and much Love! ❤️
This is why I am not a fan of "How to" advice. Because as you say, each one is unique and has his or her own means that they can find out. Of course, there are some general practises which help, like training one's breath. But when we simply follow somebody's instruction and make its success dependent on the teacher's certificate or popularity or what not, than we direct our power not internally but externally and give it away.
It is all about the experience of progress through self-experimenting.
If not, we might do something that is not in truly alignment with our Soul,and thus take decisions which create obstacles instead because these practises didn't originate from within.
At least this has been my experience, take it for what you will :)
I take it with uttermost respect 😀
Yes, another name for intention is "our true innate power" 🙏
I´ve always asked myself about my true goal in life. My response?
I want to keep experimenting how everything in the universe works so I can carve personal paths for my own evolution, fulfillment ant integration with everything else, my way. Along the way, I want to get to know beyond prejudice or fear why does everything have to be that way, and how many other ways can it be. I consider myself a true explorer, in the deepest meaning of the word.
And both light and darkness are my home...
I consider myself to be just starting my journey(we´ll to be fair, It´s been more than 20 years and I´ve already learned a lot, but I still feel like I´m just starting).
Yes, I realize that what you´ve just said about ego. But I´m not really lacking confidence in the power of divine, I´m just really really curious, and don´t want to just go to the moon, I want to know why is it out there in the first place(metaphorically speaking).
Thanks for sharing your insights!
I totally understand, that you want to know "gods mind" and the reasons why everything is as it is, but you may never find a satisfactory answer to that. On the other hand, if god would reveal his complete plan for every aspect of creation to you, what exactly would be different then?
How would the knowledge about the true workings of the universe change anything in your daily life? You still would feel shitty, when you're shitty. 😀
Yes, but the reason I´m not on a purely spiritual path is that I don´t wanna rush to the end of the movie. Instead I want to experience it fully, only getting out of places that are too tough, but even experiencing those a little while. At the end of the day, feeling bad or good it´s not what´s most important. For me, it´s wisdom and peace.
I don't think people realize how powerful their intentions actually are.
Intentions are the medium which thoughts move through. It's how they become words, how they become actions, how they become real.
I've likened intention in the past as a small ripple in the middle of the ocean. When given momentum (i.e focused on, acted upon, etc) that ripple continues and grows slightly larger, picking up speed and power.
The thing is, the more momentum behind the 'ripple' (i.e, your attention) the larger that ripple grows and the faster that ripple moves, giving it even more momentum as a result, and again and again until you have a roaring tidal wave that can decimate any obstacle.
Our intention is one of our greatest tools. When focused, it gives us the power to quite literally shape our reality.
In any case, you've got my upvote and follow! Can't wait to hear your response, would love to have you stop by and get your input on my latest post here if you're interested!
Looking forward to your reply : )
Thank you for your comment and getting in touch. Actually I don't have anything to add to this at the moment, but I love to follow you and I will have a look at your article for sure. ❤️
Hey all good, no worries at all : ). And looking forward to it, can't wait to hear your thoughts!
Thanks for the post @atmosblack I enjoyed reading this first thing in the morning before a morning of Steeming! I have a high positive intent on working towards a vision, it may take a long time, but taking small baby steps in that direction with positive intent will keep me happier and buoyed about the rich tapestry of life!
Beautifully said! Thanks for sharing! ❤️
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