Aspiring from Within: The Power of Your Intentions

The practice of conscious intentions is not just a method of contemplation but a real means to influence our perceptions, emotions, thoughts and experiences. Intentions train our mind, and direct our experiences.

Intentions have two aspects: the cognitive aspect of wanting to cultivate something, and the intentional actions themselves. These actions resonate directly with the held intention. Therefore, you will witness your intention within the resulting action and experience.

We begin with a higher wish to cultivate a quality such as compassion, creativity, or dialogue. This wish is an internal one created through an intention such as: I maintain the spirit of compassion. The second aspect is the action that takes place in our daily lives– the “how” we live in the spirit of compassion, for example. Our experience then contains both the conscious intention and the intentional action.

Therefore, the more conscious and deliberate our intentions, the more we will be able to influence our actions and experiences.

So, aspire from within through an intention, then activate the intention through engagement with others.  Your conscious wish (intention) will manifest in your daily life. It is wholly worthwhile to live an intentional life.

“We need to become fully conscious of the different intentions and motives that are at work in our minds if we wish to penetrate the self-deception that lurk behind our actions.”  –Tragel Kyabgon,  The Practice of Lojong: Cultivating Compassion through Training the Mind

For more on aspiring from within and the practice of intentions order my upcoming book: The Zero Point Agreement: How to Be Who You Already Are. Release date, December 2nd.

Dear Reader, I have 4 remaining “Lessons before the Lessons” from the introductory teachings of the Venerable Geshe L. Sopa.  I have decided to keep my blogs more pithy with the focus of transforming our outer lives from within (the zero point). Brief blogs on the science and spirituality of being a meaning maker. So, if you would like the remaining teachings from Geshe L. Sopa, please email me at julie@julietallardjohnson.com and I will happily send you the collection. Thank you for your interest and understanding. Please go to the Deer Park website for more on Geshe-la and his most remarkable books and teachings.