Jill Shepherd: talk: Wise Intention part1

As I was contemplating the theme for this week's talk, it seemed almost surreal thinking about

being here and contemplating kindness and compassion and care and clarity and wisdom and freedom,

all of those beautiful human capacities that we have to be contemplating them in the

middle of a world that feels like it's descending into complete insanity and maybe more than

ever the truth of interconnectedness is being revealed. Because sometimes I think being here in

Artera and New Zealand, we can think, well, just as little insignificant in Ireland and the

bottom of the world. But we are impacted. No part of the world is immune to this insanity that's

kind of bubbling up all over the place. So we're not immune to the impact of the global

conditions and those conditions are almost completely out of our control. And so I don't know how

it might be for any of you, but often there's a whole range of how we might react to those

conditions. To some people sometime, maybe anxiety or foreboding or despair or uncertainty,

maybe frustration or anger or rage, maybe numbness, avoidance, denial, just tune it out,

hope it'll go away, maybe wishful thinking. We all have our defaults, often unconscious tendencies.

When we are confronted with the truth of the insecurity and the instability and actually the

vulnerability of our lives. And this was true in the time of the Buddha too. So I think I've shared

with some of you before this quote from the Sutas. Many people go for refuge to mountains and forest

groves, to shrines and parks. Those people are driven by fear. But those refuges are no sanctuary.

They're not the supreme refuge. By going to that refuge, you're not released from suffering.

Someone going to, for refuge to the Buddha, to the teachings, to the Sangha, this community,

they see the four noble truths with right understanding that there is suffering and

satisfactoryness. They see its origin, they see how to come out of it, and they walk the noble

eightfold path that leaves to the stilling of that suffering. That refuge is a sanctuary.

It's a supreme refuge. By going to that refuge, you're released from all suffering.

So what is that saying? To some years it might sound a bit old fashioned, a bit religious.

What's your sense of what that essence of what that's pointing to is?

Any thoughts?

We can't find refuge in the external.

Yeah, we can't find it in the environment of knowledge.

Yeah, if we're driven by fear looking here there and everywhere for some kind of external safety,

it's, we're not going to find it. So where is the more reliable refuge you pointed to it?

It's in here, and this has really been the theme we've been exploring pretty much every week

this year. But again, again, don't rely on external conditions for security, but cultivate our inner

capacity, cultivate our inner qualities, our inner strengths, get that inner resilience,

because those are what we can truly rely on when life gets challenging.

So bringing all this back to the noble eightfold path, which is what we've been exploring all year,

we can see how it relates to the first two factors, which are wise view and wise understanding.

When we look at what's happening in the world with wise view, wise understanding,

it is so obvious that when people are under the influence of greed, of hatred, of ignorance,

or compulsion, aversion, delusion, slightly different translations, those are the three core

afflictive energies that the Buddha recognize, drive all of our harmful behaviour and keep us

spinning out and suffering. And certainly right now it can seem like those energies are running rampant

and we're all impacted by them. And those same energies are also operating in here

to a lesser degree, but there still have their ways of times, propelling us into thinking and

saying and doing things that are not so helpful, maybe even helpful.

And so when we see the state of the world out there, see the immensity of the suffering

that's being created, wise view can help us not to fall into despair.

In fact it can strengthen our determination, I am not going to contribute to that misery,

I'm going to bake more effort to clean up my own act, so to speak, so that I don't add any more

fuel to this already burning world. And wherever possible do what I can to help put the fires out.

So this is where the second factor of the noble lightfall path comes in.

When we see the effect of being caught in those afflictive states,

it leads naturally to wise intention, also translated as wise thought or wise resolve.

And that's really what I like to focus on a little more tonight.

So like all of these path factors, there are a lot of nuances, a lot of subtleties that

maybe aren't apparent on first hearing when we first hear that translation wise intention.

So to get a little bit technical, for those of you who have been coming for a while,

the Pali word, usually translated as intention, is san kappa.

And Greg Kramer, who's written this book called a whole life path that we've been loosely

connecting to, he says it's commonly defined as thought, intention, purpose, plan.

And because it flows from wise view, intention that is wise, aims towards actions that support

the release of suffering. And he says one of my teachers translated san kappa as disposition

or orientation. So there's an inclination or tendency of the heart and mind that has some stability.

So intention is hugely important, but for many of us, much of the time, it's invisible.

Are we even aware of it? Right now, intention is a factor in the mind.

You're intending to listen, or maybe intending to tune out. You're intending to be present,

or you're intending to go daydreaming. You're intending to leave early so you can get home and

catch that TV series. You know, intention is happening all the time.

And if we're not clear about what's motivating it, we're just going with the flow, not in a good way,

but in the outflow of all of the mixed motives that are in here.

So Greg Kramer says mental factor, the mental factor of intention saturates every moment of our lives.

And when we bring awareness to this factor and we actively choose how and where we put our attention

and to what goes, the power of it is astonishing. Maybe you have a sense of that too.

When we don't just let our intention be pulled here there and everywhere,

but we start to channel it in a wholesome way. It gets a kind of momentum,

and we start to really reap the benefits of this practice.

So again, we have this idea that I've shared a few times over the previous weeks that

we're continuously shaping or crafting our hearts and minds

by what we repeatedly think and say and do. And all of those actions of body, of speech of mind

start with this factor of intention. And repeated intentions, whether or not we're conscious of them,

strengthen certain pathways in the mind. So in the discourses, the Buddha uses the analogy of

cow paths or New Zealand, maybe sheep paths, we will see those tracks on the hillsides where the

sheep walk or when the cows go to be milked. I like that image because it just

vividly conveys, cows tend to just wander down the same old track and that rut in the field

gets deeper and deeper. And as a result, it gets harder and harder to walk anywhere else.

And I saw a disturbing report a few years ago about how these neural pathways in our minds,

they're actually physical to some extent. And this report was about people with OCD,

obsessive, compulsive disorder, really extreme cases, they've done autopsies and they could see

physical groups in these people's brains just from that repeated strengthening of the same

neuronal pathways. We're all doing that not to the same intensity, hopefully.

But this factor of wise intention is the switch that we can make a choice.

Keep taking our attention and our motivation in a good direction.

So hopefully getting a sense of how intentions in the moment shape our motivation in the longer

term and vice versa. And Greg Kramer describes this territory of intention as manifesting on

three different timescales. So he calls it momentary, momentary intention, episodic intention

and overarching intention. And paying more attention, this has been a tongue test,

paying more attention to our intention in these three timescales really helps us to live in

more alignment with our deeper values. So just to get a sense of that, I'll start with the last

one which is the overarching intention. And this is about our overall life's purpose, our aspirations

that what do we want our lives to express? And does that say, it's a cliche now, an unexamined life

is not worth living. So from time to time we can examine our lives and get a sense of what do we

want this incredible life to express? And it's worth regularly reflecting on this because

this intention can change and hopefully it does change as we continue exploring this path. We

develop more wisdom and compassion. And so contemplating our overarching intention is an

invitation to really contemplate how do we want to show up in the world? What do we want our lives

to be about? Or as I briefly mentioned the other week, in the Buddhist tradition we do death

contemplation and to just as an exercise contemplate being at the end of our lives reflecting on how

we'd like to be remembered. So maybe like some of you who are similar to my age or older,

I get to go to more funerals these days than I used to and it's always an opportunity not only

to reflect on what I appreciate and acknowledge and celebrate about the person who's died but also

what if it was me in that box? What do I hope that the people there might be appreciating and

celebrating about my life? And as I was contemplating this I remembered when I lived on staff at

IMS in Massachusetts we used to get the New York Times and it would be in the staff dining room.

And one day I came in and it was open to the death notices so I just randomly started reading them

and the New York Times is the reasonably high-brow sort of paper and so most of the people there

have made all these contributions to society and there are obituaries pretty inspiring and then

there was a shorter one that caught my eye and it basically had the person's name and their birthday

and their death date and listed some of their family and then it said he was well known for his

love of cheeseburgers. And that was it and my first thought was really this person lived a whole

life and that's what stood out to people. I hope I remembered more. It wasn't Ronald McDonald

but I really hope that I'm remembered for more than the fast food that I ate.

So I'm guessing this person didn't have much intentionality about their overarching intentions

and they imagine life somehow just slid away from them and then suddenly one day they were dead

maybe because of broccoli. So you know it's licks right it's on one level it's funny but on another

it's kind of tragic and so I assume most of you here will be remembered for more than your

love of cheeseburgers and still you know it's not always easy to articulate what is my deeper

aspiration or intention and sometimes it can be almost a superstition or a kind of humility

reticence to name anything because what if I don't live up to it and that was true for me early on

in my own practice but once I recognize that I started to challenge myself to see if I could

really connect with my deeper aspirations and then to regularly remember them

because just the push and pull and the stress of every day life it's so easy to be swept along

and to lose that sense of connection to something that's more meaningful than just she is survival

and as most of you know I think this is one of the huge benefits of going on retreat

and as most of you know at the start of the retreat we usually take some time just to reflect

what's our aspiration for being on retreat both in terms of what you hope to receive from the

retreat but also what you hope to offer to it because having that clarity about our overarching

intention for the retreat can strengthen the motivation to keep showing up hour after hour day after

day if it's a longer retreat week after week and at the same time the specialized conditions

of retreat the simplicity the solitude the stillness clears out the static of our everyday lives so

that we can feel deeper into the heart find that deeper purpose and then some of that momentum

can continue when we get back home so for me that's one of the great gifts of regularly going

on retreat we get that opportunity to connect more fully and clearly with our own deeper aspirations

that even if you haven't yet or don't because of life circumstances have the chance to go on

retreat that often it's still worth regularly taking time just to contemplate

and in some Buddhist traditions there's the encouragement to make formal commitments

or to set aspirations or to take vows so for example some people chant the refuges and precepts

every day and in my own practice when I first wake up in the morning before I get out of bed

I just make a formal intention to try and live the day as harmlessly as possible

and so we might find our own words how do I want to show up in my life today

with kindness with compassion with clarity that commitment to non-harming

and you can find your own language that feels authentic to you and just see does it make a

difference to have that reminder every day every day every day

so we can do that daily and now we're moving into the terrain of what Greg Kramer calls episodic

intention and this is the intention in relation to a situation that has a clear beginning and a

clear end so for example meditation and I invited you to do this at the start of the sitting

today to see if you could find an intention for the meditation

and again it can be helpful as you sit down rather than just plonking yourself onto the cushion

after a busy day at work or when you first got out of bed do you what am I doing here what's the

purpose in this particular meditation do I want to cultivate compassion what do I want to

try and refine clarity what do I want to have a sustained steady mindful presence or whatever it

might be just consciously setting that intention it can make a difference

same as true in daily life in a way we're dropping in these seeds of intentionality

and so for example maybe you've got a work meeting that you've been dreading

or you need to speak with a difficult family member or you have to do some kind of task that you

really don't want to do my own practice I sometimes physically pause before I'm going into the

meeting room or before I'm picking up the phone and I'm like okay here we go or what do I want

to manifest what qualities do I want to support me can I show up for this meeting with as much

kindness and clarity as possible can I stay present no matter what comes at me just to you know

strengthen that sort of resolve and intention and even if the results aren't what you hoped

that motivation muscles still got strengthened so now we come to the momentary intentions

and the more we can strengthen the first two levels of intention the more those moment-to-moment

intentions are likely to be emerging from a good place so Greg Kramer says the direction of

the mind changes from moment to moment as we come into contact with the world maybe we catch

sight of someone we like and a desire to be seen arises or maybe what appears is lust or

desire for material benefit maybe the next moment we encounter dog poop and annoyance towards

the dog's owner arises so the mind goes changing moment by moment and we can easily be swept along

by these streams of momentary and reactive intentions because they're conditioned and they're

largely invisible to us so translation translation is a sankapa as volition or thought bring out this

mercurial aspect so to discover this facet of sankapa we can ask what is the mind's direction in this

moment and as mindfulness gets stronger we can see these momentary intentions as they arise

and as they flow into actions and with practice and effort they can be redirected

we can choose not to reinforce responses that support our larger scale intentions and to release

those that do not so maybe that's sounding a little bit abstract these three levels but

just to try and bring it into an actual example all of us got here tonight right

so whether you're here for the first time or you've been coming for years

something motivated you to get yourself here with some kind of intention

maybe it was a sense that meditating could be good for you in some as yet unknown way

maybe it was an intuition there might be some useful wisdom you could apply to your life

maybe you wanted to connect with like-minded people

maybe you wanted a free cup of tea you know there's a whole range of reasons you might have come

here tonight but whatever it was that overarching intention motivated you to look online

talk with a friend find out that where and when we meet and then episodic intention

motivated you to get yourself here and now that you are here you still need momentary intention

so as I said before the attention wanderers away and intention brings it back the intention to

be present the intention to take in what you're hearing pulling it back from maybe the conversation

you were having in the tea break or what happened earlier in the day and so strengthening those

three levels of intention so they all line up makes it so much easier to keep going in a skill

full direction and again you might have had this experience what happens when some of these

intentions are across purposes so maybe you have that overarching intention yes so be good to

come along to the group and then Thursday comes a spin a big week will be kind to myself just

stay at home watch TV okay that momentary intention can hijack those deeper intentions and we give

into it and then next week oh so great to just be at home and cozy and yeah I'll go next week to

the group and then oh yeah next week and then suddenly it's been two months or six months or a year

or two years anybody recognize that so the intention we need that deeper intention we need the

episodic intention and we need that to fuel the momentary intention so that we can keep steering

in the way we want to go so this is where the translation of san kappa as resolve makes sense to

because they're not about for you but in English the word intention oh some sort of slippy floppy

wishy-washy you know I didn't intend to hurt you it wasn't my intention or in English we have

that saying the road to hell is paved with good intentions well I think that's probably because

there weren't enough of the three aspects of intention so they worked together and this is how Greg

Kramer describes them these three times scales are overlapping and interwoven the shorter scales

are nested within the longer what you think in the moment and the plans and resolutions behind

what you do the episodic san kappa they shape your life's trajectory in goals which is a overarching

intention and this interweaving of the long and the short scales of intention also works in the

other direction top to bottom so good overarching intentions condition good task based intentions

and they together a condition are immediate moment to moment intentions so is that making sense

I think that's probably plenty of information for now so I'll bring it to a close because

I'd love to hear from any of you how you work with this factor done that's it for now thank you

for your attention and intention to listen thank you for listening to learn how you can support the

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