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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
teachers and dharma seed please visit dharmaseed.org slash donate

Jill Shepherd's most recent Dharma talks (Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)

Jill Shepherd's most recent Dharma talks (Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)

Jill Shepherd's most recent Dharma talks (Insight Meditation Society - Retreat Center)