The Power of Intention Read online

  That is what this chapter, and indeed this entire book, is all about. That is, tapping in to the essence of originating Spirit, emulating the attributes of the creative force of intention, and manifesting into your life anything that you desire that’s consistent with the universal mind—which is creativity, kindness, love, beauty, expansion, abundance, and peaceful receptivity.

  A beautiful woman born in India in 1923 named Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi arrived here on Earth in a fully realized state and lived in the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi, who often consulted her on spiritual questions. She’s spent her life working for peace, and discovered a simple method through which all people can receive their self-realization. She teaches Sahaja Yoga, and has never charged for this instruction. She emphasizes the following points, which are a perfect summary on this chapter on connecting to intention:

  • You cannot know the meaning of your life until you are connected to the power that created you.

  • You are not this body, you are not this mind, you are the Spirit . . . this is the greatest truth.

  • You have to know your Spirit . . . for without knowing your Spirit, you cannot know the truth.

  • Meditation is the only way you can grow. There is no other way out. Because when you meditate, you are in silence. You are in thoughtless awareness. Then the growth of awareness takes place.

  Connect to the power that created you, know that you are that power, commune with that power intimately, and meditate to allow that growth of awareness to take place. A great summary indeed, from a fully realized being, no less.

  Five Suggestions for Implementing the Ideas

  of this Chapter

  1. To realize your desires, match them with your inner speech. Keep all inner talk focused on good reports and good results. Your inner speech mirrors your imagination, and your imagination is your connecting link to Spirit. If your inner speech is in conflict with your desires, your inner voice will win. So, if you match desires with inner speech, those desires will ultimately be realized.

  2. Think from the end. That is, assume within yourself the feeling of the wish being fulfilled, and keep this vision regardless of the obstacles that emerge. Eventually you’ll act on this end thinking, and the Spirit of Creation will collaborate with you.

  3. To reach a state of impeccability, you need to practice unbending intent. This will match you up with the unbending intent of the all-creative universal mind. For example, if I set out to write a book, I keep a solid picture of the completed book in my mind, and I refuse to let that intention disappear. There’s nothing that can keep me from that intention being fulfilled. Some say that I have great discipline, but I know otherwise. My unbending intent won’t allow for anything but its completion to be expressed. I’m pushed, prodded, and propelled, and finally almost mystically attracted to my writing space. All waking and sleeping thoughts are focused on this picture, and I never lack for being in a state of awe at how it all comes together.

  4. Copy the seven faces of intention on three-by-five cards. Have them laminated and place them in crucial locations that you must look at each day. They’ll serve as reminders for you to stay in fellowship with the originating Spirit. You want a relationship of camaraderie to exist with intention. The seven reminders strategically placed around your living and working environment will do just that for you.

  5. Always keep the thought of God’s abundance in mind. If any other thought comes, replace it with that of God’s abundance. Remind yourself every day that the universe can’t be miserly; it can’t be wanting. It holds nothing but abundance, or as St. Paul stated so perfectly, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance.” Repeat these ideas on abundance until they radiate as your inner truth.

  This concludes the steps for connecting to intention. But before you make this somersault into the inconceivable, I urge you to examine any and all self-imposed obstacles that need to be challenged and eradicated as you work anew at living and breathing this power of intention that was placed in your heart before a heart was even formed. As William Penn put it: “Those people who are not governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.” Remember as you read on, that those tyrants are often the self-imposed roadblocks of your lower self at work.

  OBSTACLES

  TO CONNECTING

  TO INTENTION

  “Does a firm persuasion that a thing is so, make it so?

  He replied, ‘All poets believe that it does.

  And in ages of imagination, this firm persuasion removed mountains;

  But many are not capable of a firm persuasion of anything.’”

  — from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake

  William Blake’s passage from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is the basis of this chapter about overcoming obstacles to the unlimited power of intention. Blake is telling us that poets have an inexhaustible imagination and consequently an unlimited ability to make something so. He also reminds us that many aren’t capable of such a firm persuasion.

  In the previous chapter, I gave you suggestions for making positive connections to intention. I deliberately arranged the chapters this way so that you’d read about what you’re capable of before examining barriers you’ve erected that keep you from the bliss of your intention. In the past, as a practicing counselor and therapist, I’ve encouraged clients to first consider what they want to manifest in their lives and hold that thought firmly in their imagination. Only after this was solidified would I have them examine and consider the obstacles. Often my clients were unaware of the obstructions even when they were self-imposed. Learning to identify ways in which you’re creating your own obstacles is tremendously enlightening if you’re willing to explore this area of your life. You may discover the obstacles that keep you from a firm persuasion of anything.

  I’m devoting this chapter to three areas that may be unrecognized obstacles to your connection to the power of intention. You’ll be examining your inner speech, your level of energy, and your self-importance. These three categories can create almost insurmountable blocks to connecting to intention when they’re mismatched. Taken one at a time, you’ll have the opportunity to become aware of these blockages and explore ways of overcoming them.

  There’s a game show that has aired on television for several decades now (in syndication). It’s called The Match Game. The object of this game is to match up your thoughts and potential responses with that of someone on your team, usually a partner or family member. A question or statement is given to one partner, and several possible responses are offered. The more matches made, in competition with two other couples, the more points received. The winner is the one with the most matches.

  I’d like to play the match game with you. In my version, I’m asking you to match up with the universal Spirit of intention. As we go through the three categories of obstacles that hinder your connection to intention, I’ll describe the areas that don’t match, and offer suggestions for creating a match. Remember that your ability to activate the power of intention in your life depends on your matching up with the creative Source of all life. Match up with that Source, and you win the prize of being like the Source—and the power of intention. Fail to match up . . . and the power of intention eludes you.

  Your Inner Speech—Match or No Match?

  We can go all the way back to the Old Testament to find a reminder about our inner dialogue. For instance, as a man thinketh, so is he. Generally, we apply this idea of becoming what we think to our positive thoughts—that is, think positively and you’ll produce positive results. But thinking also creates stumbling blocks that produce negative results. Below are four ways of thinking that can prevent you from reaching for and connecting to the universal, creative Spirit of intention.

  1. Thinking about what’s missing in your life. To match up with intention, you first have to catch yourself in that moment you’re thinking about what’s missing. Then shift to intention. Not what I find missing in my life, but to what I absolutely intend
to manifest and attract into my life—with no doubts, no waffling, and no explaining! Here are some suggestions to help you break the habit of focusing your thoughts on what’s missing. Play a version of the match game, and match up with the all-creating force:

  No match:

  I don’t have enough money.

  Match:

  I intend to attract unlimited abundance into my life.

  No match:

  My partner is grouchy and boring.

  Match:

  I intend to focus my thoughts on what I love about my partner.

  No match:

  I’m not as attractive as I’d like to be.

  Match:

  I’m perfect in the eyes of God, a divine manifestation of the process of creation.

  No match:

  I don’t have enough vitality and energy.

  Match:

  I’m a part of the ebb and flow of the limitless Source of all life.

  This isn’t a game of empty affirmations. It’s a way of matching yourself to the power of intention and recognizing that what you think about, expands. If you spend your time thinking about what’s missing, then that’s what expands in your life. Monitor your inner dialogue, and match your thoughts to what you want and intend to create.

  2. Thinking about the circumstances of your life. If you don’t like some of the circumstances of your life, by all means don’t think about them. This may sound like a paradox to you, in this match game, you want to match up with the Spirit of creation. You must train your imagination (which is the universal mind running through you) to shift from what you don’t want to what you do want. All of that mental energy you spend complaining about what is—to anyone who will listen—is a magnet for attracting more of what is into your life. You, and only you, can overcome this impediment because you’ve put it on your path to intention. Simply change your inner speech to what you intend the new circumstances of your life to be. Practice thinking from the end by playing the match game, and by realigning yourself with the field of intention.

  Here are some examples of a no match versus a match for the inner dialogue relating to the circumstances of your life:

  No match:

  I hate this place we’re living in; it gives me the creeps.

  Match:

  I can see our new home in my mind, and I intend to be living in it within six months.

  No match:

  When I see myself in the mirror, I despise the fact that I’m nearsighted and out of shape.

  Match:

  I’m placing this drawing of how I intend to look right here on my mirror.

  No match:

  I dislike the work I’m doing and the fact that I’m not appreciated.

  Match:

  I’ll act upon my inner intuitive impulses to create the work or job of my dreams.

  No match:

  I hate the fact that I’m sick so often and always seem to be getting colds.

  Match:

  I am divine health. I intend to act in healthy ways and attract the power to strengthen my immune system in every way I can.

  You must learn to assume responsibility for the circumstances of your life without any accompanying guilt. The circumstances of your life aren’t the way they are because of karmic debt or because you’re being punished. The circumstances of your life, including your health, are yours. Somehow they showed up in your life, so just assume that you participated in all of it. Your inner speech is uniquely your own creation, and it’s responsible for attracting more of the circumstances that you don’t want. Link up with intention, use your inner speech to stay focused on what you intend to create, and you’ll find yourself regaining the power of your Source.

  3. Thinking about what has always been. When your inner speech focuses on the way things have always been, you act upon your thoughts of what has always been, and the universal all-creating force continues to deliver what has always been. Why? Because your imagination is a part of that which imagined you into existence. It’s the force of creation, and you’re using it to work against you with your inner speech.

  Imagine the absolute Spirit thinking like this: I can’t create life anymore because things haven’t worked for me in the past. There have been so many mistakes in the past, and I can’t stop thinking about them! How much creating do you think would occur if Spirit imagined in this way? How can you possibly connect to the power of intention if your thoughts, which are responsible for your intending, focus on all that’s gone before, which you abhor? The answer is obvious, and so is the solution. Make a shift and catch yourself when you’re focusing on what always has been, and move your inner speech to what you intend to manifest. You’ll get points in this match game by being on the same team as the absolute Spirit.

  No match:

  I’ve always been poor; I was raised on shortages and scarcity.

  Match:

  I intend to attract wealth and prosperity in unlimited abundance.

  No match:

  We’ve always fought in this relationship.

  Match:

  I’ll work at being peaceful and not allowing anyone to bring me down.

  No match:

  My children have never shown me any respect.

  Match:

  I intend to teach my children to respect all of life, and I’ll treat them in the same way.

  No match:

  I can’t help feeling this way; it’s my nature. I’ve always been this way.

  Match:

  I’m a divine creation, capable of thinking like my Creator. I intend to substitute love and kindness for feelings of inadequacy. It’s my choice.

  The match items reflect a rapport with the originating Spirit. The no match statements represent interference that you’ve constructed to keep you from matching up with intention. Any thought that takes you backward is an impediment to manifesting desires. The highest functioning people understand that if you don’t have a story, you don’t have to live up to it. Get rid of any parts of your story that keep you focused on what has always been.

  4. Thinking about what “they” want for you. There’s probably a long list of people, most of them relatives, who have strong ideas about what you should be doing, how you should be thinking and worshiping, where you should be living, how you should be scheduling your life, and how much of your time you should be spending with them—especially on special occasions and holidays! Our definition of friendship thankfully excludes the manipulation and guilt that we so often put up with in our families.

  Inner dialogue that commiserates about the manipulative expectations of others ensures that this kind of conduct continues to flow into your life. If your thoughts are on what others expect of you—even though you despise their expectations—you’ll continue to act on and attract more of what they want and expect for you. Removing the obstacle means that you decide to shift your inner speech to what you intend to create and attract into your life. You must do this with unswerving intent, and a commitment to not giving mental energy to what others feel about how you live your life. This can be a tough assignment at first, but you’ll welcome the shift when you do it.

  Practice catching yourself when you have a thought of what others want for you, and ask yourself, Does this expectation match up with my own? If not, simply laugh at the absurdity of being upset or frustrated over the expectations of others about how you should be running your life. This is a way to match up and become impervious to the criticisms of others, and simultaneously put a stop to the insidious practice of continuing to attract into your life something you don’t want. But the big payoff is that these critics realize that their judgments and critiques are pointless, so they simply desist. A three-for-one bonus, achieved by shifting your attention away from what others want or expect for you to how you want to live your life.

  Here are a few examples of how to win at the match game:

  No match:

  I’m so annoyed with my family. They just don’t understand me and they
never have.

  Match:

  I love my family; they don’t see things my way, but I don’t expect them to. I‘m totally focused on my own intentions, and I send them love.

  No match:

  I make myself sick trying to please everyone else.

  Match:

  I’m on purpose and doing what I signed up to do in this lifetime.

  No match:

  I feel so unappreciated by those I serve that it sometimes makes me cry.

  Match:

  I do what I do because it’s my purpose and my destiny to do so.

  No match:

  No matter what I do or say, it seems as if I can’t win.

  Match:

  I do what my heart tells me to do with love, kindness, and beauty.

  Your Level of Energy—Match or No Match?